Through my eyes: Unexpected

A/N: another short one.Two povs in this one

***

“You´d love it here” Nichole read a text from Marissa as she sipped her coffee. She was getting breakfast after her run in the park. The text was followed by a picture taken from a window. It was a picture of trees and a portion of blue sky without clouds. A tree close to the window, one with purple flowers confirmed what she knew; this was the view from one of Josh´s windows in his room in the log house.

“I did love it” she murmured as she paid for the coffee and the cinnamon roll. She didn’t reply.

Nichole was in her room, reading a book on ancient myths, she had to illustrate one of them, when she heard Marissa coming home. She considered locking her door. She knew Marissa would want to tell her all about her weekend. She didn’t want to listen to that. One way or another, though, Marissa would tell her. She was the kind of girl that talked and liked to talk about things like guys and dates and family and feelings and expectations and dreams and it was fine, Nic could listen, not talk but she´d listen, however; she didn’t feel like listening about her roommate´s weekend. She knew she´d have to but maybe not the whole thing as she would have to if she didn’t do something so, she quickly got off her bed, wore her boots, a scarf, Ash´s worn leather jacket where she put her phone and the book.

She opened her window and quickly climbed out of it to the ledge, bent her knees to jump up a little to fall far from the wall of the building and jumped. She hated this window, it was right on the front of the building… anyone could see but then it was a little after ten at night on a Sunday, it was unlikely that people would still be around, it was an advantage that the street lamp didn’t work, only the lights of the entrance of the building threw a rectangle of light. She had to risk it. A leap of faith? Right.

**

I was standing under the canopy at the entrance of Marissa´s building, checking my phone, frowning. I had planned to come earlier but now it was after ten at night, we´d gotten detained, I smiled at the memory… now to pay for a little extra fun at the log house. I sighed again ready to leave but I had to take a step back, something fell right in front of me.

It startled me but then I was more startled when I realized it was not a something but someone that was just now standing straight.

“Nichole!” I couldn’t hide my surprise. I heard her sigh

“Hello, Joshua” she greeted in her usual monotone voice

“Are you ok? –I looked up from where she’d fallen- are you hurt?” the only opened window was on the third floor

“I am fine” she assured me

“Did you… did you just jumped from that window?” I lowered my voice, I knew she did that, I knew she could but I couldn’t help but think she should have at least a broken leg

“Yeah” she didn’t deny it, she knew I knew

“Are you sure you’re not hurt?” I took a step back to make sure she wasn’t bleeding, not that I could’ve seen, she was wearing all black

“You know I’m fine” she smiled a smile that people often give children when they are being silly or naïve. I hated it.

“It’s not often that you see people jumping from the third floor without at least a broken leg!” I said irritated, she nodded once

“You don’t have to worry about me –she said in a calm voice- you’ve seen me do this before, not once I was hurt” she reminded me, I was probably frowning

“It was always dark when you jumped from that height”

“True. Sorry that I scared you” no inflection in her voice

“That’s not the point!” I said, she raised her eyebrows

“What’s the point?”

“You could’ve…”

“You know that’s not the case –she interrupted- You know I am fine –she held my gaze as if to convince me or will me to remember what I knew- I didn’t expect people to be here” she said the last part to herself, a whisper in one breath.

“What if someone else saw you?” for some reason that worried me more than the possibility of a broken leg. She shrugged.

“You seriously wouldn’t mind people seeing you do impossible things?” I just didn’t believe that

“I could’ve been on the tree, on top of the canopy… who’d believe a girl fell from the sky…?”

“Someone that saw you”

“That someone would’ve assumed they saw a ghost or something… I could’ve run, back to darkness” she explained, I frowned. “It’s always a risk” she finally said, a tiny sigh.

“Have people seen you…?”

“Not that I know of… -she went back to her monotone- gotta go”

“I can give you a ride –I said almost automatically, she stared- my car’s just there” I pointed to the car, she gave me that same smile that said: you’re naïve. It made me feel annoyed.

“I’m fine. Thanks” almost as an afterthought

“It’s late… it’s not a problem to take you anywhere…”

“Monsters don’t get scared in darkness” she said softly, I had a flashback of all the times she’d said that or something similar. Back then I thought it was some kind of joke on how she seemed to like being in darkness but now I knew exactly what she meant, it made me sad.

“Lat…” -she started to say but stopped. Later boy, her usual goodbye phrase, always with that half smile, her real one, the one I hadn’t seen in very long, she quickly looked to a side and back to me. “Goodbye, Joshua” she said, I nodded not liking her usage of my full name.

She walked her cat-like walk towards the dark sidewalk, the shadows of the trees making darker spaces. I stared until she was completely swallowed by darkness.

The sound of an incoming text startled me; it was Marissa with a “got home safely?”

“Still at your building” could I say that? And then, probably “I found Nichole” but she’d come out of her window, she’d done that before whenever she didn’t want people to know she’d been there or when she didn’t want her dorm sup to know she was gone. Did it mean she was now avoiding Marissa? Was I thinking too much? Maybe now she just preferred to jump out, faster. I rolled my eyes at myself. I couldn’t be wasting time thinking about this now.

“Still on my way” I replied once inside my car. I drove away in opposite direction from where Nichole had gone.