A Writer's Fairytale

Mary: Roommate Problems

“Which number?”

The question shook me from my own head and back to reality. It shook me so hard that all I could do was answer the question. “220.” I was so gone from what was going on outside my mind that the answer was short and I had forgotten almost everything else. I went back into my mind until I heard a knocking.

I looked up and saw that he was knocking on my door. I had no idea what time it was and I had no idea if Rebecca was in the apartment, but my mind that had been lost in thought for several moments was snapped to the thought that Rebecca couldn’t see him. “I don’t know if my roommate is back from her date. I can handle it from here.” Just as I said this Rebecca flung open the door. I saw worry written all over her face. “Hey Rebecca aren’t you back early from your date?”

Rebecca opened the door wide. “Come in. You can put her on the couch.” He did as she suggested and laid me gingerly on the couch. “Thank you,” she said to the man. Then she switched gears and looked at me. “Are you alright? What happened?”

I gave her the best smile that I could pull off for what was going on “I am fine Rebecca. I just fell.” I didn’t know if she believed me. The worry was still stuck on her face.

“That was my fault,” the man said his voice was very respectful. “I startled her and she took off. She must have hit a crack on the sidewalk.” He paused for a moment and looked at my knee. It was still bleeding badly and I could see that he saw the blood by the look on his face. “Where is your lavatory?”

Rebecca made a funny face that I knew meant that she didn’t realize what he was asking us to show him. “Down the little hall it will be the door on the left.”

“Thank you. Do you keep your antiseptic there?” he said his voice was still very courteous. It was odd. It was weird. I don’t know how else to explain it. It felt like he was showing both of us more respect than anyone else had ever shown us before. It had a weird after taste, like he was either trying far too hard, or he was raised in one of the best manner schools in the world, either way it felt off. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I could tell that something was hidden behind his velvet words.

“We do. Top shelf in the cabinet over the sink,” I said I didn’t know why I was telling him all of this. I didn’t want him there. That is what I kept telling myself. I had no need for him and when he left I would take care of my own knee. I would take care of my own life and everything would go back to the way it was before.

“Thank you again,” he said and walked away to the bathroom.

I watched him walk away this was the first time that I was able to see any of the features of this man and I had to admit that they were amazing. His light blue eyes were breath taking. His black hair was short and his smile that I had gotten just a glimpse of was stunning. His cheeks wrinkled and he had the most perfect dimples. His physique was extraordinary, though he wore a coal black suit I could still see the muscles that he tried to hide beneath it. There was just something about him that sent my heart racing. “Where have you been?” my friend screamed, shattering the thoughts that had been smacking me in the face.

“Out,” I began, “Did you not get my note?” I looked at her. I was sure that I had written it and placed it on the closet door before I left. “I placed it where we always place our notes. On the closet door.”

I remember the day that we started doing that. It was when we first moved in together. We tried to put notes on the refrigerator but we would both ignore them to go straight for the food. We needed a new place to put them. We finally decided that the only place that we both walked by, me because I paced around the apartment when I was working on a character that wasn’t going quite the way I wanted it to, and her because she was always on the move going from work to her dates with George to just walking around town, was the closet. 

I saw her get up from the chair beside the couch and walk over to the closet. She looked at the door and nothing was there. I was stunned I was sure that I had placed the note on the door. She began to walk back when she heard paper rustling under her foot. She bent down and picked up the piece of paper.

She looked up from the paper. She gave me a weak smile. “I guess it must have fallen off.” Her smile began to grow stronger. “I see you had good reason to go out. I think I finally found something that got you away from that computer.”

I knew that she was going to say something to that extant. Even though I knew that she was going to say something like that I was not prepared to respond. This was why I wanted to avoid this. He had nothing to do with why I left my computer, but I didn’t know if she would ever believe me. I quickly remembered that he had already given her an explanation. The truth. I was just going to have to stick with it, until she believed that to be the truth. “I didn’t meet him until he scared me half to death in front of Merissa’s.”

She looked at me her eyes a mix between joy and complete sadness. “What were you doing in front of Merissa’s? Were you looking for a dress? You deserve to wear a dress. You never wear dresses anymore not since…” She trailed off. I knew that she knew that it was a touchy subject for me and I had defended myself several times when she tried to talk about it. I knew this made her sad. She tried to understand what had happened, but she could never fully understand what happened, and we both knew and respected that.

