You Were My Sanity

Apartment 102

I knew my best friend. Something was up and I was more than determined to find out.

I woke up to find we had landed. I checked my phone and saw there were no notifications from him.

I brought a new phone as I didn't want to be tracked if my parents decided to go all 'private investigator' on me.

I rubbed my eyes of any remains of sleep and got up when the air hostess said we could remove our seat belts.

After leaving the airport, I called for a taxi.

I paled the luggage in the boot and got in. The guy looked like a rapist, I hope he wasn't one.

I have him the address and after a 25 minute ride, he pulled up. I handed him the cab fare and left the car but just as I was about to grab my bags from the boot, he took off.

This is not happening.

This is not happening.

This is happening...

''Fuck!!'' I whisper-shouted.

Raven lived in an apartment; his neighbourhood didn't seem too bad.

I opened the door and headed for the elevator. Jet lag was beginning to overtake me. I looked for the number 82 and pressed it.

Ding.

I was at the floor I needed to be at. There was no going back now...

I walked up to number 82 and left my fist mid air debating on whether or not I wanted to go in.

I held my breath and decided to man up, knocking on the door.

Knock.

Knock.

Knock.

The door opened revealing a girl around 9 or 10. She looked at me expectantly.

''Erm... Is this where Raven lives?'' I asked nervously.

She's like 9! Why am I so nervous?!

''Oh! Yeah, he's my brother!'' She said enthusiastically.

''Are you Aria?'' I asked remembering him talking about his family countless times before.

She looked at me incredulously. ''Are you a mind reader or something?'' She asked completely dumbfounded.

I chuckled at her cute behaviour ''no, sweetie, he's just talked about you before.'' I said with a genuine smile. It was small, but it was a smile.

''Oh,'' she responded sounding at a loss of words ''uh, Raven's not here right now.''

I frowned, my entire mood going down the drain ''do you know when he'll be back?'' I asked quietly.

''I don't know...'' She said making a thinking face that was pretty adorable.

''Thanks then, see you later Aria!'' I said ruffling her hair.

''Bye'' she waved cheerily and then closed the door as I began walking away.

He wasn't home.

What now?

~*~

Raven

I hopped off my motorbike. How I missed it while I was gone.

I started walking towards the doors of my apartment building when I noticed a girl in the dark.

Like I said, it was dark so I could barely make out a silhouette of her figure but I knew it was a girl.

She was sitting on the floor: I think she was asleep.

Knowing it was dangerous for her to be here all night, I thought I'd wake her and find out what she was doing or where she was heading.

Maybe I could help.

I jogged over to her and squatted in front of her.

I tapped her shoulder.

I did it again.

''Hey!'' I said quietly.

That was all it took for her to shoot up like a spring. She looked around and then her eyes landed on me.

I was in front of her after all.

Her eyes widened as she took in my features, her eyes roaming me up and down.

I got up and smiled, offering her a hand.

She took it and got up too.

Her hand fit perfectly into mine as cliché as that sounded.