The Break-In

Chapter 1- Oops

"How long have you been standing there?"
"Longer than you'd like."
As I stand at the strangers window, my arm halfway through the hole in the glass, I turn to look at them. Their eyes are bright even within the darkness of the night. The small amount of light from the street lamp behind them is showing off their shadow. They're tall and slim. I could take them.
"Would you like to explain yourself or should I call the cops now?"
"I'll just be out of your way in a minute, once I uhh.. Get my arm unstuck.."
"Unstuck? You try to break into someone's house, and you got your arm stuck before even entering the house? Who taught you to steal?"
"No one taught me to steal, that would be weird. Can you just help me out?"
"Why would I do that when I can just have the police do it? You're the one committing a crime."
"Look, I'll pay you for the damages on your window, just let me go please. I wouldn't be committing a crime unless I had a good reason, okay?"
"Then explain it to me."
"What?"
"I said explain your reasons. Why are you breaking into my house?"
"I don't have to tell you!"
"I think you do, but again, I can just take out my phone and call-"
"Because I'm poor. I looked into your window and saw no one was home so I thought you might have something valuable for me to sell. I clearly didn't get very far."
"Well sorry to say this, but I'm not exactly rich. The most expensive thing I own is my phone and my furniture, which given your current situation I don't think you'd have been able to carry out my couch."
"Listen, I'm sorry, okay? Just help me get out of this cause my arm is starting to lose feeling."
"I think I'm good just leaving you there, I'm kind of enjoying watching you struggle to get your arm out."
"Really? That's so rude! Do you talk to all women like that? No wonder you live alone."
"Wait a minute, who said that? I could have a roommate!"
"Notice how you said roommate and not girlfriend. Also, I'm gonna assume you don't have a roommate given your response to the current situation."
"Maybe they're away on vacation!"
"Listen you can go back to being alone if you just help me get out of here. I'll drop off the money for the window when I get it, I obviously know where you live."
"Just, let me at least clean up your arm with a first aid-kit. Unless you want to explain this to an ER nurse."
"Fine. Pull out your phone for a flashlight."
"What? You want to be able to see? I thought the whole point of doing this at night was to be blind."
"I don't have time for your sarcasm." As I say this he gently grabs my arm and starts trying to wiggle it out. "Hand me the flashlight so you can use your other hand to help get my arm out." He hands me the flashlight and starts poking at the glass surrounding my arm. He gets one piece loose and it makes just enough room to let my arm escape. "Thank you."
"I'd say no problem but you kinda broke my window so..." he gives a chuckle at his own joke. "Alright, let's get you inside before your arm falls off."
We get inside and he takes me into his bathroom. I sit myself up on the counter and wait for him to return with his first aid kit. He's actually got a nice place. For a split second I think of grabbing something and shoving it in my pocket but he comes back too soon.
"Alright, I'm going to clean you off with a washcloth first so I apologize if this stings or hurts a little."
"How come you're being so polite and nice to me? I mean you were right, I did try to steal from you."
"Even after your comment out there of me speaking poorly to women, I am a nice person. Especially to pretty women like you." He looked down at the floor. He was definitely blushing. Wait a minute, was I blushing? "Plus, you tried to steal from me, you didn't succeed."
I take a deep breath in. Both to distract myself from whatever I was feeling and as a reaction to the searing pain my arm was in.
"Sorry, are you okay?"
"Yeah, it's fine. Just keep going."
"So, do you want to explain yourself any further or...?"
"Not particularly." He looked me in the eyes when I said that for longer than I would have liked.
"I'm trying to understand you, but I just don't get you. You don't seem scared or even nervous."
"It's my super power. Maybe I have a villain complex and I think I'm the one in the right like Robin Hood."
"Wait a minute, you think Robin Hood is the villain?"
"Is he not? He commits crimes for people he thinks are in need, but how do we know those people are actually in need of anything."
"True, but I still don't like that you ruined one of my childhood classics. You seem to be ruining everything for me, huh?"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"First you ruin my peaceful night, then your bloody arm ruined my towel, and now this."
"Alright, I see how it is. But maybe you should have better protection for your house like an alarm system." I wince because as I said that he started putting disinfectant on my arm. It got silent so I looked up from my arm. He was staring at me.
"What's your name?"
"Are you going to file a police report or something?"
