The child, the Wild and the Morbidly awkward Introvert

Cora-Stuttering instability

Mina gawked dazedly at me as I swayed weakly on the doorstep.

"Hi!" I wheezed; puffing out a white cloud of smog as I bent forward to kiss the air above her smooth and sweet smelling cheek. "Can I come in?"

She nodded slowly, and then a lot quicker. "Is Sparrow-"

"Thanks." I stepped in and slammed the door shut behind myself before cluttering out of my shoes and jerking rapidly past Alex and his now wildly gawking better half aka Ollie. I blew the gawking people behind me a huge kiss before I made my way to the room that had once been mine.

I halted as I stepped inside the door; taking in the soothing feel  of the turfy green grass-like carpet tickling my tingling toes before a broken little smile lit up my face and I started quickly undressing and changing into a comfortable old flannel nightie I did not realise I had missed until it touched my skin and I almost sighed in relief; amazed at how much comfort this bland, dull skin gave me. A swift knock on the door startled me and I turned as I was winding my hair up into a tight chignon and contemplating rubbing off my dramatic eye liner and mascara.

"Mina?" I stretched my arms that cracked in response as I turned to face her.

She was watching me with a strange, tight grimace on her face that made her mouth look like it was too small to cover her teeth. Her head was cocked slightly and her eyes held an inquisitive gleam, her posture made me want to accept my weakness and come undone but instead I focused on making sure my hair was tightly secured atop my head.

"I lost my job." I finally offered, turning away from her to hide how my face flushed as I forced out the truth. "And I am back, though I understand if you want me to leave and never come back after completely abandoning you guys in favour of my new job and new boss-"

"No-" her warm hands suddenly pressed over mine and she warmly held my gaze, a sweet smile on her face ''-can't explain how glad we are you are back...what would you like for dinner? Those two are headed out to some huge date-thing and I'm going to be home alone but if you're here we can go crazy-"

I laughed almost madly at that and threw back my head, eyes shut. "Yeah I would really love that. We could go wild...you know I haven't gone wild in a very long time and maybe I should do it because not doing it is starting to make me feel very weak and old...far older than I really am and old to my bo-" a sharp rap on the front door made me tense momentarily, eyes flying open as my moment of glory slipped away from me.

"Come in!" Mina called out. "We're upstairs."

There was the sound of countless thump-shuffle sounds and manly yet soft murmours suggesting we were no longer alone. We glanced at each other; had the men brought back friends instead of going out to dinner? Were we expected to play the role of eager hosts?

There was a soft knock on the door and a large policeman with olive-toned skin and faint stubble stood in the doorway with a kindly smile crinkling across his strong face. His eyebrows were pulled tight as he smiled warmly and very politely at us. My breath caught in my throat as I feared for something atrocious and wondered if Mina had called the police because of how I looked.