Selina Kyle | The Beginning

14

Selina kept an eye on the window ever since Jonathan had left her hiding outside his grandmother's creepy, aged home. She began to get worried when she saw light come on in his bedroom window and he still hadn't given her the clear. She waited as patiently as she could, until she feared Jonathan's grandmother had caught him and she began to walk to the side of the house. Just before she was about to pull herself up onto the siding of his home she heard Jonathan open the window above her. She looked up to see him smiling down at her, he seemed to have changed already, wearing a large brown sweater.

"What are you doing?" He quietly called down.

"Don't worry about it!" She quietly called back. She continued on with her climb till she made it to Jonathan's window on the third floor. It was freezing climbing up, but she managed to climb quickly without making a sound. Jonathan helped her up into his house and shut the window before anymore cold wind could find its way in. Some snow that was on the windowsill dropped down onto his floor and Jonathan sighed. He quickly went to a pile of his old clothes and started to mop up the melting snow with old pants that no longer fit him. Selina took a good look around, every inch of Jonathan's room represented who he was. It was a large room with not enough furniture to make someone feel at home. There was a worn-out wooden dresser in one corner of the room, and a large, round mirror that belonged to a different vanity propped up against the floor in the opposite corner. There was a crack in the mirror that made it difficult to see in. A small cot lye in the center of the room with one sheet neatly spread over it and one pillow on top. The walls were white with the paint chipping off onto the floor in some areas, the ceiling stained from water damage, the floor covered in what looked like pieces of hay that you'd find on the floor of a stable. Selina noticed there was red stains on the floor near the cot...Blood. What happened here? There was one pile of all kinds of clothes in the corner but beside that, the hay, and the cot on the ground, the room somehow seemed neat. There were no pictures thought, the one thing Selina was expecting was photographs, the one thing she was hoping for more like. Selina was naturally curious and the fact that his walls and dresser were bare, disappointed her. Selina longed for more pictures of her mother, grandmother, for herself, and wondered if Jonathan did too, or if his lack of frozen memories was his choice. This place wasn't much, but it was much more than Selina had ever had, and was much more than anyone she'd ever known had. Jonathan watched as she slowly walked around in amazement.

"I know it's pretty messy in here but I didn't have much time to prepare for your visit." Jonathan apologized shyly.

Selina gestured that it was fine by flicking her hand at her side a couple times and said, "Why is there blood...Are you okay?" Silence swept over them for a moment as Jonathan tried to gather the rights words to explain the aftermath of his grandmother's rage. He looked down at his feet and then to the floor at the blood he had forgot to clean up. He sighed, "My grandmother, she's never been kind to me. She hates me for being my m-mothers child." He spoke so quietly, he sounded so fragile. Selina walked up to him and wrapped him in her arms. He was surprised- he didn't peg Selina as an affectionate person, she had even told him she didn't like to discuss what she was feeling. He would have blushed of embarrassment if he weren't so upset. He kept his tears in and told himself to be as strong as Selina was. Before breaking their embrace she told him, "We don't have to talk about it, I don't wanna ruin the night for you."

"You could never." Jonathan answered immediately, "But yeah...So, what's mine is yours. Make yourself at home." He tried his best to sound fine but there was no fooling Selina, she knew Jonathan like the back of her hand. She needed to lighten the mood, and there wasn't anything Selina did better, well, thieving aside of course.

"Jonathan, Jonathan! How did you learn to dance like that?" She asked in an exaggerated movie star-from-the-fifties-voice.

"I know I was awful don't rub it in!" He laughed walking over to his dresser to pull out heavier socks.