"What? No, I just realized within the whole thirty-minutes we have spent arguing I never got your name." He goes back to fixing up my arm and just starts wrapping up my arm.
"Sara."
"I'm Cory. I'd shake your hand but I'd rather not get any more blood on me."
"Ha ha. So are we done here? Can I go back to my life now?"
"Actually I figured you should stay here just so I can make sure your arm doesn't get infected or anything over night. I'm not a doctor but I do know that those injuries are pretty bad."
"If you aren't a doctor then if it gets infected why don't I just go to a doctor?"
"What lie would you tell them to explain this severe of a wound?"
"I don't know, I guess I'd just say I was repairing something in my home and an accident happened."
"You are a terrible liar, you know that?"
"Fine. I will stay here."
"Cool, so you can sleep on the couch, and I will sleep on the floor next to the couch so that you can't escape in the middle of the night."
"Why would I do that when I can just stay here and eat all of your food?" 
"Really? I just bought all of that."
"Well it's your fault for suggesting I stay here. Can I get down now?"
"Oh yeah, here let me help you." He grabs my good arm and helps me down off the counter. It's only once I'm on the ground that I realize how small his bathroom is because we are only a few inches apart. We stare at each other for a few seconds before he finally breaks the silence. "I'm gonna go grab some random clothes of mine for you to sleep in so you aren't wearing bloody clothes covered in glass. You can take a shower or do whatever you need to do, your wrap should be fine to get wet." And with that he exits the room.
I close the door behind him and start to undress, I turn on the shower and wait for the water to get warm. I hear the door knob start to turn when I rush myself into the shower.
He walks in and immediately covers his eyes. "Oh sorry, I didn't think you'd get in that fast."
"You can uncover your eyes, I'm behind the shower curtain."
He slowly moves his hand away from his eyes. "Okay, so there's a t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants here for you, as well as a towel. I'll just be watching tv in the other room. Don't try to leave out the window, especially with your track record." And with that he leaves again.
I take a nice long shower, trying to wash away all of my shame. When I get out I see the clothes sitting on the counter. I put on the sweatpants and realize just how large they are. I noticed he was tall but I was not expecting this. I put on the shirt as well and luckily it isn't as big. I look at myself in the mirror and just kind of stare. My undereyes look like I haven't slept in decades and I realize just now that in the process of breaking the window, some glass ricocheted and hit my face. I rinse my face in the sink trying to make sure all the blood is gone. I wrap up my dirty clothes into a ball and set them on the ground. I take a deep breath and walk out of the bathroom. The first thing I see is Cory in the kitchen in front of the stove.
"Hey, you didn't die in there. You took so long I was scared you bled out." He chuckles.
I laughed along with him, feeling a sense of relief. "No I'm alive. Tired but alive."
"Well I figured you might be hungry so I decided to make some mac and cheese, I hope that's okay. I didn't ask if you had any food allergies."
"No you're fine, I'll eat that." And with that my stomach growled.
"I guess I was right. You want to grab milk and butter out of the fridge for me?"
"Sure." I walk over to his fridge, squeezing past him stirring the noodles. I open the fridge and grab what he asked for, taking in the fact that his fridge is only half filled. I set the milk and butter on the counter next to him and lean against his island. His back is towards me and he's not really paying attention. I take this moment to look around his house. It's pretty spacious for a guy who lives alone. I see over on the other side of the room he has the couch all set up along with his spot on the floor. "You know you don't have to sleep on the floor. You can trust me. I don't plan on leaving in the middle of the night."
"It's cool, I figured we could both use the company, as you so rudely commented outside."
"Sorry, I didn't mean to be rude, I was just kind of in a bad mood."
"Tell me about it." He looks me in the eye with that comment. There's a moment of silent staring until he realizes that he's still cooking, so he goes back to that. I go back to the fridge to see what kind of drinks he has. There isn't much so I decide on water.
"What are you searching for? Cause I don't keep my money in the fridge."
"I was looking for a drink. Where do you keep your cups?"
"In the top right cupboard."
I reach up and grab one out of the cupboard and go to fill it up in the sink.
"Why tap water when there's filtered water in the fridge?"
"Habit I guess." I pour it out and walk to the fridge and wait for the cup to fill.
"Alright so the mac and cheese is done, I will grab us some bowls and forks, and you can grab what you want."
"Forks? You use a fork to eat mac and cheese? Who taught you to eat?"
