Love Knows No Sides

Chapter 18

At the very bottom there was a boy with steamed glasses, dressed in a warm jacket, whom I saw yesterday with Monika in front of the church. I think his name was Arek, or at least that's how Mateusz introduced him. He was just waving at me, smiling at the same time. I gave him a hostile look, but he just laughed as he continued down the snow-covered street. I let out a long sigh, returning to the activity I had interrupted.

"Who was it?" Alex asked, peering out the partially clean window.

"No one." I said quickly irritated. "You don't need to worry. I'm fine as you see."

"You are fine thanks to me." He sat up in bed and continued to watch me stubbornly.

"What is it, Alex?" I finally asked, because I was already heartily sick of his gaze on my back. I preferred to work without any audience whatsoever.

" Oh... nothing." I didn't see him, but I knew he wanted to tell me something. " Do I bother you?"

"Oh, no. " I objected reluctantly and shyly looked back. He sat and stared at me with that typical smile of his. I quickly looked down and found some oblong shape under the bed. "What's that?"  I asked, turning around and observing the space under the bed all the time. Alex got off the bed and looked under it.

"It's a box ." He said and reached for the box, and despite my curiosity, I went back to polishing the window until he was watching me. "It's a shotgun ." I shuddered at the word "shotgun" and I noticed that Alex was looking at the shotgun he found. The sight shocked me so much that I threw the cloth on the floor and pressed against the window. The German looked at me in surprise, but then understood what was happening to me.

"Hey, it's okay, Maria. You see?" Slowly he put the gun down and approached me. " It's alright." He persuaded, and I slowly calmed down. " You're safe here." I didn't even notice when he wrapped his arms around me and embraced me tenderly. I heard his moderate heartbeat and his hoarse breathing. He smelled of fresh washing, the scent that had always accompanied me in my family home. I lost myself in that scent and hugged him back. I hid my face in his chest and started sobbing. I was surprised. Why I was doing it and I didn't know what happened to me at that moment ...