Sun Upon Dark Clouds

28: Trashy Humans

To their luck, Coley and Ghrae spotted a man that looked like he was around their age throwing glances at a curly-haired woman who was reading a book under a tree. The man seemed to be drawing the woman since he was holding a sketchpad and a pencil. As for the woman, she seemed to be interested with the man as well as she would stare at the man with a suppressing smile whenever she would lift her head from the book. For some reason, the two women had hope in having a successful matchmaking.

But they did not actually have the luck. Coley and Ghrae made up fake coupons for the ice cream parlor that was near the park, which could only be used only at exactly 3:00 p.m. The both of them separated to give the both of them the coupons, but that was when the embarrassment came flushing for the poor brunette. Apparently, the man was only drawing the tree without the woman under it; he was also drawing a tyrannosaurus on top of the tree. Aside from their misassumption about his drawing, the man happened to be working in the ice cream parlor. Basically, the two of them decided to quit.

“I don’t think we were ever meant to be matchmakers,” Coley spoke as they sat on the bench that was farther from the failed relationship.

“I actually realized that after the first one,” Ghrae replied as she licked on her strawberry popsicle.

“Lucky you. You weren’t the one who faced that dude,” The brunette heaved a heavy sigh as she slapped her forehead.

“Shhh,” The raven-haired patted the latter’s back as she watched the stranger playing fetch with his dog from a distance. “Your ice pop’s going to melt.”

The matchmaking mission ended there as they decided to take a break from that by eating the popsicles that they bought from the ice cream van that passed by the park earlier. The sun calmed down from releasing its intense heat as the cold wind made up from the heat that the sun caused. While they were eating the popsicles, the brunette suddenly noticed a man with a full beard staring intently at Ghrae who was obliviously licking her popsicle.

Coley furrowed her eyebrows when the eyes of the man seemed to be directing toward the raven-haired woman’s exposed flawless legs that were crossed. Wanting the man to stop staring like a creep, the brunette placed her arm along the top of the bench, making it look like she was wrapping her arm around the raven-haired woman’s shoulders; fortunately, she was done eating her chocolate ice pop. Ghrae noticed the sudden movement, making her look at Coley with slightly lifted eyebrows.

“Is there something wrong?” she softly asked.

“Nope, I just felt like stretching my arms,” Coley pulled her lips up to a reassuring smile as she pretended to stretch her arms.

“Is that another excuse for you to put your arm around me?” Ghrae said as she turned to continue eating her cold snack.

“Maybe,” the brunette teased. She was glad that she did not seem to mind.

Just when it was supposed to threaten the man, Coley frowned in annoyance when he did not care as she watched him lick his lips slowly in a disgusting way. She became alert when the man suddenly stood up and walked toward them with his eyes never leaving the raven-haired woman. At that point, Coley was ready to throw hands if ever the stranger would try to do something inappropriate.

“Hello,” the man spoke with a perverted smile as he stood in front of them.

Ghrae felt Coley’s hand slowly moving to hold her closer protectively as she lifted her head to meet the blue-eyed man.

“Hi, can we help you?” Ghrae asked with a poker face. She assumed that the man was ten years older than them based on his appearance.

“I think that you’re hot. Would you like to eat steak with me?” the man asked with his eyes scanning at Ghrae’s body.

“No. My girlfriend would never like to eat steak with you,” Coley answered before Ghrae could as she gave the man a piercing glare.

“What do you mean ‘my girlfriend’?” Ghrae asked as she glanced at the brunette before turning to answer the stranger. “And no, I don’t want to eat steak with you.”

“You can join us too if you want,” The man smirked as he bit his bottom lip while looking down at the brunette’s chest.

“We just said that we’re not interested,” Coley glared at him. “Get lost before I cut that off.”

The brunette pointed at the growing bulge in the man’s clothed center. Seeing that the man seemed to not be intimidated yet, Coley stood up as she began to approach him. The man was terrified immediately as he ran away without even uttering an apology. The brunette let out a huff as she slumped back down the bench.

“He’s gone, Coley,” Ghrae softly said as she placed her hand on top of the clenching fist of the brunette.

“I just hate how—”

Before Coley could even finish her sentence, she felt the delicate fingers of the latter gently massaging her forehead to stop her from frowning. The brunette turned to her in surprise as she stared at her blank face while she let her rub her thumb on her clenching fist and massage her knitted eyebrows. Coley sealed her lips in as she stared at the angel that was right in front of her while she could only think of one thing,

I know the reason why I hate Wyatt now. It’s because he got to marry this angel.

“Are you calm now?” Ghrae softly asked as she felt Coley’s hand loosening and her forehead relaxing. The brunette relaxed beneath her touch.