"Who taught you to eat? You always use a fork when eating mac and cheese!"
"No! You use a spoon! How else do you actually scoop up enough of the noodles?"
"You stab them with the fork like a normal person!"
"Alright if we haven't already established I guess I'm not a normal person."
He looks at me for a moment before saying, "No, no you're not." He turned around and filled his bowl and grabbed himself a fork. After that, he nicely set a spoon in my bowl for me. He walked over to the couch and sat down and started flipping through channels.
I grabbed what I wanted and joined him on the couch. "So what are we watching?"
"Not sure, any suggestions?"
"I wouldn't know what's on tv these days."
"I see, how about I put on Netflix and you can just pick whatever sounds good to you."
"Really? Thanks." I finally picked a movie and we just sat there relaxing for a while. About two-thirds through the movie I heard a rumbling noise. I realized he had fallen asleep and was now snoring. Strangely enough he looked pretty good just sitting there hunched over. I quietly stood up and grabbed his bowl and mine and went to put them in the sink. Other than the movie it was pretty quiet. I looked at a clock and realized it was only eleven o'clock. I walked back over to the couch and sat down at the couch without moving anything too much. A couple minutes passed and I felt the couch shift. I look over and see that Cory was waking up. "Hey, sorry I didn't mean to wake you up."
"No you're good, I didn't mean to fall asleep."
"We can turn off the movie and go to sleep if you want."
"No it's fine, I'll just move to the floor so if I fall asleep again you can have the full couch."
"Okay, but I can't be the only one watching this movie."
"Are you forcing me to stay awake?"
"Maybe, I mean you are the one who said we both needed company."
"You have a point. I'll stay on the couch then." He shifted himself into a different position.
Everything went silent again as we both continued to watch the movie. Once the movie was over we both stretched our arms out a little since we had been sitting in the same positions for so long. He took the remote and paused the credits. "So are you the type of person who needs silence to sleep or do you want to put something on in the background?"
"I'm definitely not a fan of silence. Just put on whatever you want, I'll be right back."
"Okay I'll get comfortable on the floor."
I got up and went to the bathroom. Before I left the bathroom, I saw something in the mirror. I looked at my face and for the first time in a long time, there was actually a smile on my face. I decided to ignore it and just go back into the living room. When I got out there he was on the floor already facing the tv. I tried not to step on him to get to the couch. It stayed silent. We both just layed there for a while with the faint sound of the tv in the background.
"I know I already tried asking you this but, what's your story? I mean, you're a beautiful girl in southern California, you seem pretty smart, and yet you don't seem to have much in your life."
"My story, huh. You make it sound so interesting. The short of it is that I went to college, wound up broke, and couldn't get a job no matter how hard I tried. Well, other than ones that would mean demeaning myself in front of strangers. After my last rejection from a fast food place, I didn't have any money left to keep my rent. So I crashed on a few friends couches here and there. But I still didn't have money for food or hygiene. So I started taking little things from stores. Never money. But earlier this morning I got a call from my friend telling me that I couldn't stay on her couch anymore. She was my last chance, so I thought, I just need somewhere to stay tonight. I was gonna break in and either find some money or find an attic to stay in."
"Do you have any family?" I could hear the sadness in his voice. I could feel his eyebrows furrowing in concern.
"Nope. For most of my life I lived with my grandparents and when they passed that was it. I was in college and they didn't leave me much, and what I did have, I used it on my student loans. I did get my degree by the way, but it obviously didn't help me very much."
"What was your major?"
"Oh I'm not telling you that, that's a whole different story."
"What? How is that a different story?"
"You'll just have to find out, won't you?"
He gave a short laugh and then a soft sigh. Once again, we both went silent. For a moment I thought he'd fallen asleep but I could still hear his breathing. I shifted from my back to my side and found myself just staring at him. Within the dark room I could see a silhouette of his body, he looks muscular. From this angle he has a pretty strong jawline too. I quickly looked away realizing he was shifting towards me. While blankly staring at the tv I could see him in the corner of my eye. This time he was staring at me. Somehow I fell asleep staring at the tv and woke up in the middle of the night. I couldn't feel my arm so it must have fallen asleep. I looked down at it and saw my arm dangling off the couch. But once my arm started waking back up I felt something. A hand. I looked further down and saw that in his sleeping state, he had started to hold my hand.