16: Clearing the Dark Cloud

It was another day for them to add yet another sin on their list of sins. But there was something different than usual about the day.

As soon as the partners met by one of the benches at the street, Dakota immediately felt a dark cloud surrounding them which was unusual because she felt like there was always a bright light around them whenever they meet. Olivia was always cheerful whenever they meet, and it always made Dakota think about how she looked exactly like a happy golden retriever especially with her blonde hair make the image perfect.

Today, Olivia was a sad little puppy that made her heart ache at the sight of it.

Dakota met her old social studies teacher from when she was a freshman in high school yesterday. That teacher had always been notorious for humiliating students whenever they get a low score in tests, and Dakota happened to be a victim of his back then. It was her first time to get a D for a test as she was not able to study the day before because of her mother who got hospitalized. Her social studies teacher did not give a crap about her mother and continued to shame her for getting a D.

When her old social studies teacher asked Dakota why she stopped going to school yesterday, Dakota was unsure whether he was genuinely asking or mocking her. Just by seeing his face, she decided to get revenge.

But of course, Dakota was not that evil to think of a huge revenge plan for her former social studies teacher. Stabbing his car’s tires and vandalizing his car would be good enough.

When Olivia gave her a smile that did not reach her eyes, Dakota then decided to postpone their plan for the day as she thought of another idea to do while they were together.

Instead of heading to the house of Dakota’s past social studies teacher (she coincidentally found out where he lived before when she and her family passed by his house on their way to the movies), she decided to change the direction of their destination as they took a turn instead of going straight. Since Olivia had been quiet since a while ago, she was not aware of their initial plan and where they were currently going at that moment.

When they finally arrived to the place, that was when Olivia realized as she turned to her and raised her eyebrows in confusion and curiosity. “What’s this? Are we robbing a potato store today?”

“No. We’re eating today,” Dakota simply said as she pushed the glass door open and stood on the side without letting go of the door. “Come in.”

The blonde could not guess what was going on in her partner’s head as she stared at her with her face completely filled with questions though she did obey her and step inside the store. The smell of potato being cooked in different dishes stopped Olivia from thinking too hard about what was up with Dakota. She almost drooled at the delicious scent as she could not wait to have her seat at a table and have her order taken.

“Why have I never seen this place before?” The blonde could not help but feel frustrated at how she never discovered about that store when she was one of the biggest fans of potatoes.

“Because it just opened this morning,” Dakota answered as they took their seats across each other at a table on the corner, not wanting to be on the most visible spot.

“Right.”

“Hello! Welcome to PTT! We offer a discount of 30% off on all items as a celebration of our opening day,” a woman who seemed to be in her early 20s spoke with a bright smile on her face when she approached them.

“Oh, cool.” Dakota then turned to the blonde across her. “Take your pick.”

Olivia scanned her eyes on the simple menu that was provided to them as she thought of buying everything—if only she was not playing a broke teenager character. She pursed her bottom lip in as she thought hard on what to pick.

“I’ll have the potato wedges.” Olivia placed the menu down on the table once she was done deciding as she flashed a small smile to the waitress.

Dakota raised an eyebrow at the latter before turning to the waitress. “We’ll have mashed potatoes, cheese fries, potato pancakes, potato waffles, and her potato wedges. One portion of each.”

“Noted! How about for drinks? I recommend sweet potato milkshake since I made the recipe and I think it’s really good.” The waitress giggled.

“Do you want?” Dakota asked Olivia.

“Sure.”

“And two of that, please.” Dakota then gave the older woman a brief smile.

“Roger that! We’ll serve your potatoes in a few.” And she left.

“Why did you order a lot?” Olivia asked as she leaned back on her seat and crossed her arms across her chest.

“Because why not? From all the stealing I’ve been doing, do you really think I’m broke enough to be unable to afford some potato dishes?” Dakota said with a smile on her face.

“You’re right.” The blonde let out a chuckle.

Dakota could not think of any words to bring up a conversation as she just stared at her until the latter noticed and stared back.

Olivia loved staring at Dakota’s face. She loved seeing the scars on her face since they made her face become even more beautiful in her point of view. But for the past few days, she was obsessed with Dakota’s amber eyes that seemed to have stars swimming in her orbs. Her whole intimidating aura started from her cold eyes, though she was never intimidated by her. Rather, Olivia was drawn to her.

