The definitely not dull me

The incident that was just. Wrong.

It was two pm when I heard the clicking. Click. Click. Click.

"Good afternoon Grace," he muttered. I could barely make out the words underneath the clicking, good, that way I wouldn't have to reply. His hair was wet which meant he had walked back through the rain. The thunder had stopped but the rain kept at it.

I noticed his boots were coated with mud. I now knew something was wrong. He would never have mud on his shoes. And inside? No something was definitely wrong. I watched as the boots printed marks into the wood floor. Taking the opportunity of his back to me I lifted my gaze to the rest of his body. He was wearing his best jacket that draped to his knees in ragged rips. Wait, ragged rips? His best jacket had rips and tears all down it. Not just anyone's best jacket, but his.

I was scared. The dog was scared. You wouldn't even have to know him to know it wasn't right.

He noticed the tension in the room and turned. Eyes darted. Heads shot down. The dog ran. He just stood there.

The time between his turn towards me and the time he strutted off were gone in a heart beat. I recited the things that had happened. The thunder had come. He had gone. Something had happened. It wasn't good. He would know I knew this and he wouldn't like it. Even though it was only little it was still too much.

For the rest of the evening I sat by the window in my quarter of the building. Discussing this afternoons occurrings. With myself. The definitely not dull me. The thunder had come. He had gone. Something had happened. It wasn't good. His hair was wet, his boots were muddy, his jacket shredded, his stature tense and his eyes puffed. Everything about him was different and I didn't like it. He normally stood tall, proud, cocky, alert and ready. He was now, dropped from a pedis stool so high he had cracked. I was now the strong one.

"Grace!" He screamed. What was wrong. Crap. Had he finally found the dishes. Had the dog finally dobbed me in for my mess after ten years? The bastard. All I knew was everything was about to go wrong and that dog better run. He knew I had seen him in his worst. He was vulnerable. Fragile. Everything he wasn't known to be. Everything I wasn't supposed to see about him. And he didn't like it.

The door to his quarter of the building was open but everything about it read closed.

"Grace!" He bellowed louder from behind the door.

I stood still. Unable to move. I had only been in his quarter once before. And it had gone wrong. All wrong.

A breath was sucked in and then the door was pushed open by my trembling hand.

"Grace!" Again his voice was at top pitch. It wasn't just different. It was alien. The quarter was empty. Completely and utterly empty. The only thing in the room was. Him.

He was bent over in the middle of the quarter. His eyes squinting in pain. The wood floor cracked as I precautiously tip toed through the quarter. I soon broke into a run as he, "Grace," gasped my name.

Reaching him fast his hand wrapped around my wrist and pulled me down to him. Deprived. That was the only word to describe the feeling he gave off. He was deprived of nutrients, sleep, sunlight. But most of all he was deprived of, Love. The one thing he needed. I knew he was not just ill. He was sick. His body was sick to the core. It was the only explanation for the look in those black eyes. Black was a hollow colour in whole but behind it was normally a hint of pride or sarcasm. But here there was nothing.

Today he had been broken.

Today the thunder had come. He had gone. Something had happened. It wasn't good.

Looking around with desperation I found myself recalling the last time I was in his quarter. The way he had looked at me then. The thing behind his black eyes, lust, desperation, longing.

"Grace!" Yes? Oh right. "leave."

He had changed his mind. The empty look was replaced by an in raged anger. He didn't want me here. He had been foolish. He had remembered the way I felt about him. Not the deep love but the hatred. The hatred I felt towards him for what he had done back then and he didn't want my opinion of him to be lowered any further.