Creepy But Cute

Creepy but cute

Jacob leaned against the counter, finally a break! He looked through the kitchen window to see his coworker, and also crush, Autumn as she was working her job in the café… well one in many part time jobs she has. She looked real cute in the uniform and apron, he looked away before anyone noticed. Jacob heard the door ring the bell, he looked over just to see… a little girl? By herself? She had black hair in two low pigtails, hazel eyes- and you could really see the blue and green in this girl’s eyes- a long sleeve hot pink top, and denim shorts. She looked about in kindergarten, maybe 4 years old. Jacob found himself getting a little worried, there were only two reasons that a girl this young would be by herself alone; she was lost, or there was something wrong with the parents.

Jacob was about to go to her, but before he could open the counter. “Hey sis!” Autumn called. The little girl’s face turned from a neutral look, to an extremely contagious smile. “Sissy!” The little girl singed as she ran to her nineteen year old sister to tackle hug her. Her tiny little arms just barely came up to her waist, as she giggled and squealed with delight. Autumn bent down, picked the little girl up, spun her around and laughed. “So how was school?” She asked, as she set her down at the barstool counter.

“It was so much fun!! Cindy wasn’t being mean to Lilly, Monty and Carla caught a frog at recess, and Penny and I made a friendship bracelet for Nugget!” The little girl said.

“That’s great Lelu!” Autumn said.

“Excuse me!” Jacob looked to another customer, “where’s my Oreo cheesecake?”

“Oh, sorry! Uh, Lelu, hang on I gotta to work. Stay here, don’t talk to any strangers, and I’ll be right back,” Autumn said.

“Yes Ma’am,” Lelu confirmed, as she set her backpack in the barstool next to her.

Jacob watched Lelu with curiosity, Autumn had a sister? Autumn doesn’t talk about her family much, but why didn’t she ever mentioned Lelu? Wait… If there could’ve been a lightbulb above Jacob’s head, it would be going off right about now, that and Jacob could’ve sworn he heard a triangle dinging in the background. Maybe if I watch Lelu, be nice to her, she’ll put a good word in with Autumn for me. Jacob looked back at Autumn, blush dusting his cheeks as he saw her kneading the dough for the pie crust. “Ooooh!~” Lelu sang. Oh, PECK! Jacob looked back to Lelu as she gave him a very excited look. “Do you like my sissy! Are you, her boyfriend!?” Lelu exclaimed. If Jacob bared any sort of resemblance to a vegetable, he would most certainly be a beet right now.

“N- No!!” Jacob said, flustered.

“Oh! It’s okay, I won’t tell… I’m good at keeping secrets, shh,” Lelu whispered, winking.

Jacob chuckled, cute kid. “My name is Jacob, I’m your sister’s co-worker,” Jacob said.

“I’m Lisa Lucy Hailey, but everyone calls me Lelu,” Lelu said, taking some materials out of her backpack.

“What’cha got there Lelu?” Jacob asked. Lelu held out some thin yarn thread material, one red, another blue.

“Which one do you like?” Lelu asked.

“Hmm, that’s a tough one, but I think I’m gonna have to go with this one,” Jacob pointed to the blue one.

“Yay!”

Jacob chuckled again. “What’cha ya doing there?”

“I’m making a friendship bracelet. I had one earlier today but Buggs stole it today at lunch. I think he was expecting to grab one of my cookies though, he seemed mad that I told him he couldn’t have one.”

Jacob’s smile faded; she wasn’t being bullied right? “And… what did you do?”

Lelu fell silent, and all of the sudden started giggling uncontrollably, like some villain laughing. She uncovered her right wrist to reveal a green, pink, and purple bracelet. “You fool! Now we’re best friends forever!” Lelu said, pridefully. Jacob covered his mouth from his laugh attack, and pounded on the desk a little. If that was not the cutest way to deal with a bully, he didn’t know what was!

