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Chapter 2

"So close but so far away."

-Beside You, Five Seconds of Summer

Chapter 2

I lay on the stranger's couch until I saw the sun rise far in the sky and the young woman came downstairs to get ready for work. She appeared to be late, for she was rushing and constantly checking the time. I smiled to myself, because I found people's lives interesting for some reason. Maybe it was because I couldn't participate in anything myself, so most things amazed me these days. When she grabbed her keys and opened the door, I quickly slipped past her so I wouldn't be locked inside all day.

I frowned when I saw the white snow covering the streets and sidewalks. I used to like snow, but the reason it bothered me so much now was because I couldn't feel it. My senses had numbed down, so I couldn't feel warm or cold anymore, nor could I feel my surroundings. Due to the woman's shivers, I assumed it was cold out, but I didn't feel it at all. It always made me sad, wishing I could feel the cold again. The sun was out, though, but I could see from the clouds in the distance that it wouldn't be for long.

The woman drove away in her car, leaving me standing at her front door. I shrugged, then headed back down to the park to find my bench. I spent most of my days there, because many people walked through the lovely park and deep down I hoped that one would talk to me.

Of course, as the day went by, no such thing happened. The funny thing about nature was that the animals, unlike humans, were aware of my presence. I sang to the birds and played around a bit with a stray cat, but none of it sufficed my need for a social encounter. Back when I was still visible, before I died, I liked to avoid talking to people and sat in my room reading English literature, such as Wuthering Heights and Pride and Prejudice. I hadn't been able to read a book in a very long time. A couple years ago, maybe back in 2010, I managed to read the entirety of the first Harry Potter novel over a twelve-year-old's shoulder, but it proved to be so difficult that I didn't try again. They were an excruciatingly slow reader, something that annoyed me terribly and I didn't want to suffer through it once more, never again.

When you were stuck between life and death and did not have the ability to do anything, time passed relatively quickly. Soon, the snow was falling from the sky, the sun was no longer visible and it was slightly dark out from the weather, even though I knew it could have only been late afternoon. People no longer walked through the park, because I was sure that it was absolutely freezing and only a crazy person would be out in this cold.

I looked down, to the right, of the path in front of me, and noticed a figure walking this way. Well, not towards me specifically, but I knew they would pass my bench. They were coated up, beanie and all, hands shoved in pockets. I wondered why they were out and continued to watch them with curiosity. I mean, I understood most of the modern human ways by now, but this was quite ridiculous.

The person looked up, who I now saw to be a young adult man, of around either late teens or early twenties. He was heart-flutteringly attractive; even from this distance I could see the tangle of dark curls on his head, slipping out from underneath his beanie, blowing slightly in the wind. His cheeks were flushed from the cold and now he was hardly fifteen metres away. To my complete and utter surprise, he stopped right in front of me.

"What the hell are you doing dressed like that out here in this freezing weather?" he scolded, brushing curls away from his face to reveal shocked bright green eyes. I couldn't reply to him, I didn't know what to say. He was speaking to me. Which meant he could see me. Which meant that I wasn't alone, after almost a hundred years of waiting. "Don't just sit there goggling at me, say something!" he demanded, but he didn't sound harsh. He sounded like someone who cared about the wellbeing of a girl sitting alone on a park bench in the snow.