Beautiful With You (Norman Reedus)

Chapter 18

The next morning I woke up with my head at an odd angle. Drool had dried on my cheek in the middle of the night, causing pieces of my hair to stick to the side of my face. I smacked my lips and went to move my head and hissed as a bolt of pain went through it. I groaned and wiped my face, feeling the hair pull from my skin and push back with the rest of it. I sat up as slowly as possible and rubbed the sleep from my face. Something had made me wake up because it was still early and usually I am able to sleep. It was Poe because he was on the back of the couch in a ball sleeping away. I got up and heard the soft knocking again before some shuffling outside my door and then silence. My heart jumped into my throat and I let my eyes closed, grabbing something close to me and heading towards the door. My breathing picked up as I slowly turned the lock on the doorknob and pulled it open, even though I had a peephole, I kept the chain lock on and peeked out of the door and saw nothing. I closed it and took the chain lock off the door and opened it some more, and looked down both sides of the hallway before I went to close the door, something caught my eye. I looked down to see three colored wrapped objects and a velvet box sitting on top of them. I raised my eyebrow but bent at the knees to pick them up. I stood up and looked back down the hallway and saw no one there. I shrugged and shut the door, having seen my name printed on a tag.

"Weird," I said before closing the door and locking it again.

I moved to set the gifts down and sat on the edge of the couch. I looked to the door and then to them. None of the tags say who they were from and I couldn't even tell by the text because it was typed out. It was like this person tried to conceal who they were and I was kind of afraid to even open them. I automatically eliminated Steph because I figured she would wrap them a little better than they were. It wasn't too bad but it wasn't like a perfect wrap; that is most of the world. I rubbed my forehead and picked up the velvet box. It was the one that wasn't wrapped and I opened the lid, seeing the earrings nestled there and my eyes went wide. They were beautiful and subconsciously my free hand went to the one that I had in. I felt like my eyes were the size of dinner plates when I saw that they were genuine diamonds. I set them down and picked up another one, tearing the paper off the rectangular box and opened the lid I couldn't take my eyes off of it as I ran my finger along the delicate metal and along the Cheshire cat. It was one I had my eye on in the store before everything went down with Norman. I closed the lid and grabbed one of the others and ripped it open seeing Alice and Wonderland the cartoon and I couldn't help but smile. Whoever got these for me, knew that I loved Alice. I set that down and grabbed the last one, pulling the paper off and saw the live action one and tears gathered in the corner of my eyes. My phone buzzed and I looked to it, but I couldn't see. I grabbed my glasses and put them on, pulling the phone closer to me.

"I hope you liked the gifts. I am sorry," the text said and it was from Norman.

I couldn't believe that it was from him, but it all made sense. I remember telling him about how much I loved Alice and that I would love to have both the movies. I licked my lips as I felt more tears starting to gather in my eyes. It was a sweet thought and I just wanted to talk to him again, but I just couldn't. I knew that I had to be polite though and so I just texted him a thank ou and that was it. I didn't want to open up for more conversation and I didn't want to be rude and not thank him for the presents. I set my phone down and curled my legs under me, my eyes going to the presents and the kind gesture touched my heart, but it was marred by the way things had happened between us. I wish that we were in some type of alternate universe and we were dating. That he hadn't met Katrina, but I knew that it wouldn't happen. I also found myself wishing that I didn't even meet him, but then again my mom always said that you meet someone for a reason. I don't know why I met Norman because it was like a bruise to my self-confidence with what happened and Katrina confronting me. Although I did get to meet Andy and I felt like he and I were going to be great friends. He was super nice and he did let me vent to him; although it was about his best friend.