Ten Days >> Douwe Bob | Wattys2016

Day 2

The next morning, the sound of crisp patter against my window woke me up.

As I stood up in bed and shielded my eyes against the rays of sun letting themselves in through my window, I felt something new and different in the pits of my stomach.

I felt excitement to be facing a new day. A new day with Douwe, of course.

Another clank against my window reminded me that he was already here, throwing stones at my window once again.

"Douwe Bob Posthuma ." I called out, his middle name rolling off of my tongue for some reason. I widely opened the window and looked down at him. "You are going to scratch my window." I laughed, watching as he sheepishly continued to stare at me.

"Sorry Rosie...uh." He stopped to think. Then, giving up, he looked back up at me.

I chuckled.

"You don't know my middle name do you?" I asked, always careful to keep the volume of conversation below dangerous level.

"No." He answered, playing with the stones in his hands. "How do you even know my full name?"

I bit my lip.

"Ten days, Douwe Bob. No questions."

-

I mean, it wasn't as if my mum was going to notice anything different. Now that it was the holidays, she expected me to just stay in my room all day.

It wasn't as if she cared enough to check if I was even alive any more.

So as Douwe held me in his arms for the second time, my worries just melted away.

"Where are we going today?" I asked, eyeing the white vest he was wearing today. Tattoos poked out of his chest and I found it very difficult to look away. I loved them.

"You'll just have to see." He flashed a smile at me, and led me to his black car.

"Fancy." I commented, as he held the passenger door open for me.

"I am a gentleman." He laughed, letting himself in through the driver's side. "A classy cowboy." He chuckled to himself.

The whole car engulfed me into the smell of his cologne, and the smell was so heavenly that I couldn't be happier.

The ride was silent. But not the awkward type of silence. It was just comfortable. I admired his lack of need to ask questions to why my life was just so terrible.

"We're here." Was all he said as he got out of the car and led me up to the front door.

"This is your house right?" I asked awkwardly, as he stuck his key into the keyhole and began to turn it.

"Yeah." He answered, holding the door open for me. He followed, and closed the door behind him.

The first thing that caught my eye was the amount of cans and small boxes of juice and water bottles lined up on the table.

"Douwe what are these?" I asked, taking it all in.

"I planned something for us today. We're going to feed the homeless."

-

"Wait, no pass me another bag." Douwe called out to me, as I threw him another plastic bag.

Half an hour later, we were still filling the bags with equal amounts of food, drink and blankets.

"Did you buy all of this with your own money?" I asked him, feeling bad that I hadn't put much input into this at all.

"It's my dad's" Douwe chuckled, tying up another bag and adding it to the pile. "He doesn't mind though. He does this all the time so just for once, we're doing it for him."