I gave her a quick smile “Nothing like that Rebecca.” Her eyes quickly went to disappointment, but I pretended not to notice. “I was out walking because I had the worst case of writer’s block ever. I just happened to pass Merissa’s. The whole apartment seemed to be laughing at me I needed to get out. I went looking for inspiration and instead I found him.” I looked around the room expecting to see the room still laughing at me, but it wasn’t.

“I think he is pretty good inspiration,” she said, smiling that smile that I knew she would smile. The smile that meant that she had a plan. A plan that I wasn’t going to like. I heard footsteps coming toward us. I put my finger to my mouth before he came in with the anapestic. She made sure that only I could see her lips when she mouthed “This isn’t over.”

I ignored her and took another deep breath. I was going to fight this. I was going to try to fight him again. This time I had a plan that I was going to use, and I was going to win. I looked at the clock it read 12:17 in the morning this was going to work perfectly toward my plan. “Oh my,” after saying that phrase I questioned myself. I questioned if I was playing it to strong, but I had started it and I knew that I couldn’t get out of it any other way than to keep on with what I was doing. I sounded more like a bad 50’s show, but that was how I started it, no use in trying to reenter my decade now. “It’s getting quite late. I thank you for everything that you have done, but I must insist that you be on your way and get back to where you belong.” Now not only did I sound like a bad 50’s show, but I also sounded like the mother in those shows, was this going to work at all, or was he going to laugh at my poor attempt to make him leave. I did have to admit it was terrible. It didn’t sound like me at all. I was so much better at using my sarcasm than that, I was better at using words in general, why did I sound like such a walking cliché, even if I wasn’t walking?

He looked at me for a minute and then to Rebecca and then back to me. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and I was sure that it was just a figment of my imagination, but I could have sworn that there was a twinkle in his eye, a longing to stay. “I can see you are in good hands, so I will take my leave.” He placed the aseptic down on the coffee table in front of me. Wait. Did he actually just say that he will leave? What angle is he playing?

I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw him actually turn toward the door. He walked toward the door and Rebecca followed. I wished she wouldn’t have, but I had no way to stop her. When they had gotten to the door they talked in a whisper. I couldn’t hear what they were saying and that frustrated me more than I was willing to admit. When they were done, I heard the door shut and Rebecca returned in to my line of sight. “What was that about?” I asked. I knew if they talked about anything like getting us together, she would brag about it.

“Nothing. I just thanked him for helping my stubborn pig-headed friend.” I didn’t need to see her face to know that her attempts to get us together failed. I was over joyed. I knew she would be disappointed, but she would get over it. This was my life and her constant attempts at getting me together with every “nice” guy that was within a 100-mile radius was getting frustrating.

I waited several seconds, thinking that maybe my friend, my best friend would be willing to help me with my knee instead I heard her slowly walk to her room. “Where are you going?” I asked she would never leave me here like this, would she?

There was a second pause and then I heard her voice trail to me “To bed, I thought you said that you could handle it yourself.” I heard her giggle a little. This was my punishment for her losing. It was, I guess a satisfactory victory even if I did have to dress the wound myself. I was just glad that I never had to see that man again.

After I had dressed my wound I sat on the couch. I wanted to go to bed, but found myself sitting there wondering about the night. I was glad that he wasn’t coming back. I was sure of that. I was glad that I knew better than to fall for his charm. There was something hidden behind his charm, I was just not sure what it was. Maybe he was a burglar and after he saw how poor our apartment really was he no longer wanted to steal anything, not that there was much to steal anyway.

 That didn’t make sense, even if there wasn’t much my computer would be worth something. He should have taken that at least. It was not that I wanted him to steal anything, but it would have put my mind at ease. If he would have put a gun to our head and demanded cash and when we gave him the poor amount that we have he would see my computer and grab it and then run, that would have made me happy. Not because I just got robbed, that computer was my lively hood, but because I would be right. There was also the thought that he wanted what I would never give him, and after he saw me in the light decided that I wasn’t worth it. Why didn’t he do one of those things? Why didn’t he do something?  I would finally have had evidence that he wasn’t just a sweet guy. It just made me wonder why he was there.

Why did he help me? I shook my head. I didn’t need to think about it. I was never going to see him again. That was the only thing that I was sure of. With that cleared up in my mind I started drifting off to sleep still sitting on the couch. The last thought that ran through my head before I feel asleep was “I know that is the last time that I will see him. I will never have to see his charming self ever again.”