RAINDROPS

Chapter 3

Just like that the storm in my head is gone. All I can focus on is this guy sitting on the other side of the room. From the sound of his voice I know it's a guy. I stagger back, grabbing an empty vase in the proces.

He turns on a lamp next to him. It lights up his face and I can see that he's just a boy. He almost seems my age. His hair is light blonde and his eyes are bright blue. The next thing he says surprises me even more.

'You might not want to break my mum's vase. She adores that one.' His voice is still in a whisper, but I'm not scared of him anymore. His mum's vase?

'Who are you?' I ask him.

He looks at me with confusion in his eyes. 'You don't know who I am?' He asks me. 'My dad didn't tell you about me?'

I shake my head telling him no. Now that I think about it I realise I never asked the detective about his family. The thought of him having a son just never came up. 'Is detective Mason your dad?'

He nods, his eyes turning to look at me with concern. 'I didn't mean to scare you, I thought you knew.'

I shake my head again, but slowly I put down the vase and turn toward him. His intentions confuse me and I'm not sure if I should believe him. Why would he be sitting in complete darkness and fully clothed if he lived here?

'What are you doing, sitting here in the dark if you live here?' I confront him.

He looks at me for a second, probably considering if he should answer or not. Eventually he decides to tell me 'I was out with friends and didn't want to wake anybody by turning on the lights.' This time he questions me too. 'What are you doing downstairs?'

It takes me a second to debate whether or not I should answer truthfully. If I'll be living with him, I guess there is really no reason not to.

'I can't sleep, I just keep seeing her die...' I could've said more, but I didn't know really what to say or how to explain.

This just keeps getting more and more awkward. He is still looking at me intently and I avert my eyes to the ground. That's when I notice the glass shards again and I start to panic a bit. How am I going to explain this? It's my first night living here and I've already broken one of their glasses.

He probably noticed me panicking. When I turn around to find something to clean it up with, he is right there next to me. He must have rushed over and he takes my shaking hands in his.

'Hey, don't worry about it, okay? It's not a big deal. I'll tell my mom what happened.' He tells me.

It feels uncomfortable to hold his hands, so I quickly pull them back. And I object to his solution.

'No!' I say. 'I mean, please don't tell them I did it. I don't want them to worry about me, just because I can't sleep.'

He looks at me with concern in his eyes, which is the exact same look his father gave me just ten hours earlier. It's as if he's waiting for me to say more, but I refuse to.

'It's okay, they're not going to think of it as a big deal. But if it makes you feel any better, I'll tell them I broke the glass.' He tells me.

This time I nod, my eyes still glued to the floor. We're still kneeling next to the shards of glass, when I feel his hand moving towards my face. His hands stop moving the second I look up to meet his eyes.

The light blue is very intriguing and I can see them soften while I look at them. Somehow I find myself wanting to do something for him in return, but I have no clue what that could be. For now I decide to keep that in the back of my mind.