I wasn't planning to publish this fic but since I wrote it by hand in literally a few hours (but it took like three months to actually type and another thousand to actually put up), I figured that I might as well. And, it's a part of My "Failed" Love Life series so that's an incentive.
All that above was from last year. This is being published now because season two premieres today!
Until Cloak and Dagger gets their own category on this site, it will literally be under this one. Someone tell me if they get their own and I will change it. [2019 Update: It finally has its own category so it is now there!]
Anyways, I hope you enjoy this.
Stole Something, Dropped Another:
Sitting on a bench right outside a grocery store with one leg propped up so that her knee is against her chest and her other leg dangles normally, is none other than Tandy Bowen. She leans back, completely lax. It's a cloudy day so she isn't burning in the sun and thanks to the sunglasses she's wearing, it's even darker for her sight. She could just close her eyes and fall right asleep right now if she wanted to.
But she can't.
She's on duty.
Because she is on the lookout for an easy target to snag some cash or something valuable she could simply pawn.
Her eyes look towards the automatic exit doors of the grocery store she sits nearby. She watches the different types of customers filter out with their bags and carts full of groceries. Thankfully, her sunglasses disguise the fact that she's staring at all of them. The last thing she wants right now is to draw attention by looking like a creep. But who in their right mind would accuse a teenage girl like her of being a creep? Creeps are the ones who follow her.
Then, Tandy perks up and slightly lowers her sunglasses to get a better look at this approaching person. It's a teenage boy who looks to be about her age. He's admittedly tall, dark, and handsome, (as the cliché goes) but Tandy is more focused on what he's wearing.
It's a private school uniform with a tie, vest, and pleated pants. That translates to: rich. On top of the uniform, he wears a leather varsity jacket. That translates to popular.
Rich and popular, what a combination.
Tandy knows it's a stereotype but this whole ensemble really gives this boy an aura of dollar signs. He could buy her with the change hidden in his couch cushions (not that she would price herself that high or anything).
The whole problem with boys, in general, is that approximately 99% of them are only okay. If they could always be dressed properly and apply the laws of personal hygiene on them, combined with perfect posture and listening skills, and eliminate the dumbass factor; they would be 100% acceptable.
Still, this boy seemed to be a good target so Tandy has to start casting out her alluring bait. Thankfully, he is a boy and she is a beautiful girl. Everything should just fall into place for her benefit.
"Hey," Tandy calls towards him.
He turns his head towards her as he removes his headphones, looking at her for a second only to find her looking back. He points to himself as a gesture to ask if she was talking to him and Tandy nods as she waves him over. He walks closer to him, stopping right in front of her as Tandy changes her sitting position to having both feet on the ground and her back erect.
"I'm having trouble opening this," Tandy says in an innocent voice, pulling out a bottle of soda from her backpack and holding it up for him to take. "Could you do me this solid?"
"Sure," he responds.
He takes the bottle from her hands and she immediately pulls back when their fingers slightly graze. She watches him as he holds the bottle, gripping on the cap but not doing anything because he's staring at her.
"Why are you wearing sunglasses when there's no sun out?" He asks. It's a valid question.
"I'm going for a mysterious vibe," Tandy answers casually.
He nods his head at the valid response. When he goes back to opening her bottle, Tandy bites down on her lower lip when she hears that fizzing sound of carbonation. Tandy watches the soda bubble from the inside of the bottle and she's internally begging that he doesn't hand it back to her just yet. Luckily, the boy opens it all the way and it explodes everywhere (since Tandy shook it so hard earlier - this was not only her plan but another reason for the sunglasses).
The boy jumps back at the surprise and Tandy plays along. Once it settles, the boy flicks one of his hands back and forth to dry them off as he looks down at his now-damp and stained private school uniform.
"Oh my god!" Tandy exclaims, quickly standing up to continue playing her innocent role. "I am so sorry! That must have happened while it was in my bag."
"Nah, don't worry about it," he responds cooly.
"I just ruined your big varsity jacket. This is a big deal."
He laughs a little to himself as Tandy pulls up the sleeves of her shirt to attempt to dab the soda from his uniform. She's glad that he is currently distracted with closing the soda bottle because it gave her the few seconds she needed to nab his wallet from his jacket's pocket and slip it into her own sleeve. Once completed, Tandy stands back up, pushing her sunglasses up the bridge of her nose so that her elevated arm would slide the wallet further down her sleeve and prevent it from being detected.
"Well, uh, thanks for opening this," Tandy says, taking back the soda bottle.
"Thanks for trying to dry me off." He smiles at her.
