Darkwood Falls Paranormal Investigators Book One: The Dead Truth

Chapter Ten

"There are some things you can't share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them." - J.K Rowling, Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone

     I don't know how long I stood outside Nick's door.  I was going over every possible scenario in my head of what could happen.  I pictured him screaming at me and slamming the door in my face.  The most dramatic scenario that popped in my mind was him tossing me over his balcony, and watching me fall to my death.  Yeah, I know; I said it was dramatic.

     I got up the courage and knocked, and it only took a moment before I heard movement behind the door.  I heard the lock unlatch and the door opened slowly.  Nick's blue-green eyes met mine, and I forgot how to speak.

     "Hey," I finally managed to say.

     He took a step back as if I had just unloaded some shocking news that his great-aunt had died.  He glanced around like he was looking to see if someone else was with me.  I guess he was a bit taken aback about having a girl who screamed at him the night before standing on his doorstep.

     "Please don't slam the door in my face," I said quickly.

     He looked even more confused.  "I wasn't going to."

     "Oh," I said, with a sigh of relief.  "Okay, good."

     There was a moment of awkward silence as we stared at each other.

     "Do you need something?" he said.

     "Oh, yeah," I said stupidly.  "Can we talk for a minute?"

     He hesitated, then pushed the door open a little wider.  "Come on in."

     "Thanks," I said, walking past him quickly before he decided to change his mind.

     The layout of Nick's apartment was similar to mine and Brandon's.  The living room led into the small kitchen, then the hallway led down to his bedroom.  I tried not to think of what his bedroom might look like. 

     He didn't have any bookshelves or pictures hanging from the walls like Brandon did, but there was a guitar and amp in the corner of the room, and a Nirvana poster hanging just above them.  There were random clothes thrown around the floor, and there was a plate with half-eaten pizza sitting on the coffee table, as well as several empty cups.  It reminded me of the way I had left my old apartment with Matt.  The whole place also smelled faintly of the cologne he wore, which I realized, I really liked.  I hadn't thought much about it until I was standing in the middle of his living room.

     "Have a seat," he said, gesturing toward a red loveseat in front of a flatscreen TV.

     I did as he said while he made his way around the leftover-food-laden-coffee-table.   I watched him walk around to an old gray armchair, but something by the door caught my eye.  There were several boxes sitting next it marked, "Jackie's Stuff."  I wondered how long they would sit there before he finally gave them to her or threw them out.

     "You do realize you're wearing shorts and it's less than 10 degrees outside, right?" he said.

     "Huh?  Oh . . . " I glanced down at my outfit.

     In my rush to talk to him, I hadn't really cared about what I was wearing, or the temperature outside.  I did look a bit ridiculous.  As he had pointed out, I still had on a pair of PJ shorts, my long black coat, and a pair of black combat boots I had slipped on without tying them.  I slid my coat off, so I looked a little less silly.