Ch. 6 Attracting Bad Luck

Bailey’s weekend was a rough one that ended with him not attending class Monday morning. He wished to call himself and Ryan lucky after discovering that only a few pieces of spare change as well as some games were stolen Friday night but, after his beating, he didn’t think lucky was a word he wished to use.

Amery was kind enough to take notes and bring news of any assignments they may have gotten during his absence. Ryan was kind enough to bring home Chinese for dinner and so Bailey slept all of Monday and only got up to eat the free food before passing back out.

After all that rest he was feeling much better Tuesday afternoon during his shift. Although people were staring at his slightly bruised face, it looked a hell of a lot better than usual. Amery visited Bailey during work, sitting in a corner with her laptop plugged in while sipping on some coffee. Bailey walked over to speak to her from time to time before heading off to help a customer.

It was when Bailey’s shift was nearing its end that he finally sat down with Amery to tell her all the details of what happened Friday. Although she knew the gist of it after discovering Bailey’s injuries on Saturday he was too exhausted to explain it all.

“You mean to say the evil custodian saved you from some muggers on the street?” Amery asked in amusement, seeming to find the story to be a bit funny after finally hearing it.

“Yep, that’s basically the gist of it.”

Amery munched on the chips she had brought with her for snacks. Bailey snuck his hand in to grab a few only to have it smacked away after. He snickered while shoveling what he could get into his mouth but, Amery only gave him a playful glare before allowing the boy access to her chips again.

“So he’s not so evil after all. You know, the mysterious type is kind of sexy.” Amery grinned from ear to ear while waiting for Bailey to agree. He didn’t, and soon her smile fell into a pout. “Come on, agree with me here. You know you want to.”

“Not really.”

“Fine then, be that way. You should ask him out to dinner or something.”

Bailey coughed; the chips seemed to lodge themselves in his throat. Amery laughed as she watched Bailey bang against his chest in order to breathe again. When he finally managed to, Amery was on the verge of not breathing herself from laughter. Bailey glared at her but that only made the poor girl start to snort. She quickly covered both her mouth and nose in hopes to stop the noise.

“Come again?” Bailey coughed out, looking Amery up and down like she was mad. Ok, so he knew that she was and she knew it too but it still surprised him from time to time.

“He helped you out of a tough spot and there’s no harm in asking to…go out…or something.” It seemed even Amery didn’t know what she meant because her face contorted into confusion.

“It’s not like it hasn’t crossed my mind,” Bailey mumbled while getting up to help a customer. Once finished, he returned to Amery and their conversation continued as if they never left off. “Listen, like, I thanked him and I really do want to give him a more proper thank you. I mean, things could have been so much worse! What…what if someone had pulled out a knife or a gun? It could have been real trouble.”

Amery nodded in agreement.

“But he doesn’t seem the type to want thanks. To him, a good thank you probably ends with ‘thanks’ and that’s it.”

At least, that was what Bailey thought after seeing how quickly Zane left him in the parking lot. He didn’t want thanks and, although, Bailey really did want to give one he felt that bugging the guy about it was a bad idea.

Amery pursed her lips in thought seeming to agree with Bailey but not liking it. Bailey didn’t like not properly thanking someone so he made the suggestion of giving the guy some free coffee’s from the shop. It was the most he could probably do and, considering that Zane got coffee fairly often, it was about as good as it was going the get. Though she didn’t like the idea that much, Amery agreed it was probably best.

“What are you doing after work?” Amery asked, packing her things into her bag once their conversation of Zane ended.

“I plan to grab some groceries.”

“By groceries you mean junk food, right?” Amery smiled before playfully patting Bailey’s stomach. He rested his hand there and shrugged innocently; he had no idea what she was talking about! Amery rolled her eyes…then gave Bailey a list and some money with the request to pick her up some junk.

“Oh, ok, so I get teased for it but it’s ok if you want me to get you junk food?” Bailey slipped the cash and paper into his pocket anyways. Amery thanked him for it and went on her way to hang out with some friends that she apparently made plans with. Bailey waved goodbye and spent the last 20 or so minutes watching the clock for his shift to end.

It was a nice autumn day, likely one of the last before winter hit, that Bailey was grateful for. The sun was shining and the weather was just warm enough for him to roll the windows down in his car. November had arrived, which meant snow would be on its way. Soon the campus and streets would be covered in white. Thankfully, living in the dorms meant that the majority of things were nearby.

Bailey took his car only because he was picking up food and didn’t want to carry it all. Of course, with his luck, he had to park at the end of the street since the few spaces in front of the store were taken. He hopped out of his car, grabbed a buggy when he entered then began scanning the aisles for the 4 necessary food groups; chicken nuggets, ramen, mac and cheese and pizza. Yep, all that was necessary to survive college.

It wasn’t too busy seeing as Bailey always went to the local store to get his things. He was about to push his buggy into the junk food aisle when he stopped in his tracks. Of all the people to run into, he expected this the least. Not sure why since the boy should have learned by now that whatever he didn’t expect to happen would happen.