Red Flowers

Chapter 3

Several days passed, and then those days turned into a week and then two. Aster hadn't seen Raphael since her encounter with him behind the diner. Her thoughts kept straying back to him with all the questions that she had about who he was and where he and the other vigilantes came from. A part of Aster wanted to see him again, but another part of her thought that part of her was crazy, so she was left with a lot of mixed feelings. She wanted to know more about him, but she also didn't want to end up in a hospital or dead for that matter. 

While these two parts of Aster fought back and forth, there was another smaller part of her that just wanted to see those eyes again, those bright green eyes that held so much behind them. She couldn't get the memory of them out of her head.

Aster let out a sigh and laid her head down on her desk, attempting to think about school instead. The semester was almost over, and she had exams coming up soon. She picked her head up off of her desk and pulled her laptop toward herself. Once she logged in, Aster started going over her notes from the beginning of the year in order to refresh herself on some of the course material. Since today was her day-off from work, she decided her time would be best spent studying. Two hours later she looked out her window and was surprised to see that it was dark outside. She closed her laptop and made her way towards the shower.

As Aster stood under the warm water, her mind began to wander again. She was replaying her first encounter with Raphael in her head. She could remember clearly how his eyes had shone in the beams of the passing car's headlights. The intensity of his gaze on hers had drawn her in completely during the mere two seconds that the moment had lasted. His eyes had swam with an inner turmoil that twisted and turned in the depths of his mind.

Aster sighed and turned off the water. Her fingers had begun to prune, so she figured it was time to get out. She quickly dried herself off, put on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, combed out her wet hair, and walked out of the bathroom into her bedroom. Aster's apartment definitely wasn't the nicest considering it was all she could afford while working a part-time job at a diner and paying for her classes at the community college. There were weird stains on the ceiling, the linoleum in the kitchen was peeling up and browned at the edges. Not to mention, it was located in a rough part of New York, but it had electricity, indoor plumbing, and warm running water, so she made it work. 

After turning off the light, Aster made her way to her bed and got under the covers. She unplugged her phone from its charging port and put in her headphones. She liked to listen to music before she went to sleep. The clock said that it was 12:32 a.m., so Aster figured she would listen to music until 1:00 at which point she would go to sleep.

A frustrating hour and a half passed by and Aster couldn't seem to turn her brain off. She lay in bed restless and staring at the ceiling. She couldn't get the thought of the vigilante turtle out of her head. He was a phenomenon after all. It was only natural that as a human she would have questions and curiosities. As far as she and the rest of the world knew, nothing like him had ever existed before.

Aster pressed her palms to her eyelids and heaved another deep sigh. Agitated, she kicked her blanket off and sat up on the edge of the bed. Maybe I just need some fresh air. She thought to herself. Begrudgingly, she stepped off of the bed and put on a sweatshirt and a pair of shoes. Unlocking her bedroom window, she pulled up on the handle and struggled with it for a few seconds until she was able to open it. It always got jammed. She stepped out onto the fire escape, closing the window behind her to keep the heat inside her room from escaping. Then she climbed her way to the rooftop of the apartment building as cars drove by on the street below. Once on the roof Aster felt a shiver travel through her body and crossed her arms over her chest in an attempt to shield herself from the breeze.