Jacob watched as Lelu’s tiny little hands wove through the materials. “So… how’s school? Ya got any friends?” He asked, trying to break the ice. “Mph!” Lelu nodded, “I go to the new kindergarten school that just opened up! There’s not that many kids going there yet, and there’s only two teachers working there right now. But the principal’s daughter is my best friend!” Lelu’s hands made quick work of the material in her hands, as the blue and yellow thread started to bear resemblance to a bracelet. She must’ve done this a couple of dozen times if she can make a bracelet that fast.

“Hold your arm out,” Lelu smiled. Jacob reached his arm across the countertop and as soon as he was within her reach, Lelu started to tie the bracelet around his wrist. “There!” Lelu beamed, “we’re friends now!” Ah! My heart! Jacob thought, Lelu was a very sweet little girl. Lelu reached into her bag and pulled out some crayons, some paper, and started to draw. Jacob squinted at the paper. Weird… he thought, that paper is all yellow and crinkled, how old is that?

“Is Sissy gonna be done with work soon?” Lelu asked.

“Yeah, it shouldn’t be too long from now, why?” Jacob asked.

“Lisa wants to talk to She when we get home, but she doesn’t want to leave me alone here,” Lelu said. Wait what? “That and I kinda need help with homework, we’re supposed to draw our family.”

“Wait, wait, wait… who’s Lisa? And by ‘she’ do ya mean your sister?” Jacob asked confused. What the heck did this kid just say? ‘Lisa wants to talk to She when we get home’ what does she mean by ‘she doesn’t want to leave me alone here? As far as Jacob could tell, Lelu came in alone… right?

Lelu shook her head, “no, I mean She… the lady that lives in my closet… her name is She.” Jacob felt his pulse beat a tad bit faster… did… did he hear that right? Nah, she’s… she’s gotta be playing here. She’s a kid they have big imaginations. “So, this Lisa and She people… friends of yours?” Jacob asked, trying to play along. Lelu nodded as she continued to draw, so far, the drawing had what appeared to be Autumn and Lelu side by side. “So, what they like?” Jacob asked.

“She has pretty black short hair, red eyes, and another pair of arms on her back. At night She would be at the foot of my bed and listened to me talk, but back when Daddy wasn’t asleep yet he would come in and yell at me for still being awake, She would look at Daddy with an angry look on her face,” Lelu said.

Jacob listened in silence… wait a second… ‘when Daddy wasn’t asleep yet’… oh god… please don’t mean what I think you mean. Calm down man… “Huh,” Jacob nodded, “are you drawing your Mommy and Daddy?” Jacob shifted his attention towards the drawing. “No, this is a recent family drawing. Lisa, She, and my Sissy tell me Mommy and Daddy gone to sleep for a while,” Lelu explained. Oh! Jacob thinks he found out why Autumn doesn’t talk about her family much. “Oh, um… do you miss them?” Jacob said, hoping to keep what actually happened to her parents as far away from Lelu as possible.

“Umm…” Lelu started, “I miss my Mommy a lot, Sissy, Lisa, and She do too.”

“And what about your Daddy?”

“Not… really…”

Wait what?

“My daddy was… kinda mean…” Lelu said sadly, “he always made me and Sissy really uncomfortable, he would always yell, shout, and sometimes even hit us with his bottles full of that juice he loves so much.”

Jacob felt his heart drop at the words. He looked back at the kitchen, with Autumn finishing up the Oreo cheesecake, he then looked at the bottles of liquor that they would dress some of the food in sometimes… Autumn would never even touch a bottle, she always refused, even to the manager… no wonder. “Oh, Autumn,” Jacob said under his breathe, he turned back to Lelu and her drawing.