“I am,” Coley answered lowly.

Usually if Coley was frustrated or upset about something, all she needed to do to calm her body down was to have a smoke. Who knew that her flatmate, who she had been with for less than a week, was able to make her relax without the need to smoke?

She hoped that she said the opposite as she felt the raven-haired woman’s hands left her skin slowly. The brunette started to ask internally whether she was dead or not because why was she seeing a smiling angel in front of her?

“Do you like me that much?” Ghrae blankly spoke as she turned away and went back to finish her popsicle.

The brunette lightly shook her head as she looked away and rested her elbow on the armrest. Without the raven-haired woman noticing, the brunette placed her hand over her lips as she felt her cheeks flush.

***

As time went by, the park was gaining plenty more people, which was why Coley and Ghrae decided to leave and take a walk by the streets. For some reason, they did not feel like going back to the apartment but to stay outside more. Well, they could have missed something if they just chose to spend the rest of their day in the apartment doing nothing productive.

“Have you ever been in a relationship?” Coley asked whatever was in her mind as they both walked alongside each other on the sidewalk.

“I haven’t,” Ghrae answered, making Coley look at her in surprise.

“But why? How? I’m pretty sure you have a lot of suitors,” the brunette replied as she shoved her hands in her pockets.

“I know. According to romance films and books, one must have romantic feelings for the other before forming a relationship with them,” she simply answered as she watched the leaf fall from the tree to the top of the head of a toddler. She looked straight in the eyes of the latter and added, “I’ve never felt any romantic feelings to anyone.”

“Right,” The brunette forced out a chuckle as she felt attacked. She looked away with her lips pressed into a thin line. What the shorter woman said did not match her definition of being in a relationship, after all. “Same.”

“‘Same’?”

“I’ve never felt any romantic feelings to anyone.”

“So, you don’t take relationships seriously?” Ghrae raised an eyebrow at her. “Why?”

“Well, I’m only after the lust,” The brunette shrugged and looked at her with a charming smile on her face. “But to you, that could change.”

“That was pretty cheesy,” Ghrae lightly shook her head.

“Oh, come on. That was—” Since Coley and Ghrae were basically not looking at the direction that they were walking to, they did not notice a woman holding tons of groceries coming to their way. Eventually, they ended up bumping on the woman, making the groceries fall off the ground. “Oh, sorry.”

“Is that all you can say? Sorry?!” the middle-aged woman yelled at them as she stood up properly.

Coley and Ghrae looked at her in surprise at her sudden outburst. The other people around began throwing glances at them and whispering to each other, which made the brunette furrow her eyebrows.

“Ma’am, we’re sorry. Here, we’ll help you—” Coley and Ghrae were about to help the woman in gathering her groceries that were on the ground when the woman suddenly slapped their hands away.

“Ow,” Ghrae softly uttered as she looked at her finger that started to bleed. She realized that the stranger was wearing big rings, which made her cut her finger.

“Hey, lady. I know that it’s our fault for not looking at our direction, but you’re being too much,” Coley angrily said after seeing the cut on the silent woman’s finger. “You can’t just hurt other people like that.”

“It’s not like I did it on purpose!” The stranger raised her voice even more, making the other people stop and watch them. The middle-aged woman was wearing a spaghetti strap crop top with a leopard print, which did not match with her age.

“We didn’t bump on you on purpose too yet we apologized!” The brunette could not help but raise her voice as well as she glared at the woman.

“How dare you raise your voice to an elder? Do your parents not teach you respect, b***h?!” The whispers around them became louder.

Coley clenched her fists as she glared at the latter. She wanted to yell back at her about how she was the one picking a fight but with the people around them, she was able to hold it in. Seeing how the brunette was getting angry again, Ghrae put her hand on the latter’s as she gently opened it. Once her hand was unclenched, she held and squeezed her hand.

“We are sorry, ma’am. It’s our fault for not looking,” Ghrae calmly spoke and opened her handbag to take out her wallet as she pulled out five 100-bills. “We’re sorry.”

Coley’s mouth was left ajar in surprise as she watched how the middle-aged woman did not hesitate to accept the cash that Ghrae just gave. With a huff, the stranger did not say anything as she picked up her groceries and left while muttering about how it was unfair that disrespectful people were rich. Since the people around would not move on, Ghrae decided to hold the brunette’s hand again as she pulled her and walked away in fast pace.

“H-Hey, how could you just give her cash?” Coley said when she finally untied her tongue.

“Everyone gets relaxed when they’re given cash,” Ghrae simply replied as their pace slowed down when they were already far.

At that point, the brunette could not even think of anything to reply to that. Instead, she just felt thankful that Ghrae was there to calm her down as she looked at their clasped hands.