Watching Her

Chapter 11: earlier than I thought

* unedited * Oooooh, thirteen votes and thirteen chapters, thats interesting. Hope you enjoy after I was away for so long. 

My knocks were probably able to be heard throughout the entire building by now, but I did not care. Yet, I heard footsteps, which was at least a somewhat good surprise. After all the searching and asking around for my best friend, teachers had told me she had called in sick. The nurse had blabbed about some kind of allergy acting up, typical in summer.

Just that I knew that Adriana was lucky and did not have any allergies.

That was why I hoped for the best when the door started to open. My breath was about to hitch in my throat when I saw who was standing in front of me.

A girl, her hair in a messy bun, somehow looking out together in some kind of white sleep shorts and an oversized Harvard sweater. On her feet, Hermés sandals in cream, a few scratches on the sides.

Adriana looked at me, her face not exactly making any sense with her skeptic, yet disappointed expression.

"Do I know you?" She asked, a hint of playfulness not being visible as she held the door. I nearly rolled my eyes, then remembered how I had not texted her for the last twelve hours.

"At least you're okay." I huffed out, and her skepticism turned into confusion.

"Uh yeah, maybe if you would've texted me you wouldn't have had to run up here." There it was. The sass that I was feared was gone. The sass that could have turned into fear. But it did not. I had to remind myself of that. 

Yet, now I was standing here. No explanation. No place to hide away. I could not just leave her standing and say, "Nice to see that you're fine, I gotta go now." What was I supposed to do? As if my brain was turned off.

"So, what now? You wanna come inside and tell me what the heck has been going on? I'm not going to chase after you, Celine." Straight forward as always, at least she valued honesty, which was unfortunate in my case. She held the door open for me to come inside and I only hesitated short enough for her not to notice as I did.

Her dorm was as messy as ever. Empty wine glasses on the counter, one of the curtains pushed away from the window, letting the afternoon sun illuminate half of the living room. The TV was playing, some kind of news show on that only Adriana could pretend to be interested in.

The message. I remembered why I had even stood in front of her door just a second ago. 

Was it a good idea to tell her though? 

I should keep some plausible excuses on hand for times like this, but who would expect a stalker to text them? I did not have another choice but to tell her, but I also did not have the words to form the sentences that would tell the story. It sounded like some kind of fairytale gone wrong to be honest. 

Before I could open my mouth, she stopped me, now turned back to me as she leaned against the counter, eyeing me like a mother would eye her child after breaking her favorite vase. I hated this look.

"What? Do I have to ask all the questions now? This isn't some kind of interrogation, you're supposed to tell me about the shit that's going on with you without having to be forced. I'm here to be trusted, not avoided." She took a sip of her tea. I knew she was about to burst.

One thing that would get Adriana mad was exactly that. Avoidance. She would rather have somebody tell her the hard truth than pack it up with a nice bow in a box that would be delivered in weeks. This time, I did not have a bow and a box to wrap it up in and she knew it. I also id not have weeks to find a good excuse that would keep her happy enough. Somewhere, she must have even been glad that I was now forced to spit out everything.