Mesmerized | ✓

14

Robin felt hungry, famished. She craved Yuli or maybe she craved more the way she felt around him. Like the whole world was wide open for her, like there wasn't anything that she wasn't able to do. It had been just two days since their little adventure but she already wanted more. Robin wanted to find herself back in his arms, back in the pure insanity that was his world.

Her parents easily had believed that she had spent the night at her brother's, her cell phone had died and she couldn't have informed them. Thursday, she was able to go through the day without feeling like she was going to die. More than that, she felt amazing. Like she wasn't walking but floating a few feet above the ground instead. Her friends could clearly see that there was something up with her, they could probably guess that she was simply in love.

She spent her classes daydreaming about the party, the glitter, Yuli's lips. Her teachers could be talking about the most interesting of things and still she wouldn't care because Yuli was the only thing on her mind. She didn't know when they would meet again but she knew that it needed to be soon. During the practice each time she was thrown into air, Robin felt like she would leap right into the sky, break through the clouds just live the rest of her life there. She felt ridiculously happy.

But the next day the high ended and once again Robin felt like she was dying. Like every cell in her body longed for Yuli. The fact that he was a murderer didn't even register in her mind as something negative. It was simply a fact that she was willing to not only look past but also accept.

Robin survived the day just going through the motions and ignoring her cheer practice altogether. She knew that one of those days the coach and the captain would conspire together against her to finally kick her out of the team for being so indifferent to the sport and blowing off the practices but the girl couldn't say that she cared about it at that point in time. At home she kept mostly to herself, hidden in her bedroom and pretending to be studying for an important test that was due on Friday which in reality was of no importance to her. Instead of it, she just laid on her bed, staring at the ceiling and listening to melancholic love songs.

The next day was more or less the same with the exception that after school Robin drove straight to Carl's apartment not even caring that her brother would probably not be asleep this time. She had a tunnel vision and there was nothing that could stop her from seeing Yuli. Once she reached the apartment building Robin ignored the elevator and just ran up the few flights of stairs feeling a nervous energy buzzing through her body.

She knocked against the door waiting to see the green eyes she missed so much but this time it was her brother that turned out to be on the other side. He looked even worse than when she had last seen him. His eyes were hollow, red-rimmed as if he had been crying. There were dark circles underneath them indicating that he had trouble sleeping. His hair was greasy, face clearly had not been shaved for a few days and his clothes were wrinkled.

The girl also noticed a faint smell of cigarettes but Robin couldn't bring herself to address any of that as her mind was completely overtaken by other feelings.

"Robin." He said as a way of greeting. "What are you doing here?" Carl cleared his throat and wiped at his eyes.

The girl opened her mouth and closed a few times not knowing what to say. Carl had told her to stay away from Yuli and she didn't want to have him pawing at her. "I just wanted to see my big brother." She said softly with an innocent smile bypassing Carl and walked into the ridiculously small flat that she was almost sure was even smaller than her bedroom back at home.

Carl closed the door behind her and raised his eyebrows. "Don't lie." He said. "You've never visited me before just because you felt like it. Why now?"