Tweetie

21

"Are you okay Tweetie?"

"Yeah. I don't think my day can get much worse, so that's keeping me sane for now."

"Must've been really scary..." Oscar said, walking with his head craned back to look at the sky, watching the clouds get thicker and darker, thick enough to block most light and force some streetlights to flicker to life as they passed them. It looked as though they were about to walk into a storm.

Hazel was honestly glad to have been walking with Oscar. She wasn't keen on the area, not after what happened in the flat complex, nor after investigating so many crimes that lead back towards the area. It always put her on edge, with every case, she got more anxious just walking down the street alone. So having some company was a nice change.

"Honestly, it takes a lot to scare me, but that almost got me."

"Almost."

"The worlds gonna have to work a little harder than that to scare me," she said, allowing a smile to slip to her lips. Dreary, wonky and drenched in her exhaustion. "I'm the unluckiest person alive. I dared God to smite me and he's still trying."

He laughed at that, letting a grin grow himself as he watched how she walked and avoided every crack in the street. He subconsciously joined in, seeing the subtle joy in it and then feeling it as they both looked to the ground rather than the street ahead of them.

"My dad always says that 'nice people burn twice as bright so others can find the way,'" Oscar said, still watching the ground for cracks, then watching the water droplets that were beginning to fall, too dispersed to know for sure if it was raining, but the dark circles on the ground where they landed telling them they weren't mistaken. "So I think you're nice, and all the bad stuff that's happening is gonna mean more eventually, to somebody at least."

She almost stopped walking entirely as she was left looking at the back of his head with parted lips, blank eyes and a held breath.

"Thanks, Oscar." She said, keeping pace with him again. "That means more than you could possibly know."

"I always try to keep things like that in mind. The other guys have been through a lot too, but they'll always be nice. Mostly."

His words felt like medicine, a medication that was treating the headache behind her eyes and soothing it with every word. She didn't expect such a nice conversation with him, one that was more profound than she anticipated. It was something to keep in mind and remember, even when he seemed a little dopey, he wasn't an idiot. He went through enough in his life to have words like that mean so much to him and she wanted to know more.

"How does rain work?" Oscar asked, squinting up at the sky as more droplets fell, landing on his cheeks as it got a little heavier. "My brother said it was God peeing, and now I can't get that image out of my head."

She laughed.

"In romance movies, when they have that romantic moment in the middle of a road in the rain-"

"Oh no!" He gasped with a loud laugh, seeing exactly where she was going with that. "That's not romantic at all! They need to go shower, that's gross!"

They walked on, oblivious to the world around them as they passed alleys and buildings, set on getting to the shop quickly before they ended up getting drenched. But that hope was washed away as fast as the rain started to pour down on them, getting them soaked in seconds as they twisted their faces, grossed by the images in their minds of what was coating them.

By the time they reached the shop, they were dripping. Quickly buying chocolate and anything else they might have wanted, which wasn't much, and left again with the intention of not being yelled at by the store owner for soaking everything and leaving pools where they stood browsing.