Her life

Part 10: Date

Memories with the right people will always remain priceless.
- Kylen poetry

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30 minutes later the car comes to a stop. You look around seeing that Tom had stopped at the side of a field, a questioning look taking over your face.
It makes Tom chuckle a bit, remembering the first conversation he had with you.

"Don't worry, i'm not going to kill you. Though, we have to walk a bit more to the location." Tom comments.

"Yeah, alright." It's not loud, nonetheless it carries a type of trust in it.
From here on it's just a five minutes walk to the edge of the field, where you will have a beautiful view of the whole city. Nearing the location Tom watches your reaction closely, he wants to savour very moment until you see it, because he just knows you will love it, like he does.
Eyes fully fixated on you, your reaction doesn't disappoint. Eyes going wide with a sparkle in them, mouth falling slightly open and tensed shoulders relaxing.
Tom is particularly happy about the last point, even though he knows you trust him there is something in your past that made it difficult for you to trust people. So he is glad the uneasiness dissolves now.

"It's my favourite spot in the city to come when everything is too much. I hoped you would like it." Toms voice fetches you out of your amazement. You turn to him, smile so wide it can't be missed.
"I love it, that means a lot to me."
Tom leads you to the blanket he laid out before and together you watch the sun going down above the city, turning the sky a gorgeous orange and yellow with specks of pink in it.
The food is delicious as well, chocolate chip pancakes, some fruit and pretzels. It's not a three course menu, sure, but it's perfect. It's perfect for you, because Tom took notice of the smallest things you told him, your love for sunsets only one example, which makes this so special.

The evening is filled with laughter and as the sun had fully set, Tom pulls out his laptop to start a movie, while laying under the stars.
The hours pass too fast. Before you know it it's nearly midnight and you have to leave. Packing everything up and walking back to the car Tom has his arm around your waist the entire way back. He's fulfilled with happiness, he didn't think tonight would go so well, you on the other hand can't decipher the feeling in your stomach. It's a tat bit strange, sort of overwhelming but cheerful, definitely cheerful, over the moon you could dare to say.

Back in the car you break the silence that settled during the walk.
"Thank you, for tonight and everything else... it means really a lot to me," Your gaze shifts from Tom to your lap, recalling yesterday's and the day before that's events. Embarrassment taking over the cheerful feeling. No one ever saw you like this, not your friends, not Noah, not even your parents. So while you are highly embarrassed about it, it means the absolute world to you that he stayed, that he listened without judging you, while knowing you for maybe a week at most.

While you speak Tom started the car and is now back on the road, so without taking his gaze of the road he takes your hand, squeezing it in reassurance.

"It was my pleasure, I had a lot of fun."

The soft music playing in the background makes you sleepy along with Tom's hand tracing circles around your knuckles.

You must have fallen asleep, because without notice you are back at your house with Tom waking you up softly.

"Hey sleepyhead. We're here."

Your only response is a groan, which makes Tom chuckle to himself. He exits the car, going around to the other side and opening the door to you. He unbuckles the seatbelt to lift you up out of the car, taking your bag along with it.
You are merely conscious as Tom lifts you up and your head falls on his shoulder, your feet shuffling across the ground until you reach the door.
With one arm holding you up Tom digs through the bag, searching for a key. He hears you mumble a "side pocket," so he checks there and in fact, there it is.
Tom unlocks the door and walks up to the elevator, up to the floor where your flat is and straight to your bedroom. All the while he is steadying you in your half asleep state.

Successfully placing you down in your bed and making you as comfortable as possible he watches you pass out seconds later.
Tom closes the blinds, writes a small note, switches off the light and closes the door behind him.
With a last look back to your bedroom door he exits the apartment and drives back home.

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The nerv wrecking sound of an alarm brings you out of your peaceful sleep. The sound is shrill and bloody loud, that's definitely not your alarm clock, besides you can't remember that you set your alarm yesterday.
You open your eyes, go out of the room to realize the sound comes from the fire alarm of the building. Your heart sinks to your stomach and you quickly grab shoes, a jacket and your phone, that you see laying next to the coat hook.
Sprinting down the stairs with other people you reach the ground floor.

The sight outside was terrifying. The house next to yours was in flames and slowly drifted to the upper floor of your complex. Red hot flames dancing around the stonewalls of the houses, destroying everything that comes in their way, only leaving ash behind. Mesmerized you watch the scenario in front of you until the sirens of firefighters bring you out of it.
Hundreds of people scramble to get as far away as possible from the burning buildings. The first firefighters pull out tubes to extinguish the fire and paramedics checking up on people who were in the burning building.

Everything happens so fast you can't even process everything and before you know it you are far away from the building, watching in terror as fireman help people out the architecture, paramedics helping people and reporters filming the whole scene. To you it all just feels like a bad movie.
Suddenly your phone rings, bringing you back to reality. You pull it out of your jacket pocket to answer it, voice completely distraught, not bothering to look at the caller id.

"Hello?"

"Lou? Oh god! Are you alright? The news say that your house is in flames!" Tom. It's Tom, sounding just as distressed as you.
Gathering your thoughts, to not beat around the bush.

"Yeah, I'm alright, I'm good. The house next to mine is burning, drifted of to the upper floors to mine, but the fire department seems to have it under control right now." You hear him let out a sigh of relief and almost see him relax on the other side of the phone.

"Oh thank god. Should we pick you up, I have an appointment in an hour because of the shot we did together. I could pick you up right now and we go together?" Tom questions, his voice a little nervous at his declaration.

"I don't want to intrude your meeting, besides I should stay a little longer to see if I can find some information on when we can go back in the building." Your voice is much more collected now, talking with Tom calmed you down pretty well. Waiting for a response you look back to the events in front of you. It appears that the fire is mostly under control and no one is seriously hurt, which is good. The reporters have left the area but still there are a lot of people around, be it firefighters, police officers, residents or doctors.

"Alright, but Luke or I will pick you up when you want to leave and you will stay the night at ours. Just text me." You listen to him speak, voice not panicked anymore, rather strong and commanding, but not in the bad way. The reassuring, promising that everything is gonna be okay way, the way you never thought you would hear again.
Noah and your parents never talked to you that way, it was always so patronisingly, like you meant nothing to them and with your friends you didn't talk about it, afraid you would bother them with your shit.

You ended the call with Tom and make your way around to find someone who can tell you some new information. An hour later without luck you text Tom that you will go to a nearby café and that he or Luke, could pick you up when they have time.
You hadn't had breakfast yet so looking at the delicious choices made your mouth water immediately.
In the end it was the French breakfast, a croissant, marmalade and a hot chocolate, you chose.

The waitress arrives with your food shortly and as she places the plate down a jingle is heard from the door. You turn your face in the direction and are met with coffee brown eyes, a smile plastered onto his face.
Tom.

Tom already saw you through the windows of the small bakery, so when he enters the shop he goes straight to your table to sit down with you, smile on his face as he sees you are unhurt.