Tandy nods, returning a smaller smile to him as she turns on her heels and starts heading her own way. Once she is no longer facing him, Tandy can't help but smile at how easy that was. And when she turns a corner, she shakes her arm so that the wallet falls into the palm of her hand. She opens it to take a peek inside: good amount of cash, health card, debit card with the blessed tap feature, and a student ID card. Tandy slides the last card out a bit and sees the name Tyrone Johnson right next to a mundane photo of him in his school uniform.
"Well, Tyrone..." Tandy mutters to herself as she puts his wallet in her back pocket. "Thanks for buying me dinner tonight."
Tandy knows from experience that food tastes better when you don't pay for it yourself. A part of her wants a big and juicy hamburger or maybe she could go for some Thai food. She could have whatever her heart desired...and what Tyrone's stolen wallet could buy.
"Hey, girl, come back!"
Tandy freezes for a second. Despite only sharing a few words with one another, she could recognize Tyrone's deep voice anywhere. Tandy sees him jogging around the corner and starts making his way closer to her. Tandy's heart starts to accelerate. He knows what she has which means that she has to get out of her as soon as possible.
Her curse words to herself act as her ignition for her to start sprinting. It feels so good to be doing something, even if that something is running away. Tyrone's yells for her to stop only spark her fuel. Yes, stealing his wallet was wrong (especially when she destroyed his uniform prior to that as her distraction), but her intention matters far more than where her morals are concerned. Not skill. Not execution.
Intention.
Tandy knows better than anyone that nothing hits harder and more sudden than life, and that's when she slowly adapted her new lifestyle because when the rules stopped applying to her, the only option left was to make her own. And with that, she became this: some thief running from a private school kid whose wallet she just got busted for stealing.
Is she losing her touch?
Still, she believes she could outrun and lose him. The pain she's suffered has transformed her into a warrior and she deeply values her personal space. There was something troubling about her gaze - a sort of free-floating anger that resembles a fire jumping from tree-to-tree in a forest. You would never know what it would burn and what it would leave alone.
Tandy glances over her shoulder to see if she lost or tired out Tyrone yet, but he's now closer to her. She curses to herself. That's when she remembers that his varsity jacket not only translates to popular, but athletic. So, he was definitely going to be running at her heels any moment now.
Tandy skids into an alleyway that turns out to be a dead-end. She quickly looks up to see if there was any sort of ladder or fire escape for her to climb, but there are none. Tandy stomps in frustration just as Tyrone enters the alleyway. It seems as if he just appeared there out of thin air. She groans in embarrassment but she knows that her lies will always catch up to her. Always. Even if she thinks she outran them and got away with it, it's just about to bite her in the ass.
"Damn, girl." Tyrone lets out a breath as he puts his hands on his hips. "You sure can run."
"Well, I was being chased," Tandy defends. She begs with herself that she doesn't have to explain herself because she'll just come off as a teenage scum and if he was going to make a judgment about her, then he needed to know who she really is and not just the parts that she unwillingly had to show him.
"Because you dropped this."
And Tandy feels her cheeks heat up when she sees her lanyard of keys dangling from Tyrone's fingers. She is shocked for a moment before checking her pocket to see if her keys are actually missing which they are. Why was she even checking when she could see him holding them? Tandy takes a quick step towards him, taking back her keys, and shoving them back in her bag.
"Charming, as always," Tandy flatters.
"Not trying, as always," Tyrone replies with the same flare.
Tandy grins from the corner of her mouth. "Your outdated sense of masculinity is precious." She plays with the hems of her sleeves with her fingers. "But I genuinely don't know what to say for all of this."
"How about a thanks and giving me back my wallet."
And there's the bomb she hoped and thought to have avoided. She has no defensive argument because she has truly been caught. Now, she feels like a cracked egg: raw, exposed, and vulnerable.
Tandy succumbs and pulls his wallet out of her back pocket to give it all back to him. Tyrone opens to and checks to make sure all of his cards were there, not inspecting the cash pocket (which Tandy should've taken something from if only she knew this would be happening).
Tyrone's eyes square her as he puts his wallet back in his pocket. "Do I sense an apology coming up?"
Tandy scoffs. "I'm sorry, but no."
She winks at him before going her own way.
Also changed the title last minute so, go me!
Just so everyone is in the clear, the part that happened to me was the forgetting keys part. I was never mugged nor did I mug someone.
Thank you all so much for reading this and liking this if you did. If you have any story idea you would like me to write, do not be afraid to tell me about it.
~ MysteryGal5