Red Shoes, Black Coffee (Red & Black #2)

13 | Cold feet

Ada

The door handle is moving. 

I lay on my side and watch, horrified, as the door creeps open slowly, just a little. The corridor outside my room is dark but I can still see the figure slipping inside. I want to scream, to call 911, to attack him but am too terrified to do anything other than staring. I pretend to be sleeping as the person crosses the length of the dorm room silently, bypassing me. I wonder if he even knows I'm here. 

My heart gets close to exploding when I realize where they're headed. No. I know what is standing in that corner, resting in its stand. No, I want to scream. No. Anything but it. Not that, not that. 

Not my guitar. 

The strings strum quietly when the person grabs the guitar's neck. The thief stills for a moment and I think he might be glancing over his shoulder at me. I don't move an inch, not even to wipe away the tears silently streaming down my cheeks. The sounds of the guitar being slid out of its stand, - the sounds I know so well, - quiet down after a few moments. With my guitar in hand, the person turns and retreats. He doesn't take anything else on his way to the door. Just my guitar. 

I think my heart is no longer in one piece when the soft click signals the door being closed behind him. The muted sound still resonates in my head when I wake up in the very same room I've been dreaming of. 

I sit up in the bed, so abruptly my head swims. My shirt is soaked with sweat when I lift my back off the mattress. I lift my hair from my shoulders and hold it away from my neck, letting the moisture gathered there cool down. Securing it into a knot with the rubber band I found on my nightstand, I run my hands down my face. 

It was a dream. Just a dream. No one was here tonight but me. I'm safe.

Not exactly, a malicious little voice at the back of my head whispers. I might have imagined someone else's presence in my room but the dream wasn't completely fake. My guitar is really gone. And just four nights ago, somebody was really here. 

Walking. Searching. Touching my things. 

I shudder, suddenly feeling uncomfortable in my own skin. I slide the covers away from my skin carefully, kicking them down until they're bundled at the feet of the bed. Clicking on the small lamp on my nightstand, I grab my phone and dial Levi's number. 

He answers after the fourth ring. "LeviBoskyhowanIepyou." he slurs into the phone. 

"Levi?" My voice sounds small. "Can you come?"

Silence. I wait for a few heartbeats before trying again. "Lev." I hiss. "Wake up."

A muffled thud sounds on the other side. "LeviBoskyhowanI-"

"Levi. It's Ada. Come here. To my dorm. Please." I need to interrupt him before he starts mumbling again. I give him a moment to compose himself before I start yelling again. 

"Ada?" his voice sounds more sober now. "What happened?"

"Nothing." I blink furiously to get rid of the tears gathering in my eyes. "Just come."

"You're asking me to break the rules and invade the girls' dorm in the middle of the night?" I wait for his answer, biting my lip. "Gee. Count me in."

A relieved smile slips onto my lips. "Thank you."

"Be there in ten. Hang on, babe." 

Some twelve minutes later, a knock sounds on my door. Swinging my legs off the bed, I run to the door. I hesitate with my hand on the handle. I know I'm being paranoid but my dream wasn't exactly helpful in letting go of my fears.