Phantom Blood

Phantom Blood [4]

Saffron

The Foolish Sleaze and the Furtive Handyman

I dumped my plate of Spaghetti Bolognaise in the sink wordlessly, leaving dad and Damien still eating, then walked up to my room where I lay on my bed and closed my eyes.

After a moment or so, I heard the branches of a tree in my new neighbor's house scratching against the window beside my bed. Annoyed, I sat up and looked outside. None of the other trees were swaying, the air was completely still, yet it continued to move, then I saw a pair of black and red Converse All Stars.

The shoes were dangling off the side of the tree, and connected to them were a pair of legs, wearing ripped black jeans.

I tried to push my face against the window to see more of the mysterious person in the tree that was stopping me from relaxing, when suddenly, two hands held the branch the legs were resting on and slipped round so a complete body dangled from the tree. It was a boy. He had a head of thick, wild black hair which contrasted beautifully with his smooth, pale skin and was wearing an old, worn grey shirt, blowing frantically in the wind, that was completely unbuttoned and a blue tank top underneath it. Even though I couldn't see all of his face properly as leaves obstructed my view, he was incredibly cute in a mysterious, sexy, dark kind of way.

For a second it looked like he was going to let go and drop, and I was half scared half curious that he was about to commit suicide right in front of me when his indescribably green eyes met mine.

I attempted a smile, but it felt foreign on my lips and faded away. He hesitated on the branch before hauling himself up and slowly making his way through the large tree and stopped on the branch closest to my window.

I carefully opened the window and stared at him for a moment.

'Hello,' he offered, a lopsided grin sitting naturally on his lips.

Hard as I tried, I couldn't return it.

'You must be the new neighbor,' he continued, apparently unaffected by my unfriendly silence.

'Yes,' I said.

'It's nice to meet you,' he replied.

I nodded curtly, 'and you.'

After an awkward silence, I squinted and raised a hand to shade my eyes, the sun had suddenly appeared. He turned to face it, smiling widely.

'Hey, the sun, it doesn't come out often around here...' he told me, his cheeks looking pinker than they had been before.

'Really?' it was more of a statement. When I looked back in his eyes, they were a bland green, no longer anything out of the ordinary. My eyebrows rose in shock as I tried to figure out if I was seeing things. Seeing this reaction seemed to spark something in him or remind him of something important.

'Bye-' he muttered, turning away and climbing down the tree, sliding uncomfortably and falling about two meters from the ground before finally landing painfully with a small shout of pain.

I turned away with a small smile that disappeared as soon as I realized it was there. What a strange guy... I couldn't be sure whether I was happy or disappointed that my bad mood had eventually scared him away. He seemed kind of interesting.

After a few minutes thinking about him, I closed the window again. No longer harboring a need to rest, I took my notebook from my bedside table, a pen, my cell phone and the bag nearest to me. I stuffed them into it and ran downstairs, somehow feeling restless.

Once down, I had to go through the living room before I could go out of the front door.

'Ah, Saffron,' dad called before I had entered the room, probably hearing my heavy footsteps as I approached him. 'Meet Max Page.'