The rain poured down, drenching her from head to toe. The damp air entered her lungs and eradicated all sense of smell but wet mud. Her worn out expensive white sneakers were long drenched, mud covering almost everywhere. She clenched the grip on the gun, her expression absolute. Determined. She was not about to let this opportunity slide. The gun was shaking in her hands.
She told herself it was the rain.
The woman before her looked down at her phone... "Is this gonna take long? It's getting late…" She was wearing ripped grey jeans and no jacket. Her black t-shirt read "Boom boy, get dat bootyyy" with red blocky text and a neon-colored graffiti guy shaking his… bum. Sumire didn't know what to think about that.
When she finally got her eyes away from that horrendous shirt, she realized just how damp her black hair was, and how unnaturally blue her eyes were. Like someone had picked out the sky and put it in her eyes. As the neon light sign flickered, the light reflection made her sky-like eyes appear in a magical, shimmering ocean light instead. The abstract color of them made her feel sucked in. There was just a lot about this woman that made you look at her. Her waves. Her eyes. Her absolutely horrendous choice of a t-shirt.
Sumire raised a brow at her nonchalance. "That's all? I'm aiming a gun at your head!"
"Yes, I can see that." She started rooting around in her grocery bag, Sumire tightened the grip on her gun while she watched her rooting around for a while with obvious struggle. It took her a while to what she was searching for and picked up a pack of cigarettes. "...I'm so fucking dumb… It's raining."
"Excuse you, I'm kind of in the middle of robbing you right now."
The woman looked up at her with a face of realization. "Oh, really!? Wow, I had no idea. And here I thought you were some wannabe dancer trying to get scouted!"
Behind them, a car zoomed past on the highway. Sumire's heart started racing like crazy, as it had done many times before. As it had done every time a car passed them by. If anyone was to find them like this…. she’d get arrested for sure.
"You won't be too sarcastic when I shoot you." The gun quivered in her grip.
She snorted. "Oh, yes, because you'll definitely pull that trigger. Don't lie to yourself, we both know you're too much of a coward to do that, honeycup."
Sumire bit down on her lip, refraining from gritting her teeth. It wasn't a good habit for her teeth hygiene. Yet, she tried her best to stabilize the gun under her grip. Anything to disprove her. "What's your name?"
"Ebonysa, but people tend to call me Ebony or Ebon."
Sumire gave up, lowered her weapon, and sighed. "I'm so bad at this… and don't smoke, it's not good for your health."
"People sure like to meddle with my business lately, huh?" Ebony opened the pack and put a cigarette in her mouth. "What's you got to do with my health? You're trying to rob me. With a gun. You're like… the last thing on your mind right now should be my health."
"Ugh, stop judging me and just give me your stuff! Can't you see I'm doing my best?! I deserve at least half of the stuff in that bag for my efforts alone!"
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"Honeycup, that's not how this works."
She groaned and plopped down on the ground, drenching her butt even more. Regret filled her whole being. "Well, it should… and don't call me honeycup."
"Hoe, I don't even know your name yet."
Sumire glared up at her. "It's Sumire."
She looked down at her with a confident smirk“See, wasn't too hard, was it?"
"It was, seeing as you can’t seem to stop judging me.”
The neon sign on top of the store ‘24/7’ flickered again, leaving them in almost complete darkness for a couple of seconds. She finally realized how dark it was, and how strange it was that no one had bothered to fix the street lights. It was a parking lot, after Al. l
The realization struck her suddenly. The inside of the store was pitch black. You couldn't even see in but when she’d been inside, the light had been overwhelming. Now? It looked abandoned as if no one had been there to run the shop for ages. It’s only giveaway was the neon sign, but it was way too rundown. No wonder no one stopped to fill their gas or buy a midnight snack. And? And why couldn't she remember the face of the clerk-
“Judging people is my brand, honeycup.” Ebony’s words brought her back from her trance, leaving her confused and disturbed.
“You should put that on a shirt…” She grumbled, getting back up on her feet and dusting off her light blue shorts.
Ebony smirked and looked down at her drenched t-shirt with pride. “I should, shouldn’t I? I mean, I usually put down my ingenious quotes on my t-shirts.”
If she had something to spit out, she would. “YOU said that!?”
“I say a lot of stuff every day, you’ll need to be a lot more specific.”
“Yeah, no.”
"Your loss." She shrugged.
Sumire looked at her in disbelief. "What loss."
Ebony made a strangled sound and spit out the cigarette. It was totally drenched and unusable. "That was a perfectly good cigarette. You know what, let's continue this robbery somewhere else where it ain't raining."
That’s it. This lady before her was far too ballsy for her own good. Her feelings towards this woman was a jumbled mess. Fear? Admiration? Frustration? She didn't even know anymore. "You're not even going to ask me why I'm doing this?"
"What's your poor ass life choices got to do with me?"
"...alright, you've got a point." Sumire put the gun away and walked to her bike. She sighed upon taking a look at it, it's white lacquer was so slippery wet she thought it might fall into pieces at any moment.
Ebony whistled in admiration as she walked over. "That ride's yours? Horrendous choice of color, but I like the model."
“Of course you would feel the need to comment on my ride.” Sumire rolled her eyes and took out the keys from her left pocket. “That’s a Kawasaki Ninja H2R.”
“Wait… aren’t those like, hella expensive?”
“Sure are. Cost a little above $50 000.”
“Honeycup, what are you robbing people for, that’s a killer ride. You’re obviously well off?” Ebony was regarding the motorbike with awe, her jaw practically on the floor. “How did I not see the bike before? This is so much better than printing a self-made quote on a shirt.”
Sumire rolled her eyes and started the bike. “I didn’t buy it myself, now hop on and I’ll drive you home.”
“Does it even have space for two?”
“If we’re being clingy, then yeah.”
“Oh, being clingy… my favorite pastime!” Ebony jumped on the back of the bike as Sumire leaned over to grab the handle. “So, where do you live?”
“Geez, going a little too fast there aren’t we?”
Sumire exasperatedly looked back at her. “Just tell me your address, oh my god!”
“I’ll tell you on the way.”