The Strange Case of the Jackson Building

Chapter 21 - Faith

Chapter Twenty-One

Faith

Her hand was still pretty hurt and aching, so Petra thought it would be useless to go to Campus. Worse, she hadn't slept since her terrifying encounter the night before so she needed to do so in the morning. When she woke up, after lunch time, she was still pretty shaken.

Part of her wanted to dissect the phenomenon and do her usual self-pep talk in which she convinced herself that it had been another one of her vivid nightmares. Another part of her didn't want to go through that again and wanted to not even think about it, not even acknowledge it. She was completely and utterly fed up with it.

After a quick snack, she put on a pair of skinny jeans, a large sweater and a pair of sneakers, only to then devote a lot of time trying to stylish her hair into something less post-traumatic and more feminine and fashionable. After a lot of frustrating failed attempts, she decided to just wear it wild and tomboy-ish. She would definitely need help coming up with some sort of style for it, probably from Olivia or even Natasha.

Her heart ached thinking of both of them. She missed her best friend, who would probably get a pair of scissors and cut it even more, miraculously getting it to look cool and edgy. She also found herself missing Natasha, who was definitely the type of girly girl capable of making anything look pretty.

As it was, it just looked exactly how she felt - ruined.

She shrugged. Nothing she could do about it for now, her heart wasn't in it and she lacked the energy and talent to pull anything off at the moment.

Petra bravely left her apartment anyway, even if she hated her appearance. She needed healing and to be distracted and cheered up so she thought of the boys - while she would love to spend some time with Eli and Kyle, part of her wished only Harry would be there, longing for another afternoon with no conversation, no effort or pressure of any kind, no pleasantries and judgement, only pure and therapeutic distraction.

When she knocked on their door, she was surprised to see a girl opening it. For a moment, she even thought she had knocked on the wrong door. The girl smiled wide, she looked very friendly. Her hair was very long and straight, in a beautiful shade of strawberry blonde. No doubt her best feature, that and her charming smile, since the rest of her was very plain and unremarkable. Her eyes were a common shade of brown, her skin pale but, unlike Petra's, had a very healthy glow and tone to it. She was taller than Petra and also very skinny, dressed very casual yet fashionable. A pretty girl that turned beautiful when she smiled.

"Hey," the girl said in a cheery tone, "are you a friend of Kyle and Eli's? Maybe Harry's?"

"Erm...," Petra stuttered, caught completely off guard. "I'd like to think I'm a friend of the three of them."

"Oh, awesome! Come on in."

Petra obeyed, though wondering if the girl even had the authority to let her in to begin with.

"The boys are in the living room. I was on my way to get drinks. Do you want one?"

"No, no thanks," Petra replied, before making her way to meet the guys.

"Hey, Petra!" Eli cheered.

Petra smiled and greeted them back.

Harry was on his usual spot, playing his addictive game and raised his hand in recognition of her arrival. Eli and Kyle were sitting on the big pillows on the floor, as they usually did, Kyle's guitar in Eli's hand while Kyle seemed to be in the middle of writing something on his notebook.

Eli was smiling at her with kindness, but she could detect a little effort on his part to keep it, for his eyes didn't quite match it. He seemed to be trying to hide an expression of surprise or concern. Kyle, on the other hand, wasn't making any such effort. In a second, upon laying his eyes on her, his expression changed from a genuine smile to surprise, to a look of worry that she'd never seen on him before. It didn't suit the usually happy-go-lucky guy he was meant to be and it made him look on the verge of anger.