The Silent Letters

Chapter Five.

Esme threw herself from her bed at the sound of her alarm screaming into the room. She felt hungover and groggy as she shut the alarm off from her phone. Her arms ached as she slowly dragged herself from her room into the main part of her apartment, sunlight was filtering through the curtains on the large windows. King sat on the window sill chirping at birds and watching the people that walked below him on the street. Esme fed him more food before grabbing a bottle of water. She retreated back to her room for a very long shower, relishing in the idea of being late after the threats made from both parties yesterday.

She wandered into her wardrobe choosing plain black pants that flowed around her ankle and a simple brown sweater that came with a matching white undershirt. She applied a small layer of makeup, filling her face with the will to live again. Esme spent a few minutes rewrapping her still healing wounds on her hands before deciding it would have to do. She grabbed her bag, phone and kissed King on his fluffy head where he still sat on the window sill people watching. The door clicked locked behind her as she left her apartment, she walked down the stairs slowly wincing in pain. She walked into the cafe, the noise swallowing her as she finally was able to open the old door on her own.

Kim was serving customers with a large smile behind the counter, Esme's order sat on the counter with fresh foam still sitting on the top. She walked over to the counter with a small smile but Kim just waved at her weakly. "Kim please."

"Can we talk this afternoon?" Kim turned to her with desperation showing on her face. "Of course we can."

She grabbed the drink that Kim had nudged closer to her before she moved away to continue serving other customers. "Thank you." Esme called out as she left the cafe, pulling the glass door open with a wince at the contact on her hands and the strain on her arm muscles.

Once outside she came face to face with Alice standing against a sleek black car that was parked against the curb. She had her phone in her hands but her gaze drifted upwards at the sound of Esme stepping down onto the street from the cafe stairs. "Thought you were never going to leave that little apartment of yours."

"You waited here?" Esme checked the time, gasping at the fact that Alice had waited well over 30 minutes for her.

"Of course, I wanted to apologise for yesterday but you are very late for school. So go to school, don't be extremely late."

"Yeah, yeah. You really aren't who I thought you were, Alice."

This comment made Alice push herself off the car, walking closer to Esme until she had her arms wrapped around Esme's waist in a hug, pulling her in closer. She leaned in and Esme couldn't stop herself from inhaling deeply as the scent of Alice covered her. "And who exactly did you think I was Esme?" She whispered into Esme's ear.

Emse fought the effort to breathe in deeply as she replied in a small voice, "I thought you were just going to be passing stranger, a very attractive one that occasionally dragged me down alleyways. But not one that would stay for long."

"Oh, I intend to stay around. Many more alleyways love." She stood back quickly, pushing one of her hands into the pocket of her blazer that was undone and flapping around her waist. She pulled a small piece of paper out from within the pocket, and handed it to Esme with a smirk. "Call me? Now seriously go to school."

Esme took the paper slowly, feeling her face burn up as she turned to take a few steps up the path, leading to her university. She suddenly stopped, pocketed the piece of paper and turned, "You are a very interesting person Alice."

Alice smirked and opened her to reply but was stopped as Esme was pulled to the side and slammed into the cafe walls, with a hand coming to stop between her head and the bricks of the building, halting the collision. "You were warned to be at school today."