insomnia - hemmings au

Chapter 5.

5.

A U R O R A

It was a Friday afternoon, 4:35 to be exact, and I was meeting up with Elle.

Elle waved at me as I entered the coffee shop. I waved back and headed for the counter to order a latte.

"Hello there." She said as I sat beside her on one of the couches while she typed away at her laptop. "Hey." I replied. I tried to peer over her shoulder to see what she was working on.

She pushed me away slightly. "Don't look."

A lady from the counter brought me my latte and set it on the table. Elle closed her laptop with a satisfied sigh.

"And done. Sorry." She said. "It's okay." I replied. "So, what's the plan?" I asked. "Well, Ash suggested this place where it would be good to take pictures. It's a few minutes away from here though." She said. "Okay, I'm game."

With that, she packed up her laptop and I got my latte. We got in her car that was an über safe Volvo and drove for half an hour.

We pulled up into a parking lot a bit later. "We've got to walk." She said as we got out.

We walked in a comfortable silence. Elle's camera was hung over her neck so she took the occasional picture here and there.

The wind blew at my hair and I tucked my hair behind my ear when it did. Click.

"Hey!" I protested. She laughed at me. "What?" She asked. "You can't just take pictures of people like that! What if they look bad?" I argued.

"It's a candid. You're supposed to just let me take pictures when things happen, that's how candids work."

We walked another few blocks when we reached a row of apartment complexes, all of which looked fairly expensive and nice. Well, mostly.

There was one building that was proof of its own old age. Its doors were wooden and worn, its red paint was chipped, the only person that seemed to reside there was a woman at the side of the building drinking from a bottle that could've only contained alcohol.

"There." Elle stopped in her tracks as she pointed at the exact building. She quickly snapped a picture of the woman and headed for the door. "You're kidding, right?" I asked. "No, I'm not. Now, stop being annoying and let's go!"

It smelled like moth balls and old things in the apartment. We jogged across multiple homes and got weird looks but nobody stopped us. We reached the fire escape that looked like those old New York ones that you'd see in movies.

Our feet hit the stairs and made clangy noises as we ran up them. A small pain in my shoulder flared up making me wince. Elle noticed and slowed down slightly. "Are you okay?" Her voice was filled with concern. "Yeah, I'm fine." I reassured her.

We continued running at a slower pace. Eventually, we reached the top of the building. The roof's scent was like a mixture of cigarette smoke and something else. The sun beat down on us and I had to squint.

"Seriously? You know I hate the sun and heat and things of high temperature." I complained. "But you love me more than your hate for those things so deal with it." Elle bit back.

She walked across the roof to the edge of the building. I slowly followed and tried to take in the surroundings. The roof had soda cans and old furniture splayed all over. There was graffiti spray painted on the walls, slowly fading along with the building. In all honesty, it wasn't that ugly. It was actually nice to look at.

The streets of Seattle laid in colorful stripes and zig zags below us and the sky was clear yet the air was windy. People looked like little ants from where I stood and you could see everything. As in, everything.