Jacob’s eyes widened. The drawing now had some lady on the right side of Lelu, it was just as Lelu described; short black hair, with one red eye covered the other came with a red smile the lady had a black strapless crop top of some kind, with a raggedy black skirt that went below the knees. But the way she looked was nothing compared to the arms on her back, Lelu was drawing some black sticks on the back of this person, with black balls for the palms and black sticks for fingers, not as detailed as the arms at the lady’s sides were. This lady’s skin was black, and Jacob didn’t mean the race color black like his… this lady’s skin was ash black, dark grey was her skin tone. Lelu put much more thought, care, effort, and detail into this person in comparison to how she drew her and her sister. Yo! Bruh! What the peck?!

It was then that Jacob was starting to become scarred, no kid would have an imagination like this… right? That’s gotta be She… he thought. “I still don’t understand why Daddy did what he did to us… he said he loved us, but I don’t see anyone else’s Daddy’s hurt them like he does with us.” Lelu looked like she was about to cry. Jacob decided not to push the subject any further, he didn’t want to make the kid cry. He gently rubbed Lelu’s head. “Yeah, I don’t know how he could do that to you or your sister… but the important thing is, ya’ll are alright now right?” Lelu looked up at him, and smiled. “Yeah, at least he won’t be mean anymore when he wakes up!” Lelu said hopeful. …HUH?!

Jacob withdrew his hand to his side of the counter. “… Huh?” He squeaked. “Yeah, Lisa told me that after she came back from her trip! I hope Mommy will wake up too so that we can all be together again!” Lelu exclaimed happily, as she continued with her drawing. Now judging by Lelu’s previous reactions to talking about her dad, Jacob knew he should leave it be and just move on to something else… but damn it! Curiosity is going to kill this cat! “Lelu… what do you mean… Lisa went on a trip? What kind of trip did she go on?” He asked. Lelu continued happily with her drawing and swung her legs back and forth a little. “One night, Lisa and I went for a walk around our neighborhood, Lisa wanted to stay out until the moon and stars came out so we waited. When we came back Daddy was there with a big angry face. I tried to explain to him what happened but he yelled at me and said ‘Lisa is stupid and fake!’ then he grabbed one of his juice bottles and he hit me…” Lelu explained sadly, “Daddy kept shouting and yelling at me, Lisa got really sad and upset and then she just… disappeared.”

Jacob felt like he was listening to some scarry story you would hear around the campfire. Only this time… he didn’t think it was just some kid using her imagination to cope with having a crappy dad. This felt real… very real.

“The next day, when Daddy left for work, he was gone all day. He didn’t even come home to eat dinner. He was gone for the entire weekend and then Monday as well. Lisa was gone for a long time too; I didn’t see her since the night when Daddy hit me and made her sad. Finally… Lisa was back home! And she had news about my Daddy!” Lelu said.

Jacob was on edge here… what did Lisa tell her? “And what did she say?” He asked, trying not to sound anxious, but it was kind of hard at this point.

Jacob saw the finished drawing. On the left side, next to Autumn, was a lady of some kind. There were no feet, it looked like the lady was floating. The lady was wearing a pure white tattered dress that was as white as her skin. But her lack of feet and pure white skin was nothing compared to the red crayon Lelu paused marking on her. There was blood… it had to be blood, there’s no way it was anything else! There was blood coming out of the thing’s eyes, a big stitch in the bottom right of her dress with more red blood coming out, blood all over her lips and- Oh God! There was a thick heavy black line in the white lady’s throat and blood splattered and dripping all over her. With no other of Lelu’s friends that she’s told him about… there was no doubt in his mind that this was Lisa.

These things Lelu has been telling him about are not something a normal kid would think of! And from what Jacob can gather, Lelu doesn’t even know that her dad was being abusive to her or her family, or even understand life and death yet for that matter!

Lelu paused her crayon strokes and looked up at him, still smiling. “Lisa told me he’s sleeping now… just like my Mommy…” Lelu said. WHAT THE F-!?

Jacob felt his heart skip a beat! Lisa killed Autumn’s Dad?! Jacob was frozen and didn’t say anything. Thoughts were swirling in his head. He loved ghost stories and the paranormal as much as the next guy, but to actually hear an actual experience happening to one of his friend’s family! Oh Boy!

