I'm yours

Part 16

'That idiot… Why am I even friends with him?' Sebastian was referring to Claude in his thoughts. He actually called him to go out to the club. ‘Fuck off’ seemed as the right answer. First of all, it was 1 in the morning. Second, Sebastian just couldn’t grasp how people can go out in this weather and cold. ‘I must be getting old.’
 It’s a good thing he didn’t have to put up with that shit since college. Well, not as much as before.
Anyway, ever since Claude called, Sebastian couldn’t sleep. He was rolling over on his couch looking for the right position to fall asleep for two hours, but helplessly. At last, he got up to drink water. The bottle from the fridge could do fine.
5 minutes after standing in the dark and slowly drinking while looking through the window, he heard the door opening and… nothing else. ‘The hell?’ Now, he’s not the timid type of person, but this was a little creepy. Good thing the door didn’t creak.
In order to close them, he headed towards them. It ended walking into Beth with her screaming so he quickly turned on the lights. “Beth? Geez, you scared me.”  She was leaned on the wall, breathing shallowly. “That is my line. Why are you here in dark?” her voice was hoarse and her hair messy. “Oh, I see where everything is. And you can’t sleep?” Beth rubbed her eyes and looked at him. With his heart skipping a beat, he noticed she wasn’t wearing glasses. It was quite refreshing to see her eyes without anything in front of them. ‘Where is this coming from?’ Yes, his thoughts were a little disrupted, but it still wasn’t like him to think like that. ‘Whatever.’ “No, I’m just thirsty.” Beth looked away and took a glass from the strainer washer. With amusement in his eyes, Sebastian watched as Beth was filling the glass, with water overrunning the edge, probably because she didn’t see well and then how she drank it in a hip.
After the fourth glass, she put it in the sink and silently said ‘bye’. As she was leaving, Sebastian only then noticed she wasn’t wearing pants and how his shirt reached her knees. She really did look like a kid. Malnourished kid, that is. Even though she was tall and reached his eyes, she lacked meat. ‘My God, you’re sick.’
With finishing his bottle, he filled her again with water, returned to fridge and then he went back to his spinning spot on the couch.

Even without her alarm, Beth woke up at 7. She didn’t want to admit it, but she considered setting the alarm clock as some kind of luck for the next day. As if it’d bring her luck.
She didn’t want to get up yet, because the bed was too comfortable, but she couldn’t lay in it anymore, either.
With the last inhale from the bed, because it was the last time she slept in it, Beth put on glasses, pants and then straighten the linen. While bending over, she felt a huge pressure in her bladder, which made her curse her last night’s drinking.
She stopped herself before storming into the bathroom because she heard shower water running. ‘Almost… Almost.’
‘What if I came in? Holy shit…’ she slapped herself on both cheeks and sighed. ‘Get a grip, Beth, you’re a grown up woman, this is perfectly normal … No, I’m not and no, it isn’t.’ She couldn’t stand anymore, so she sat on the chair and looked at the clock. 6:34 ‘The fuck? Why won’t you let me sleep longer, you fucked up brain?’

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Waking up at 5:30, Sebastian dressed up and went out to buy groceries for lunch and newspapers. At least he managed to sleep for 2 hours, if not less. Unlike some people who were hurrying to their jobs or wherever, he was walking pretty slowly. As much as possible though because his legs didn’t help at all.  At 6:20 he was already in his building.
The good thing was that Mr. Johnson finally came and was unlocking Beth’s door. “Good morning, Mr. Johnson.” Sebastian politely greeted, even though he didn’t like that grouchy geezer. “Oh, Sebastian. Can you give this key to that Eleanor girl when you see it, please? It’s not broken, it works just fine.” The geezer seemed quite happy while handing the key over and Sebastian didn’t intend to ask why. “Elizabeth.” Sebastian corrected him. “What?”, “Her name is Elizabeth.”, “Yeah, whatever. And don’t forget.” Mr. Johnson said and left, stomping loudly with his feet.
 Sebastian shook his head and went inside, left the purchased stuff in the kitchen and went to have a shower, while Beth is still asleep.
‘It’s not a good time to masturbate now, is it?’ he was discussing himself while standing in the cabin, looking at his erection with hot water pouring down his shoulders and back. ‘Well, since it’s already up…’ he decided to give in to his physical desires.
Just as he made three strokes, the sound of his bedroom door opening came to him and he immediately stopped, with his heart beating like crazy. He could hear the oversized slippers dragging over the tiles and then quickly disappearing. ‘Almost… Almost.’
With shaky hands, Sebastian dressed into new, fresh clothes and put a towel over his head. He hasn’t been that nervous in a long time. ‘No, really, when was the last time? Huh…’
“Good morn-” Sebastian wanted to greet her, but got interrupted. “The school is canceled for a week!” Beth enthusiastically shouted and hit Sebastian’s arm with newspapers. “Yes! I’ll get to finish my job! Sorry!” she yelled and apologized for hitting him and then ran to the bathroom. Sebastian was surprised at first because he’s never seen Beth so happy, but then just chuckled and went to make a coffee, completely forgetting about his nervousness.

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Beth sighed in relief because now she didn’t have to worry about finishing the project and studying at the same time. Her smile wasn’t coming off her face.
“You are that happy about cancelling the school?” Sebastian asked her while looking from the newspapers to her. Beth looked up from the crossword she was solving to meet Sebastian’s eyes. “No, I don’t give a damn about school. I just got more free time for my job.” Sebastian stopped reading for a moment. “Wait, where do you work?” he knew that she worked, but didn’t know where. “At home. As a computer programmer.”, “How? Don’t you need higher education for doing something like that?” Beth grinned and hit her temple with her index finger two times. “It’s even that or mom’s genes and homeschooling.”, “Then you really need to love programming.”, “You bet. What’s the other word for happy? 4 letters.”, “Try ‘Beth’.” Sebastian said after a short pause. “Smooth.” Beth jokingly said and giggled. “No, really, what is it?”, “I believe it’s ‘glad’.”, “Thank you.”
Sebastian watched her solving crosswords like it was a child’s play and then got back to reading.
“By the way,” Sebastian suddenly said after 5 minutes of silence, “Mr. Johnson came and left the key.”, “He did? When?”, “Somewhere around 6:25.”, “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”, “I forgot.” After a few seconds of silence and blinking 3 times, Beth simply sighed. “You’re staying for the breakfast, right?” Sebastian asked as if nothing just happened. “Well, I thought that going home and getting off your neck would be better.”, “After breakfast.” Beth put down her glasses and rubbed the root of her nose. It was starting to get into her habit. “Yeah, fine, whatever.” She said and looked into his direction, not sure if looking into his eye, nose or lips. Her sight must’ve gotten worse.
“So… when is the breakfast?” she just had to ask. “Same time as yesterday.” Sebastian calmly said, but it seemed to Beth that she heard a bit of surprise in his voice. ‘Oh, well.’
After stretching and cracking her knuckles, Beth put the glasses on again and continued solving the crosswords.