How It All Started

FRITZ'S APARTMENT

CHAPTER 3
FRITZ'S APARTMENT
We entered the apartment. Fritz gave me a quick tour of the whole place. There were two rooms each
having a bathroom in them, and one tiny kitchen. There wasn't much furniture. Actually, no furniture at all
except one double bed in one of the room and a two persons dinner table in the kitchen next to the
counter. Man, I started to think that this guy was a minimalist. But here is the thing, the place didn't look
way too small, or bad in anyway. It looked really comfortable, unlike my house.
My house, or should I say my parents' house, or the place where I grew up. Yeah that sounds alot better.
The house where I grew up was huge. That place had a entrance door that was made out of glass with a
wooden frame. Apparently, it had five to six rooms and a big kitchen. But I was never happy there, infact,
I never liked that place. It was like a prison cell for me. I had the smallest room there and my sister had
the largest one. She had painted the walls of her room pink. I know this because a few years ago, when I
was eleven, or maybe twelve, I did something. I don't really remember what I did, but it was unpleasant
to my family as usual. Because of that, my brother grabbed me from the front of my shirt and held me up,
about one foot from the ground. I was suffocating but he didn't let go, instead he punched me really hard
on the face. The pain was real, my heart was beating fast. There was nothing but pure terror in my eyes.
He let go of me, and I fell, head smashed to the floor. Before I could be knocked out, I looked to the left,
and that is when I saw it. I was lying on the ground right in front of my sister's room. Luckily, the door to
her room was open, and that was the first and the last time I ever peeked into her room. To come to think
of it now, it was the first time that I had ever looked into anyone's room.
Like I said, my family really hates me, that's the reason they never let me walk around in the house. I
used to stay in my room the whole day. It was totally insane. I would go to school, and from there straight
to my room. I know it sounds weird, but that's how it was. If you enter that house, my room would be the
first room that you'll see. It was kind of separated from the rest of the house.
There was a dinner table in the kitchen, I remember that because I used to eat there sometimes.
Whenever some guests arrived, my mom would call me, and we would all eat there together, and
pretend to be a 'family'.
Now that I'm here, at Fritz's place, I think that, no, you know what? I know that this is not going to happen
here at least. I was just staring at his whole apartment from wall to wall with astonishment. This was the
first time that someone ever brought me with themselves and let me take a look at the place where they
lived, their home. I shook my head and turned to Fritz. He was frowning and staring me in a really
creepy way. Then all of a sudden his face expressions changed and he made a funny sound and started
laughing. I like his laugh. Its sweet and innocent.
"Oh my, you should've looked at yourself, you were looking at this place as if you've found some
treasure" said Fritz.
That wasn't surprising I thought. It was true, I was looking at his place like I haven't seen anything like
that before. It was precious to me.
"Its really--um--really a nice place." I said. As I had nothing else to say.
There was silence after I had finished what I said.
"Hey Marc, it's alright, you can share whatever you like with me. Do whatever you want. There is no one
who can stop you now."
He then turned away and went to the kitchen. He took some bread out of one of his cabinet and started
making a sandwich. I looked at him and smiled.
I don't know how, but man, this Fritz dude, seems to know everything. He knows what you're thinking, he
will know what you want. He is an amazing person. I wonder how he does that.
I sat at the dinner table. 'That was a little weird' I thought but there was nothing to worry about. I lowered
my head like I did every time when my mom would yell at me. Fritz seems like a good person, even
though it has been only a few hours that I've spent with him. I just know it because I never felt
comfortable with anyone around me ever in my life, like I did now. This feeling I have, I'm certain of it.
Fritz and I are going to stick together for a long time.
I turned my head again to the side where Fritz was making sandwiches, behind the counter. He waved at
me with a huge grin on his face "Hey Marc, lunch is ready!"
We sat down on that two seated dinner table, it wasn't too small, it was perfect for us two. He had
arranged the table with a plate of sandwiches and a glass of apple juice on either side of the table. The
whole time Fritz kept talking about himself, about what he owns, what he likes the most, and his favorite
food and stuff like that.
I ate one of the sandwich and took a sip of my drink, and a second later I again lowered my head and put
the other sandwich on the plate. I held my fingers against my head and let my blonde hair to fall down
and cover my face. My eyes started tearing up, I didn't wanted him to see me that way.
Fritz didn't notice me, he continued with his talk, and was giggling. I never felt loved like I did now. I
wasn't dreaming. This was true, someone really did care about me. After all I had gone through, I had
finally made a friend. Or was there a catch? No, there can't be something like that. I'm not dreaming, it is
real, Fritz is a nice person and he would never do something like that, I thought. I don't know why but I
couldn't hold back my tears any longer, it turned into a sob.
Fritz was in shock, he came up to me, he held my hand. I don't know how and when this happened, a
few moments ago he was eating and cracking jokes and laughing all by himself. I still didn't make any
eye contact with him. I could feel that he is looking in my eyes and feeling sorry and he wants to make
me feel better. He sat on his knees, and held my face in his soft and warm hands and looked at me. He
knitted his brown brows and said, " Don't cry Marc. Tell me, what is wrong? Did I do something wrong?"
He knew why I was crying but he kept making up stuff, just to take my mind away from it all. I could see
something in his eyes, the look in his eyes told me that he was hiding something from me. But what
could it be? There was too much left to know about him. We only met just sometime ago. I knew nothing
about him, he knew nothing about me. There was a long way to go.
"Did you not like the sandwich I made for you? Or was it the apple juice? Man, I should've known you don't like apples, I should've let you have some of the orange juice."
I was too absorbed in my thoughts to even care about anything he said. He let go of my face, got up and
took a deep breath. I could see from the corner of my eye that he was standing there and looking down
at me, thinking of a way to stop me from crying.
I got up, and decided to take the opposite side of where Fritz was standing. He quickly grabbed my arm,
he was fast. He turned me towards himself in a very delicate way. He licked his lips, sighed, raised his
eyebrows, opened his mouth and was just about to say something. "Look Marc, I know how you feel like
but--"
I didn't let him finish what he was saying, instead, I just made him let go of my arm and went straight at
him and hugged him. I just couldn't stop myself from doing it. It was kind of my way of saying 'thank you'.
He put one of his hand on my head, and the other on my back. I could feel that he was smiling at me.