“Jakey?” Lelu called out to him, “are you okay?” Jacob snapped out of the trance he was in and drew his attention back to the child in front of him. “U-um… Yeah! Yeah! All cool bruh!” Jacob stuttered. Lelu looked at him worryingly. “Are you sure?” She asked. “Yeah! Hey listen, it’s all good-“

“YO! Snake Jake!” Jacob jumped at the nickname that only one person uses. He turned his attention to Felicia who was holding some large trays of pastries in each hand and heading up the steps to the second floor. “Your break ended like, 10 minutes ago! What’re you doing!? You gonna help me out or what?!” She shouted at him. Jacob breathed a heavy sigh, part of it out of annoyance and the other part relieved. “I’m coming! I’m coming!” Jacob said, he turned back to Lelu, “my break just ended so, I gotta get back to work.”

“Aw! Okay…” Lelu pouted.

“I’ll see ya around Lelu.” Jacob held his fist out to her and Lelu bumped him back.

She giggled. “Okay, bye-bye Jakey!” Lelu waved.

Jacob picked up trays from the window to take to table 23, and started to make his way to the stairs. “Bye-bye Lelu!” He said back smiling.

“JAKE!!!” Felicia called.

“COMING!!!” He yelled back in annoyance, and stomped up the stairs.

For the rest of Jacob’s shift, he couldn’t stop thinking about his conversation with Autumn’s little sister. If he was going to be honest, he kinda wanted to forget about the whole thing. But he had a reminder on his wrist. The blue and yellow bands that Lelu weaved for him… a total stranger, who she knew nothing about. Lelu was a very sweet and nice kid, but the friends she had…

Autumn’s shift ended and she finally came out with the Oreo cheesecake. “Sorry, that took so long sir! Here you are.” She said, as she handed the old man his plate. “Oh, your fine! I could see you had a little one there. She yours? How old is she?” He asked, conversationally.

“Oh, no! She’s not mine! I’m too young to have kids, that’s my little sister. She just got out of kindergarten.”

“Oh… do you watch her all by yourself? What about your parents?”

“… They… have to work a lot of hours. So, I help out with my sister…”

Jacob was listening in on the conversation. That was the same lie that Autumn told the manager and the rest of the staff. Her parents are barely around, they work a lot, she hardly sees them. Jacob can’t help but wonder why though. Why would she lie about that?

Autumn finished her conversation with the old man and went to grab her bag out of the locker room. When she came back, she hugged Felicia goodbye and went to the counter. “Lelu! Come on! We gotta go home!” Autumn called. Lelu perked her head up, and started to stuff her crayons and folder in her backpack. She crawled out of her barstool, her feet were dangling as she carefully reached the bottom, and then skipped over to her older sister. They were out of Jacob’s hearing range, but he could see the old, yellowed, crinkled paper that had Lelu’s drawing in her hand. She showed it to Autumn, who crouched down to Lelu’s level. Jacob was waiting for some kind of worried or scared reaction from her but instead, Autumn gave a warm smile and kissed Lelu on her head, receiving a squeal and giggles of delight from the tiny child. Then Autumn took Lelu’s hand in hers, and they left the café together. There was only one reason why anyone would react that way… she was used to it, she knew!

Jacob stopped cleaning the table, and went to clean the counter off, but something caught his eye. It was folded up yellowed notebook paper, and in a hot pink crayon it read; To: Jakey; Love: Lelu and Lisa. Jacob did a double take, and realized what it read. His eyes widened as he quickly unfolded the paper.

It was a drawing of Lelu sitting at what seemed to be the counter, across from it Jacob assumed was himself… but behind him… was that thing from Lelu’s drawing. It was Lisa… only now… her black and red mouth was curved up into a smile. In the hot pink crayon like written on the outside read;

Thank you for being our friend!