Stumbled In Love [Complete]

9.

Have I lost my last brain cell?

Apparently I must have cause why the fuck did I have my butt parked on the hard floor, sitting against my front door as I ripped open the lid of the ice cream I was about to have for dinner?

Either that boy is one extremely smooth talker or I was fucking bored out of my mind that I was even willing to voluntarily have somewhat of a conversation with my errand boy. I'm betting on the latter. What can I say, being a grump 24X7 can be quite exhausting and I could definitely use a break.

So I gave my very patented sigh, and dug into the ice cream, the spoon just about dropping the dollop of cream on my tongue when the boy across the door spoke up again.

"So are you about to die or something?"

And then I instantly choked practically on nothing but air.

"What the fuck? Where do you come up with this crap?"

"Well, Mrs. Paikarn said you went to the doctor last week and since then you have been giving Mr. Grumpy the Dwarf a run for his money, so...you know..."

"You directly jumped to the conclusion that I was dying?"

"I mean not jumped per se, but I did keep an eye out on the local obituaries just in case I needed to look for another job or something."

"By God dude, do you ever think of anything other than your paycheck? And more importantly should I be concerned about the ice cream sliding down my throat right now? Cause you seem to associate me and death a little too much for my comfort."

"Does it even matter if it is swimming in poison cause it's still bloody delicious. Anyway I am guessing there isn't anything fatally wrong? So I can go back to not treating you all special and stuff?"

"Wait, this is your special treatment?"

"Yup."

"Help! I'm swooning."

His muted chuckle echoed in the empty hallway as we fell silent for a few moments. The only sound exchanged through the intercom were slurps as we kept on lapping up our respective ice creams. Somehow bantering with him always kept me on my toes. Which in turn helped me not spiral down the slide of depression. Weird how this practical stranger seemed to make me not curse out the world for the few minutes I ended up speaking with him.

"So what happened? Why were you hiding in your hobbit hole all week?"

"I..."

My almost default reaction was to snap at him like I usually would have, tell him to shove that question so far up his butt that it bit his tongue for the sheer audacity of trying to pry into my life. Which actually is exhibit A of why I was gloomy, droopy, grumpy, and very much lonely today of all days.

And hence in one of the most uncharacteristic moves of my entire life I did something I thought I wouldn't be caught dead doing. I voluntarily shared something personal with this utter stranger. The word sounded weird and bitter in my mouth even as I thought it.

"I...I...have a brother."

"You are already four times luckier than me then."

"Huh?"

"I only have sisters. 4 to be precise. And two more on the way."

"Woah. Your parents really have been busy huh?"

"Please don't remind me. I spend every waking moment of my life trying to forget that my parents are reincarnated bunnies. Anyway, so you have a brother. We are depressed about that, why?"