8:18am
It was Saturday morning. Arden woke up, got out of bed went into the kitchen and poured herself some orange juice. she sat at the dining table looking out onto the balcony. the apartment she lived in was on almost the highest floor. it was still raining and according to the weathermen on the TV it was gonna stay like this for the rest of September.
Arden got up and walked to her moms room. she opened the door very slowly and as quietly as she could. But when she looked inside, she wasn't there. she looked in the bathroom and the rest of her small apartment but her mother just didn't appear to be home. she wasn't supposed to work morning shifts on Saturday, but she wouldn't have gone anywhere else so she had to have taken someone's shift for them. which means she would be gone all day.
'i guess the house is mine today. not that i'll stay here' Arden thought to herself as she opened the fridge and pulled out some week old toaster strudels.
after Arden had finished eating her strudel she decided to get ready for the day.
Arden walked over to the closet with the towels in it, opened it and grabbed a towel, she closed the closet and walked into the washroom. she turned the shower knob on and got undressed while she was waiting for the water to turn hot. She got into the shower and stood under the hot running water and thought about last night. she thought about Lucy and her weird laugh, maybe she would see Lucy on Monday. she thought about the boy and how weird he was. She didn't even know his name. Maybe she would see him again. she then thought of what he told her. 'grant any wish' she thought, 'what kind of wish does he mean?' 'what can he do for me?' 'i don't need anything, i don't want anything'.
Arden shook her head and tried not to think about it. she washed her hair and body then turned the shower off. She dried herself with her towel then wrapped herself in it. she opened the bathroom door then began to walk to the other side of the apartment to her room.
as she was walking through the living room, a voice stopped her.
"there you are" she heard a boys voice say. She turned her head quickly to where the voice came from then saw him. The boy from last night sitting on her couch. he was smiling.
Surprisingly, in an unusually calm voice Arden began to say something.
"why are you h--" Arden in mid sentance realized she was wearing nothing but a towel and this strange boy she didn't know was suddenly in her house. this situation, Arden realized, was not normal.
"GET OUT!" Arden yelled and ran away holding her towel tightly around her. She entered her room and quickly got dressed into a oversized grey sweater and a pair of leggings. she flipped her hair into a towel, grabbed a shoe from her closet, then slowly walked out of her room and into the living room. she held the shoe out in front of her in defense as she quickly turned toward where he was sitting. But he wasn't there anymore. she looked around the room, but he wasn't anywhere in there.
"an illusion?" she said quietly.
she slowly walked into the kitchen but he wasn't in there either. then she turned her head quickly to turn around when she saw a figure out on the balcony. she looked back and surely enough there he was, sitting at the table outside in the rain. He had his back to her. But there was something different about him this time. he was holding a guitar. he was playing a guitar. She didn't remember seeing a guitar with him when she saw him in the living room, but there must've been one. She couldn't hear it from inside but she assumed he was probably good.
Arden walked up to the sliding glass door and watched him play for a couple seconds. then she slowly opened the door and heard it. it was beautiful. Arden listened to him play for a good thirty seconds. The boy stopped then turned to look at her very quickly, startling her.
