Fading

Chapter 5

"I'm sorry I wa-" I turned around to find a familiar face.

"Nate? What are you doing here?" I asked confused.

"Alice?" He sounds just as confused as me."And I should be the one asking you that. What are you doing in my house?" 

"Your house? " I asked surprised. "This is your house, you mean this mansion is yours?" 

"I think that's what I said" He says with a flat tone. 

"And it isn't a mansion, it's just a house with more rooms than an average home." He said and I gave him a look. 

"What are you doing here anyways?" He asked again. 

"I live next door and I heard the birds, I thought they were trapped inside so I came to help them." I said pointing towards the box. 

"Oh" He looked at the doves. "They aren't trapped here. A few days ago when I found them in the backyard, one of them was injured so I was trying to help it and the other one just stayed with it. He doesn't fly away. I've tried to keep him on the window a few times but he always flew back to the other one, so I've given up trying." 

"Wow, that's really sweet of you, that you're helping them. And maybe they want to stay together so you shouldn't try to separate them." I smiled at him and he looked away.

I took a closer look at the birds again. They were light grey and delicate brown in color and really beautiful. One of them had a light peach color with a small black patch on its neck. The other one was having a bandage on one of its legs and wings. So the dove with a patch must be the one Nate was talking about. "By the way, how do you know which one is the male?" I asked him. 

"They are mourning dove species so the one having a light pink taint on its neck is the male and the grey one is female." He looked at his watch. "It's their lunch time." 

"Oh wow, how do you know so much about it?" I thought it was the other way around. 

He pointed towards his phone on the couch.

"Of course." I murmured to myself. He googled it of course, how else. 

He went into the kitchen and brought, what seems to me like sunflower seeds and poured them into the bowl in the box. The doves immediately started eating it. 

"They really like these." He said waving the bag full of seeds in front of me. 

"Hmm. By the way, what are their names? " I asked him.

"They don't have names." 

"Why?"

"Because they don't." He said rolling his eyes. I frowned looking at the doves. 

He took in my confused face and sighed. " I don't know, I  didn't think about it I guess." 

"Oh"

"So you should name them, you don't want to call them this bird that bird all the time, right?" I said. 

"Umm I don't know, I'm not really good with names." He looked away as his neck turned slightly pink. 

"Well, I can help you with that, if you want." I smiled.

He stared at me for a while. "Okay." he finally said,"But I need one more favor from you." 

"And what is that?" 

"I'm actually new here. And I need some ideas for something I'm working on, so I need you to show me around. You know, the places where there are less people and more peace."

"I thought this was your house, don't you know the places around here?" I'm confused now, if this is his house he must be knowing more places here than me. 

"Yes it is, but I haven't been here in years. I used to live here when I was younger. Umm..then my dad shifted somewhere else and I had to go with him." he said avoiding my eyes. "I don't remember much about this place now and you live in the neighborhood, so you could help me easily." He shrugged.

"Okay but why would I? I don't even live here, I'm visiting my grandma." I told him. He didn't mention his mother once. I think he's purposely avoiding talking about her and I don't think he would appreciate it if I pry about it ,so I decided to leave it alone for now. 

"At least you've been here a few times, you know more about here than me." He said stepping towards me. "And take it as my forgiveness for ruining my book yesterday." He smirked. 

"Ugh, don't remind me of that again." I whined. I didn't mean to do that yesterday, it was an accident. Is he ever going to stop making me feel guilty about it? I almost sacrificed my muffin for it. 

"Well help me or I'm not forgiving you." He said smirking and walked into the kitchen. 

I get the feeling that he isn't going to let it go. And to be honest I kind of want to be around him too, I don't know why I'm feeling like this. He is still a freaking stranger to me for God's sake. But I want to make a friend around here, I get bored sitting in the house anyway. I can get to explore new places too. Even when something is telling me to run away from him as fast as I can, I went into the kitchen after him.

"Okay fine, I'll show you around." I give in. 

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