Without the Truth

Chapter 5

When I woke up the next morning, I was back inside on the couch. I didn't remember walking back down from the roof which made me wonder if it even happened. I pulled myself up and dragged my feet into the kitchen. I found Aviana in the kitchen making scrambled eggs and toast. She served me a plate before dishing up herself and sliding into the chair across from me. She smiled at me and took a bite. Her face scrunched up as she swallowed. "Yikes, these aren't very good," she said with a soft laugh.

"I think they're pretty great, I also don't really try to do anything fancy when I cook, though," I told her, and she laughed again.

"Hey, I've got to run some errands this morning, wanna join me?"

I shrugged. "Why not, I've got nothing else to do today." The next day  I'd need to go back to the office for my internship with the magazine company, but I still had a whole day to kill.

I borrowed some of Aviana's clothes, although they were a little big. She was definitely curvier than I was, but the clothes were better than nothing.

As we walked down the sidewalk on the way to the Farmers Market that was open every Sunday, it almost felt like nothing out of the ordinary had happened in the past two days. Aviana and I were laughing together like old friends, like we hadn't just met yesterday, like someone wasn't trying to kill me.

We bought her groceries and sat down at a little café for lunch. "The salads here are incredible," Aviana mentioned nonchalantly as I flipper through the menu.

I scrunched up my face. "What?" Aviana stared me in the eye and smiled. "Don't tell me you don't like salad."

I closed my eyes and shook my head. "I don't like salad," I added, "or eye contact." Her warm laugh seemed to fill the air around us. "They make me uncomfortable."

"Salad makes you uncomfortable?" She raised an eyebrow me and I couldn't help but smile.

"Yeah, I think its all the veiny stuff or something. Vegetables should not have veins. People have veins."

"Is that so?"

I nodded and set my menu down on the table. "Mhm. Also, the middle part is like celery but... not, ya know? I'm telling you, it ain't natural, that there salad stuff."

"So what are you getting then?"

I glanced down at the menu again. "Well, I should probably tell you that I am very indecisive, and I can't make a decision to save my life."

"Okay fine, just pick an appetizer. I guess not salad, but something else then."

I looked through the appetizer section. "I mean, you can't really go wrong with mozzarella sticks, right?"

She cringed. "You're kidding right?"

"What?"

"Mozzarella sticks? They're disgusting! Its like a wad of rubbery dairy shoved inside a breading to hide how gross it actually is."

The look on my face must have looked incredulous because she mocked me and laughed. "How can you not like mozzarella sticks? Everyone loves mozzarella sticks."

"Not me," she responded with a smirk and I rolled my eyes.

When the waiter came, we both ended up ordering sandwiches before heading back to the apartment.

Having been offered the living room for another night and finding no reason to go home, I slept on the couch again, but once again found myself staring awake at the ceiling. I tried to force myself to sleep for what felt like hours before tip-toeing up to the roof again.