When It Rains

Chapter 17: A False Alarm

"(Dimitri): 'Luke said we can come but just to make sure we have to stay hidden.  If anything happens, me, you, and Bella will be in the guest bedroom.  Alana will be with Luke in the main room.'" He texted me a half an hour to eight.  The sun was setting and Luke had said Natalie and her friends were going to be there around nine.

As I pulled up to Dimitri's apartment a quarter till eight and he was standing outside waiting.  His black eye was hard to miss as he ran around the car and hopped in the passenger seat.  My stomach had an ever lasting feeling of sickness and hollowness.  "Ready?"  He asked as he hoped in.

"Nope.  But at least we're all in it together."  I answered, my voice sounded a little too wavy for comfort.

"Ryan, it's gonna be fine.  Let's just get it over with."  Bella said having her arms crossed as she looked out the side window.

"Here." I texted Dimitri as we sat in front of his apartment.  He quickly responded by running out to the car as the last bit of daylight drifted off and the strong purple hues took over the sky.

Dimitri eyed Bella who sat in the passenger seat and belligerently hopped in the seat behind her.  As he got in she scoffed and stuck her nose in the air with an awkward smile.

I ignored her comment as she pretended to be upset for God only knows what reason.
Soon enough we pulled up to the same building as before.  This time I worked my way behind the building where a downhill slope went into the parking garage.  As we approached the doors opened and I got in with ease, "Thomas said he could let us in if we were going to 'use a residents key'." I quoted with a smile.

"Oh sweet!"  Dimitri exclaimed as we went into the dirty parking garage.  We wasted no time finding a parking spot and scrambling around to find the stairs.  Soon we made it to the lobby.  This time before night hit, the lights were bright and the blues, cyans, and teals were vibrate and made your eyes dart around the room to look at everything.

As we entered from the stairwell it was on the same wall as the elevator.  The desk sat to our far right against the back wall.  Behind it stood a guy, not much taller than me, with glasses.  I ran up to the desk and greeted Thomas, "Hey!  Been a while!  How's it been?"

"Oh how's it going?  It's been, well, as best as it could be just working desk around here."  He joked.  I chuckled in return, I tried to fight off the sick feeling in my stomach.

"Really seems like a lot of work?" I joked.

"Oh, yeah..." He raised a fury black eyebrow as he gave a higher pitched tone, "I'm so busy filling out the paper work at three in the morning with drunks in my lobby."  He smiled.

He side glanced at Dimitri who was walking up with Bella behind me.  He looked almost offended, "Wha-That's a bit uncalled for."  He argued.

*What? He usually takes a joke like that...? Right?* I questioned realizing he didn't have the same happy-go-lucky aura. It was colder and emptier. Like he was tucking everything in. I eyed him as Thomas continued trying to understand what was going on. He had an odd upset look on his face.

Thomas examined Dimitri's face as if he was memorizing everything.  He had a slight look about him that I couldn't quite read.  It was as if he was 'judging' him as he took in Dimitri's black eye.

"Hey, your not the only one I've had down here." He smiled and looked back down at me.

"Oh, that sounds interesting.  You should catch us up." I asked, intrigued.

Before Thomas could answer Dimitri said behind me, "Ryan, we have to get going."

I turned around to argue but I could see the distrust in his face, he looked almost annoyed.  I decided he was probably right, we didn't know when Natalie was going to show up, we should be ready, "Alright..." I turned back to Thomas who looked like he was almost jumping out of his seat to tell the story, "I'm sorry, Thomas.  Maybe we can catch up another time then?"