Dakota used to be annoyed at the sight of Olivia’s face and her jolly aura. She was so used to being surrounded by negativity which was why she even became a source of negativity as well but then Olivia suddenly came to her life with a bright smile on her face. Dakota then stopped being annoyed at her presence as she realized that her beaming presence was no so bad after all.

Their attention diverted from each other when the waitress came back to serve their food and drinks—or like what she said earlier, their potatoes.

The both of them did not bother uttering a word as they began to eat while letting out groans in satisfaction at the tastiness of the food once in a while. Even the sweet potato milkshake was good.

“So, how’s your uncle? How’s, uh, life?” Dakota spoke as she threw a glance at the latter after taking a big sip on her milkshake.

“Same old, same old.” Olivia then let out a bitter chuckle. “He still doesn’t care about me. If he did, I would’ve been telling him about the very bad thing that happened to someone because of me.”

Dakota slightly furrowed her eyebrows as she kept her gaze on the blonde while continuing to eat. “What happened? I know I’m not your uncle or anyone, but you do know that I can listen, right?”

The blonde smiled a bit at what the latter said before continuing, “I did things to someone, then they did a very bad thing. I can’t turn everything back now because it’s over, they’ve done it.”

“I’m not gonna say it’s all right since I don’t actually know the specific details. But you should know that you can try fixing it or making up to it by not doing the same things you did to that person and other people. It may be a hard and slow process, but things will be better one day.”

Olivia did not reply as she just gave the latter a smile for her response. She knew that Dakota was just trying to help no matter what the real context was, and Olivia appreciated that even though she felt like she did not deserve it at that moment given what actually happened.

The two of them took a walk around the street after to digest the food that they ate. The blonde always made sure to not walk too closely to Dakota in case someone she knew was secretly watching her from afar. Even though Olivia could not care less about the punishments her father could give her, she does care about what he could do to Dakota.

“I’ll win you one,” Dakota spoke as she stopped in front of a claw machine that was just located outside a closed stationery store. “Do you want the panda one? Grizzly bear? Duck? What do you want me to win you?”

The blonde let out a chuckle in amusement at the sudden determination of her partner. She went with the flow as she pointed at the one last standing black cat plushie. “Win me that.”

“You got it.” Dakota then inserted coins in the machine as she slightly spread her legs apart to match her height.

“Have you won one before?” Olivia asked as she crossed her arms across her chest and watched the latter do so.

“Well, no. But who knows? I might actually win one with my determination.” Dakota chuckled as she pushed the button to make the crane drop. “Watch how the universe beautifully works—goddammit!”

The blonde shook her head as she already expected it and watched the latter insert another coin.

“Yep. Beautiful universe.”

“Speaking of black cat, there’s this one black cat I met behind a high school while I was passing by one day. It was so cute so I fed him, and every day he waits for me.” Dakota had a serious face on her face as she concentrated in measuring the angles of the crane before pushing the button. “But one day, there was a girl feeding him too. I wasn’t able to see her face clearly since I was hiding with my hoodie, ‘cause who knows? They might report me for kinda trespassing.

The smile on the blonde’s face slowly dropped as she realized what the latter was talking about. She perfectly knew which cat she was talking about.

“W-What school was it?” the blonde nervously asked.

“Goddammit,” Dakota hissed when the plushie fell from the crane’s grip once again. “I forgot. It was a flower’s name, I think. Oh, yeah. The girl had blonde hair like you, though I doubt it would be you.”

“Oh.” Olivia was thankful that she never actually chased the person in a black hoodie.

“Anyway, I think the girl was intimidated by me since I haven’t been seeing her for the past weeks. I’m glad since I get to have the little boy to myself.” Dakota heaved a heavy sigh as she was so close to punching the machine. “Okay, fuck it. We’re doing it the illegal way.”

“Dakota, oh my god.”

Olivia widened her eyes and let out a chuckle in surprise when Dakota abruptly crouched in front of the machine and easily slipped her arm inside the machine through the hole. The blonde looked around as she saw a few people glancing at them and it was a good thing they did not care.

“Got it!” Dakota uttered in joy as she stood back up after successfully grabbing the last black cat plushie. She had a proud grin on her face as she handed it to the blonde. “See? I did win you one—but just the illegal way.”

As if the black cat plushie was a mysterious sorcerer, the blonde then found herself pulling the jacket of her partner to her and attaching their soft lips together for some reason.