Back to School Shopping: Part I

The content in this Chronicle and on this website is intended for adults, 18 years and older.

Back to School Shopping

Part I

An R.L. Mathewson Chronicle

“This is kidnapping!” Sebastian bit out from the backseat where he continued to glare at her while his brother Johnny was desperately searching for a way to escape, but since she’d swiped their cellphones, cash and implemented the child safety locks there was no way that they were getting out of this, again.

Today, they were finally going school shopping.

“Call it whatever you want,” she said with a satisfied smile and a small sigh, pleased that she’d finally managed to pull this off.

“I call it child abuse,” Sebastian said evenly as Johnny finally gave up on trying to open his door, closed his eyes with a groan and dropped his head back against the seat, obviously coming to terms with the fact that she’d finally managed to get them to the mall after four months of begging, manipulation, bribery and hollow threats.

“Call it what you want,” she said, unable to stop smiling.

“You didn’t need to do this,” Sebastian said, obviously deciding that it was time to once again resort talking his way out of this, but it wasn’t going to work this time.

“Didn’t I?” she asked, cocking a brow while she met his deceptively sweet face in the rearview mirror.

His eyes narrowed as a calculating expression took over, leaving her wondering why they even bothered trying to play her. By now they should realize that she wouldn’t do something like this unless she had a plan.

“It looks as though we’re at an impasse,” he drawled as he folded his arms over his chest.

“No, not really,” she said, still kicking herself for not thinking of this sooner.

“You’ll never willingly get us in there and we all know it,” he said, and if she hadn’t figured out what she’d been doing wrong for the last four months she would have to agree.

“What are you suggesting?” she asked, keeping her eyes locked with his in the mirror.

“That we go home and forget about this,” he said smoothly, forgetting that she was immune to the Bradford charm.

“And your clothes?” she asked, really looking forward to spending the next few hours in the mall. Maybe she’d catch a movie, she mused absently as she waited for the boys to realize that this time wasn’t going to be like last year when they’d ended up spending six hours sitting in a security room because of an unfortunate incident involving a mannequin, a fire extinguisher, a dressing room and some poor guy that had made the mistake of cutting them in line.

“You can order them online,” he said with a shrug.

“Since you both shot up two inches since last Christmas that might be a problem,” she pointed out, matching his shrug.

“You could guess.”

“And if I guessed wrong?” she asked, not missing the way that his lips twitched.

“We’d wear togas,” he said, cocking a brow in challenge, letting her know that he’d finally decided his next move, but that was too bad for him.

Because she’d already made hers.

© Rerum Industries, Inc. 2016. All Rights Reserved.