#WritcoStoryPrompt42

Flowerdette licked her dry lips. Perhaps her crush wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed...it crossed her mind in wonder.

"I- when I ... entered through a window ... s-some glass must have hit my legs."

Jonathan raised an eyebrow, slowly, still staring at her, and nodded. He moved a few steps closer to her and Flowerdette noticed now that he was about 5'11 tall, quite a few inches taller than her 5'6. He turned to his father, staring at the cheesecake on the fridge and noticing Flowerdette's cake grime covered hand for the first time.

Standing next to her with his torso in her direction and his arms folded, Jonathan enquired: "What is this? What are you doing here, Flowerdette? Some kind of dare? I must admit, some toilet paper caper might have been a little more original."

The cheesecake thief was surprised that he knew her name. "How do you know who I am? Do you...do you have feelings for me, Jonathan?"

Jonathan glanced at her in shock and then quickly snatched his head in the opposite direction. He groaned, schrunching his eyes shut and clenching the teeth slightly.

Flowerdette heard her crush mutter something under his breath that sounded like: "This girl has lost her mind. Get her out of here, Mom."

Liana Harrison placed a hand protectively on her son's shoulder, while simultaneously renewing a stabbing stare at Flowerdette and pushing her closer to the pantry door entrance. "You shouldn't be up this late, my boy. You've got a big test on Monday and you need to be fresh for it."

"As if I don't know. I want some blueberry cheesecake, anyway." Jonathan pulled out his phone as if the conversation was starting to bore him and sat down at the kitchen table, stirring a cup of coffee that stood there. He raised his head tiredly to look at Flowerdette, right eyebrow arched.

"Could you not break into any other house to steal cakes in? Were you planning on carrying the whole thing away? It's rather heavy and we might have arrested you. We've even had a robber break in twice when I was little, but seriously...what kind of schoolgirl joke is this to you?"

Flowerdette's expression hardened. Her lips flatlined. Under lowered eyebrows and lids, she said: "What, do you view yourself as my psychologist, Jonathan Harrison? What precisely does understanding a girl like me and my actions got to do with you?

Maybe I got a cheesecake craving in the middle of the night so I couldn't sleep and I had nowhere else to go. I'm a girl who deserves to have exciting adventures or at the very least fun!"

Flowerdette's crush just looked at her, mouth opened slightly, eyes very slowly widening. She could see the wheels turning in his neurons, trying to figure her out.

"The next time you wanna have some cheesecake stealing 'exciting adventure,' rather do it in a store so that the police may catch you, handcuff you and put you in prison."

Mr and Mrs Harrison stood, Dad wirh his arms folded and Mom hand on hip in the pantry doorway, staring at the both of them in stone-like determination. Their surprise was long over.

Flowerdette's jaw went loose like a door hanging on its' hinges. "My...word...Joh..." She closed her mouth and started laughing, stumbling over to stand next to Jonathan, leaning on the table with her hands.

Jonathan looked down at them, even noticing the length of her fine, slim fingers. Feminine, pale...and bony. She wore a ring on her grimy left hands ring finger ...like an engagement or marriage ring. He gulped without Flowerdette noticing, and instead stared at her out of his eye corners in an extremely disturbed, get-out-of-my-space kinda way.

"Bandage her wounds and...and neatly remove her from this place, will you...Mom?" He looked at Liana helplessly. She put down her purse on the table, snapped her fingers and a surprised maid brought Dettol, warm water, and small bandages.

Flowerdette, who had straightened up to her full height in surprise, was ordered to sit on the table with her pointy knees slightly lifted while her hand and legs wounds were cleaned and bandaged. The two "men" looked away in embarassment. Perhaps they just didn't like the look of thief blood.

Possibly, Jonathan noticed how smooth, suitingly light brown and well shaped her hips and calves were, though they were skinny. Flowerdette's arms were even longer and thinner. They looked scary.

In silence, but with a small smile Flowerdette didn't seem to notice, Liana carried out this task. "Will you please pay for the damage to our food, Miss... I don't know; tell me your name? And Jonathan, you have to see her home."

"I don't have any money," the black haired witch said, eyes lifted up in widened surprise to his slightly-taller-than-her mother who placed a hand gently on her shoulder.

"You may bring it tomorrow...afternoon. We shall be sleeping in, having brunch perhaps and spending the morning quietly. I hope you've learned a lesson out of this, young lady...perhaps you're not THAT bad a child. At least you didn't actually take much of the cake yet. But go now...please."

While Mr Harrison gave a tirade - well, more like a calm, but strict warning speech, Jonathan slipped away to do something else. Flowerdette didn't even notice.

Flowerdette stood up slowly after the speech, looked back at Mrs Harrison with a friendly wave and a giggle, and led the way to the front door with Jonathan...

They walked on in silence, the black haired girl staring in awe at the polished wooden tiles, high roofs and walls, book cases stretching to the ceiling and the old fashioned black-and-white photographs and oil paintings on the walls of their house.

The last few steps, though, Jonathan
walked beside her, looking at her without turning his head, half as if hoping she wouldn't notice.

And at least he had put down his phone and earphones to do this, the attempted cupcake thief thought, turning to face him and staring down at his hands with a lost...sad expression on her face. Would she ever see him again out of school, besides for tomorrow afternoon?

She couldn't tell where Jonathan was looking because of the dark. Then, suddenly, the boy reached forward and slipped something into her dress pocket. He pulled down her mask a few seconds later, and let a hand trail down the side of her soft hairwaves for a second.

He whispered into her ear: "I don't know who you are...so I want to get to know you a little better soon."

With that, Jonathan quickly turned and walked - kind of stomped - away, head slightly bowed, leaving behind an awe stricken, ecstatic and simply speechless Flowerdette. "Oh my," the girl whispered, clasping her heart with one hand.

She was a diva dramatica of top class, after all! Praise the Lord. Seriously! Flowerdette could have gotten off sooo much worse, exactly the way she deserved.

She left through the front door Jonathan's parents had unlocked, turning her phone's flashlight on to read the note. Miraculously also, she remembered to take her phone. The torch she must have placed somewhere in the house absentmindedly. Whatever. She could take it back tomorrow when she came to see her crush again. This made her smile in warm excitement.

It (the note) read: "The reason I still know your name is because it is a really weird name, ... but mainly because I happen to recall a day when we were 10 years old and you gave up your lunch and blazer to me ... even WITH a warm little smile and also a cheery laugh ... after I stole yours ... you never found out.

Because I hid it around you, you thought I didn't have food or a jacket. Not that I needed my "purchase", but I stole it out of dissatisfaction with what I did have. I was never punished for it ... and so I didn't punish you now, either. And though I struggled to forgive you, I did...Flower. I'm sorry."

Greetings,

From another thief, this one named Jonathan."

© @elsastrauss7

#WritcoStoryPrompt42