The Enchanted

Chapter-4

                                

The next day, it was still a little cold but the wind had mostly subsided. I pulled on a grey sweater and jeans for the day and tied back my long dark hair in a ponytail. I wanted to set up the house today before starting work from tomorrow. Even though I wasn't particularly in the mood to lug about heavy furniture about, I knew if I skipped it now, It would never get done.

Sighing, I rolled up my sleeves and started pushing the sofas around to lay the new carpet I had brought with me. It took me over an hour to just set the living room and I was exhausted. I decided to take a break and went up to my bedroom. Taking a long swig of water, I pulled out my phone.

I had to call my mom today but I decided to do it at night. I had a text from Sabrina saying she was coming over to help me in the evening. Even though I didn't want to rope her in with me, I was still grateful for the extra help.

I must have fallen asleep because when I woke up, it was evening. I tried to get up and nearly fell over as a wave of dizziness shot through me. With a start, I realised I had skipped all my meals today. Dragging myself over to the kitchen, I heated up some pizza.

I was a little worried that I had forgotten about food. I loved to eat and had never skipped a meal before. But I had a lot on my mind lately and ever since coming here, I found I didn't have as much appetite as I used to. I was on my second piece of the pizza when the doorbell rang. My mouth fell open as soon as I opened the door.

It was Sabrina. And behind her was a monstrous pile of stuff she had brought over. Clocks, chairs, cushions and a nightstand were just a few of the things I could make out in the semidarkness. Sabrina herself had her hands full with two shopping bags and she peeked over them to grin at me.

"I knew you'd be impressed but your mouth is literally hanging open. I wish I could reach my phone to record this."

I stared at her.

"What's all this?" I asked.

"Stuff," she said. "For your house. Now are you going to let me in or not? My arms are about to fall off."

"Sabrina, are you okay?" I asked, my voice high. "Where did you even get all this?"

"From home."

I burst out laughing. Sabrina raised her eyebrows at me.

"Wow, I knew you would be impressed by my awesome interior designing skills but now you are totally losing it."

I threw my head back and laughed even harder. It felt good to be laughing. I sank to the floor and wiped my eyes.

"I am just imagining your mom's expression when she sees you have emptied the whole house. Or she might think it was a burglary"

I started laughing again.

Sabrina grinned at me.

"Very funny. But I have actually brought these over from the storeroom. We recently got all my grandfather's gorgeous wood furniture and my mom replaced everything. We were actually looking for some way to get rid of all this so I brought it here."

"I can't keep accepting all this, you know that right?" I said, getting up again.

"Why not?" Her face fell.

"Because I don't have the money to pay for all this and I can't ask my parents for more. I really appreciate you coming here with all this..."

"Phil's furniture isn't enough to furnish the house." she said, interrupting me. "You clearly need all this."

She waved a hand at the huge pile lying on the doorstep.

"And I didn't even ask you to pay. We need more space in the house so I am giving you all this stuff for free, in exchange for you being kind enough to keep it at your place. And I am not having no for an answer."

"But..." I tried to think of some other excuse.

"Besides," she said, leaning in conspiratorially. "I already told my mom I was clearing out the storeroom to help a friend and she got so happy, she hugged me. Now, if I take all this back, I am going to get a beating."

I rolled my eyes at her and she smiled. I tried to tell her to take the stuff back but she didn't listen to me and dragged it all inside herself. She didn't even let me lend a hand, shooing me off into the kitchen whenever I tried to help her.

"No one should leave a pizza in the middle." she said. "Even if it's the frozen kind. That's one of my life mottos."

I laughed and she winked at me.

We spent the rest of the evening exchanging stories and laughing together. Sabrina was way nicer than any friend I ever had. I felt lucky to have made such a great new friend in such a short time. It felt like we had known each other from ages. Sabrina was an only child who lived with her mom. Her dad worked in some other city and came to visit twice every month.

She had lived in Audersbury all her life and knew everyone. She was saving money for college and worked at the garage for she had a way with cars. She had finished high school around the same time as I had, but hadn't gone to college for she had been sick. She really wanted to attend and get a degree.

We were still talking when Sabrina's eyes fell on the clock. She hurried to put on her boots as it was way past eight and she had to get to work soon. I walked her to the door when she whirled around.

"Oh! I forgot. Caleb and I will be coming over tomorrow to help you. I texted him and he agreed."

She waved me goodbye and walked away into the night.