Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
It was Wednesday and Sadie had gotten off from work an hour ago. When she had free time and didn't want to be stuck inside her apartment, she grabbed a book and sat on a bench at the park right across the street from her apartment building.
The bench rested underneath a large cherry blossom tree and looked towards the playground on the other side of the park. There was a separate walkway for runners and one for byciclists; they crossed right in front of the bench but never distracted Sadie from her reading.
After every chapter she finished, she put her book down and looked around admiring the beautiful day before her. It was busy during this time; many families went out to let their kids play, many runners came out to exercise and couples took walks along the grass.
She went back to her reading, beginning the next chapter. The strong smell of smoke hit her nose making her look up. She looked to her left then her right and found him, again, this time smoking a cigarette.
"You shouldn't be smoking here, there are a lot of children," she abruptly said pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose.
He stood a few feet away towards the trash can, standing on the edge of the sidewalk looking down at his phone as he let another cloud of smoke out. To her surprise, he heard her... She thought she had been quiet enough but he turned and looked at her. "Not you again. Are you following me?"
"No," she replied.
He snickered before beginning to walk away in the opposite direction.
She shrugged and went back to her reading before a large gust of wind hit her, sending all the loose pages flying.
"Shit," she mumbled to herself as she tried getting her hair out of her face. She bent over and picked up the sheets of paper still at her feet before getting up and picking up a few more. The pages led her down the sidewalk until she reached a pair of black shoes that were holding the pages down from flying.
She slowly bent down and got a hold of them as the person removed their foot. Her eyes made their way up the person's body until she met the man's face. "Thank you," she said.
He groaned and turned but she quickly said, "Have you washed those cuts?"
He stopped and didn't turn, staying completely still.
"You might want to take care of those, they could get infected," she warned.
"Bug off," he said as he began walking.
"Rude..."
He suddenly turned shocking her as he said, "I have no reason to be nice to you, now stop fucking following me around."
"I already told you I'm not following you around, I live in this city it's not like I can just disappear," she said.
"Smartass, watch who you talk to like that," he warned as he started walking away.
"What's your problem?" she sassily said feeling her five foot self becoming angrier and angrier by the second.
"You're my problem right now, you just don't shut up," he said.
"You don't even know me," she said as her eyebrows creased.
"I don't have to know you, to know that you're an annoying little girl that won't shut the hell up," he snapped once again walking away.
"Okay but at least I'm not angry at a complete stranger," I snapped back.
He shook his head before continuing to walk.
"Some people have the nerve to be rude to people they don't even know," she said to herself as she walked back to her bench.
She realized after a bit of reflection that she had just had a fight with a complete stranger she'd only seen three times. Sadie laughed to herself and opened the book to fix the pages that had flown away.
