Amelia's World

Chapter 2

Amelia woke up earlier the next day to a pale blue sky, feeling well rested for once. The sun shining through the branches on the tree outside cast shadows on the cream coloured walls of her bedroom.

Once out of bed she wrapped the robe hanging on the back of her bedroom door around her. After spending some time in the bathroom putting make-up on and brushing her hair she decided that she had time to finally tidy the bedroom, something she should have done several days ago.

She initiated the process by removing the clothes on the bed and throwing them on the floor. She made the bed. With one slap on each pillow she fluffed them up and aligned them, throwing the covers on top. After that it was time to finally get all the clothes back in the wardrobe. She went around and picked them off the floor and the chair, throwing about a third of them in the laundry basket and sticking the rest in the closet. She found Joel's sweater and remembered that she was meant to have given it back to him. She put it aside as she went on sorting the clothes. She even felt spirited enough to fold and sort them accordingly, even hanging some items on the hangers.

The oriental rug was slightly askew, so she corrected it. Lastly she folded one of the blankets and laid it pristinely on the bed, relegating the second one to the hope chest at the end of the bed.

She changed into another sleek skirt and top combination, grabbed an old coffee cup and headed downstairs. While walking around the house, finding the things she needed to bring in her handbag she kept noticing things that needed to be done. A pile of mail had begun gathering on the kitchen island. Bananas that needed to be trashed. Fresh laundry that needed to be folded and put away. She ignored it and stepped out of the house into the morning sun, realizing immediately that it wasn't going to warm her.

After dipping back in for a brief moment, she came out with a jean jacket with faux-fur-lining. She crammed herself into it and flicked her hair out as she made her way across the garden path in the crisp air, walking toward the curb.

When glancing to the right, her eyes had to do a double take. She stopped midway to the curb and to behold a man on a ladder by the abandoned house. He was up by the window of the second floor, sealing it with a plastic coat.

Their eyes met and he smiled.

"Hi!" she let out, feeling overly cheery at the sight of someone taking care of that wreckage of a house.

He stepped off the ladder, and she took a few steps over to his yard, collapsing the tall weeds as she walked. They shook hands. She was closer to the house than she had ever been. She could hear the remaining bees of the summer season hovering by the vines.

"I'm Robin Choi. I just moved in." He smiled sweetly. His eyes were a dark brown, framed by short dark eyelashes.

"You're the one who put up the decorations?" She felt a smile creeping up her cheeks as she took him in. "Sorry! I'm Amelia Reed." A self consciousness rose in her like vapor. She crossed her arms and shifted her weight to the other shoe.

"Yeah." Robin looked down and laughed. "Just some fun in honor of the season." he kept laughing. She would have made him out to be a total dork had he not been so hot.

Her eyes trailed the cracks in the paint on the front of the house; flakes of it were about to fall off. The half-sealed window had a big hole on it, glass shards pointed toward the middle, making a big mouth with sharp teeth.

"It's safe to stay in?"

"Yes." A bashful smile. "It's not as bad as it looks. I've had people over to look at it." he laid his hand flat in front of him, "there's water damage to the first floor, but the basement is alright, so I've set up camp down there for now."