Unravelled

[CHAPTER 29]

CHAPTER 29

Charlotte's POV

Daniel came over at twelve sharp and I was just packing up my things I needed into a small bag pack.

"Hey," I said when I entered the car. He greeted back and off we went to Walmart to get some groceries.

After we got back, it was just after two o' clock. The queue was terribly long and because we got quite an amount of ingredients, we could not use the self-check-out machine.

"Just put those on the counter and I'll be right back," Daniel shouted from the other side of the hallway.

"Alright!" I told him. I let myself into his apartment and I was surprised that he cleaned up very well. I looked over to his table, this time not having the thought of going through whatever he had there in my head. Even if I did, I could not because it was as clean as the air after the rain. In fact it was cleaner than that because it had nothing on it other than his table lamp and a book, probably a journal.

I carried more bags after bags from outside into the apartment. I unloaded the ingredients that were supposed to be kept chilled into the refrigerator and the dried ones on the counter as I was told.

I sat myself on the sofa and pulled out my phone to check for any messages from Andrew. None. I placed my elbow on the arm of the chair and leaned against it. Slowly, my tiredness started to kick in and I felt a sudden wave of drowsiness. My eyes droop and gradually, I fell asleep.

I woke up with a scarf like material blanket brushing against my skin. 'What time was it?' I thought to myself. My ears perked up at the sudden rustling sound from the kitchen.

I moved the blanket to one side and went into the kitchen. As soon as I saw an unfamiliar figure, I hid myself from behind the wall. My eyes wandered around for an object to protect myself but there was nothing.

'Why does Daniel have to clean up for today?' I muttered in my head. I opted to go for something sharp but I guess I had to make do with the copper bowl that Daniel uses to keep his keys. Fortunately, there was not many things inside that would make any sound to reveal my presence. The unfamiliar figure was facing his back to me. From my distance and using my eye level to estimate his height, he would be a couple of centimetres taller than Daniel.

He had golden blonde hair with a crew cut style. He was wearing a black wife beater so I did a quick glance at his exposed skin to see if he had any tattoos so I could have any reference in the future but he had none. I raised the copper pot just above his head when he suddenly turned around. His eyes widened when he sat me clearly surprised. I was about to knock him out cold when I heard the front door open.

"Charlotte? Are you awake?" Daniel's voice echoed through the quiet apartment. The guy in front of me had his hand in a surrender gesture as I heard Daniel's footsteps getting closer. "I'm a friend," the guy said.

"Justin!" Daniel exclaimed when he entered the kitchen.

"Yo Daniel, she was just about to attack me, man," the guy named Justin said moving away from me.

"Who is he?" I asked still not taking my eyes away from him. I could not help but be suspicious of someone I was not informed about beforehand. I had never heard of a 'Justin' and not that I should know everything about Daniel's life but he should have at least told me about him. And by the way he himself had reacted he was undoubtedly surprised by Justin's presence too.

"Er, he's just a friend. Justin, I didn't know you were coming over," Daniel said looking at Justin and then they did a somewhat brother handshake.

"I didn't know too but well, I just did," he said shrugging. He's off, too off. I did not care that Daniel knew this guy. I might be just bias because of his appearance but then again, what do I know?

They exchanged a few words and Justin ended up leaving soon after. "He's weird," I said once Daniel shut the door.

"He's always been like that. Don't be so intimidated by his appearance," he replied.

I brushed off those thoughts and finally agreed with myself that I was probably bias by how he looked.

I helped Daniel chop up the onions and garlics while he heated the pan with drizzled oil. "You're sure you know what you're doing?" I said when he kept adjusting the flame.

"Of course," he said smugly.

I was reassured when the smell of what he was making started to make me hungry. He was now grilling some meat along with the turkey slices we had got. I had peeled the potatoes as asked and it was now being mashed professionally by him after draining them from the boiled salt water. As he was sprinkling the seasoning, I took out the apple pie I made from the oven.

"That smells really good," he said.

"Too bad we can't eat it until the end," I told him.

"But we could," he said suggestively. I stared at him deadpan, "No."

I went ahead and set the tables. Then I started to scoop the food and placed them onto the empty plates.

Dinner was in simple words delectable. We were now on the sofa with Daniel flipping through the channels. "You don't have a single movie that we could watch?" I asked.

"I've already told you for the millionth time, I don't often watch television," he said. I stared at the screen as he kept flipping over and over again.

"You could always rent them. Maybe like some Disney movies would be great," I said without thinking.

He hummed, "Maybe next time I will."

There was a long silence between us when he suddenly said. "You know," he started, "I've got some board games."

"Finally! Something we could do," I said.

"Do you know the rules?" he asked. "Of course I do!" I said. He was putting the pieces in place when the sleeve of his shirt started to rise above his wrist. When it did, he immediately retracted his hand, pulling it down again. It was either he was freezing cold or something was just off. It definitely was not the former because the heater was on.

The second time when he stretched across the board to put the chance and community chest stack, my eyes caught on something. I extended my hand and quickly grabbed it before he could withdraw it. As soon as I caught it, I pushed his sleeves up to his elbows.

It was filled with bruises and obviously fresh. "What's this?" I asked furrowing my eyebrows at it. He snatched his hand away from me and rolled his sleeve back down.

"I didn't know how I got that either. I just woke up with it, must have hit my bedside table or something," he said.

I decided to let this slide only because it was not incredibly wounded but everything about it was just fishy.

~~~~~~~~~~

"Do you have to go back?" he whined. "Yes, it's raining so get your lazy bum up and take me home," I said.

"But I'm tired!" he whined some more. I gave him an eye roll at his childishness. He looked like he was determined to not get up from the sofa so I sighed and said, "Fine, I'll stay the night."

"Great! I'll get some extra pillows in my room," he said and got up as if he was wide awake now.

I followed close behind him and entered his room. I made a beeline straight to his bed and slumped myself on it. "Good night," I grumbled.

"What? No, you're supposed to sleep outside," he exclaimed.

"Too bad," I mumbled.