Invisible Handcuffs

After what had happened, my hunger diminished. My stomach was no longer growling in hunger. It was as if I had forgotten about how hungry I was a few minutes ago.

In fact, how could I focus on food, when I kept thinking about the scene between New Guy and criminal. I had no idea what they were talking about. The fact that they didn’t want to say it in front of me only made me more interested than before.

Criminal had actually become vulnerable during their conversation. She actually had feelings for once. I had only known her for a few days now, but she rarely showed any emotions. She only showed when she was annoyed. Any other emotions that she felt, she used sarcasm to cover up. Their conversation must have been important to make her actually feel something. I wanted to know what made her feel that way. I wanted to know what was so important that she would let her guard down.

I was curious. That was the only explanation that I had for wanting to know what was going. I couldn’t explain why I wanted to know. I just…did.

I glanced up from my food to look at her. Her hat was turned around backwards so that it covered her ponytail. She held her phone in her left hand, her thumb grazing over the keys as she texted. Her other hand was inside her fries, pulling one out and bringing it to her mouth.

“Hey,” I spoke.

She stopped chewing her food as she looked up at me. She raised her brow as she stared at me. She slowly started to chew her food as she motioned, with her hand, for me to continue.

“Can I ask you a question?”

I set her phone down on the table before placing another fry in her mouth. She shrugged her shoulders, as she picked up her fries. She leaned back in her chair, holding her fry container.

“You’re just going to pull the personal assistant card, if I say no, so go ahead,” she spoke.

I smirked as I looked down at my food. That was exactly what I was planning to do if she said no. She was beginning to know me too well. Then again, it wasn’t hard to figure out. Anytime I couldn’t get what I wanted from her, I would use the personal assistant card. Was I blackmailing her, yes, was I bothered by it, no. As selfish as this was this was a pure vendetta to me.

“Well, I was just wondering…” I began “what was that back there between you and New Guy?”

Her eyes immediately shut up from her fries and at me. She noticeable tensed up. She stared at me emotionless and hard. She didn’t blink for I don’t know how long. I shifted uncomfortably under her gaze. I should have known that she would react like this.

“I was just wondering since…you know…it might have to deal with me…”

She continued to stare at me, unfazed by my words. She finally blinked her eyes a few times as she stared at me. She leaned forward setting her fries back on the table as she spoke. “I’d rather not tell you,”

“You sure?”

Her eyes shot up at me once more. She scoffed as she shook her head. She rested her elbows on her knees as she rubbed her hands together. I’ll admit that I was a bit worried about the body language that she was giving off.

“Can I be real with you for a second?” she questioned.

I nodded my head. I didn’t see the harm in it. Besides, the more real people were the better.The realer she was the better I would get to know her.

“Look,” she began “You don’t know anything about me. You’ve scratched the surface but that’s hardly anything about me. Actually you’ve barely scratched the surface. Last time I checked, you didn’t even know my name. I’m criminal to you, remember?”

I immediately looked away from her as something on the floor grasped my interest. I could see her smirk form the corner of my eye.

“Exactly. What makes you think that I would tell you anything about me, knowing that you don’t care? Since you probably haven’t noticed let me tell you something about me, I’m not the type of girl who enjoys wasting her time with people who don’t care. That’s who you are, someone who doesn’t care. So let’s just keep not caring about each other, until I’m done working off my debt to you. Once that’s done you’ll go your way and I’ll go mine. Get it, got it, understand it, live it,”

She grabbed her bag of food and stood up. She walked out the room before I could say anything else. She left me dumbfounded, sitting in the room, alone.

From that moment on, my opinion of her changed. It was only slightly, but I saw her differently than I saw her before. She seemed more like a person rather than the criminal that I had taken her for. She seemed as if she actually had common sense. Her persona could have easily deceived you for a smart teenage girl, rather than a cunning criminal.

The only problem was that she was a cunning criminal. I didn’t know if I could actually believe everything that she had just said. She could have simply been trying to find a way to deceive me even more.

Despite what I would have liked to believe, I knew that this wasn’t true. Somehow, I knew that what she was saying to me was true. She was being real with me. She was telling me the truth about our situation.

From that moment on, I started to see her in a different light, ever so slightly.