Red String, Blue String

Chapter 4

He had probably done his own thinking and he became increasingly quiet throughout the evening, he had wordlessly handed me some fruit before retreating to his room upstairs, he hated me. I should have known, all of this, the kindness, had been a front. I was smarter than this, I should have figured it out. I suddenly had gotten the urge to run, like I always did, but the tickets for the next evening were paid for, and the apartment building in new york had been called. This was still happening, whether I had liked it or not.

* * *

I woke up on Sunday morning after a night of tossing and turning, we ate oatmeal for breakfast and the only sound was that of cars outside, the storm had passed over all together and some of the snow had begun to melt. I could tell, even though I barely knew him, that Theo was racking his brain. We didn't finish eating at the same time.

"I'll drive you to your apartment," he said, breaking the silence. We had briefly talked about how I needed to go there to talk to the superintendent and grab some of my things.

"Okay, thank you." I swallowed my last bite of breakfast and finally plugged my phone into a charger that Theo had lent me the previous day. The cord felt rubbery, which I had never noticed about those types of chargers before, I never thought plugging in a cell phone could be so nerve racking.

My boots had magically made their way into the hall closet, Theo must have found them. I threw on my winter jacket as well, which felt heavy as I realized the gun was still in the pocket and we went out the front door and into Theo's car. sat up in the chair, as I suddenly felt like I needed to impress him with my posture.

He turned on his radio and the fifteen minute car ride felt like it took over an hour, he had never been so quiet before, we pulled into the guest parking lot of my building and I opened the door to swing my legs over and step out. My feet landed in the small amounts of snow that still remained in the freshly cleaned lot. Theo had already begun heading for the front door and I took a couple large steps to join in with his longer strides.

"What floor?"

"The sixth," I replied as I used my key for the main door, he went to the elevator, I assumed to wait for me upstairs, even though I hadn't even told him the apartment number, I tried calling after him but the elevator doors had just closed.

I decided that he needed space anyway and went towards Brian, the superintendent's office. The last time I walked into anyone's office, I was ordered to do the worst thing possible. Ordered to kill the man who was currently walking around upstairs. I shook away the thought, well as much as one could in that case, and knocked on the door. Brian was a nice guy, barely pressed people when they were late on rent. I was still nervous though, my people pleaser and non confrontational tendencies were coming through.

"Luna, hey," he greeted.

"Hi Brian, I have something I need to talk about," I told him and he pulled the door open and welcomed me inside. I sat on the dark purple chair in front of his desk, my mind floated back to when I had first moved in, nearly two years prior, right out of the hospital. I was so scared then, and even two years later, nothing had really changed.

"Something wrong?"

"Oh, not really, I'm just moving out, sorry for the short notice but I've already paid for January."

"Awww, we'll be sad to lose you, anything you need?"

"No, I'll be grabbing everything today and I'll bring you my keys once I'm done," I replied as I shifted my jacket around myself.

"Sounds like a plan, but why are you in such a rush?"

"Getting on a plane tonight," I told him and he seemed surprised.