I nervously tap my finger on the side of my hip. There's probably a whole lesson in schools about not going to stranger's houses that you've had a total of maybe five phone calls with. Or ones that you don't know their last name, what they do for living or why he needs you to work for him in the first place, but what can I say? That's exactly what I'm going to do.
I knock on the door that is painted an ugly shade of gray. No answer.
Maybe that's for the best. Maybe I should turn around. I mean, I don't even know Nick, yet I'm so trusting with accepting jobs and coming over to his house.
The door has paint chipped and is worn from age. I wonder if the color was always that gross, or did it used to be a decent color? I can't even think about the other option that at one point it was uglier, and it aged like fine wine to become this monstrosity.
I knock on the door again. After a few moments of no answer, I dig into my bag to find my phone. Am I at the right house? If you're freaking out from something not working out, then shouldn't you actually answer the door to work on it?
The address Nick sent me lines up perfectly with this house. My finger hovers over the call button before the door swings open.
The person in front of me is a perfect mash between what I didn't think Nick would look like and exactly what I thought he would look like.
He's wearing sweat-shorts and a black shirt. He smiles a bit as he opens the door just a bit wider. Nothing about him screams serial killer, so I'm going to say it's safe. The only thing I would be vaguely concerned about from appearance is the fact that he's wearing a hat inside while the sun is setting, but to each their own I guess.
"Hey." His voice sounds similar than the one from the phone. I'll take the lack of drastic change as a good thing.
"Hi," I say so softly that I don't think he could have possibly heard me. An awkward quiet falls around us for a moment.
"You are y/n, right?" he asks slowly after neither of us spoke up.
A breath of relief flows out of me. "Yes, Nick?"
His smile grows wider and he laughs. "Come on in."
I walk into the house. To my left there is a small living room and kitchen. There is nothing but an empty wall to my right. The house is pretty dim. There is a single light on in the kitchen to light up the area. It smells like musk covered in Febreze. At least there's an effort, I guess. I wonder what my apartment smells like when people first enter.
"Sorry for the wait," Nick says as he closes the ugly outside door behind him. "I was upstairs."
"It's alright. I was just worried I had the wrong house." I laugh to try to ease the tension.
"Nope, you're in the right spot," he says, turning to go up the stairs, "We can work in my room. It'll be a little quieter."
I nod. What does he mean by quiet? The house seems pretty dead quiet down here.
I follow him up the stairs, noticing a hallway leading off the kitchen. It must be a bigger house than it seems.
Nick leads me down a straight hallway upstairs to the last door on the right. I walked into the room and understood why he wanted to work up here.
The room is pretty clean. Not super 'oh I'm a clean person' kind of clean, but an 'I have someone coming over let's quickly put some stuff away' kind of clean. The bare walls have a single flag above the bed. The bed is messily made, but made nonetheless.
I put my keys down by his desk, which looks like someone tried to make it organized.
"You can sit in the chair or the bed or the floor." Nick gestures to any surface in his room that he can. "Anywhere you wish."
I move my thumb towards the desk. "I think I'll sit where the computer with the code is."
He laughs at himself, realizing what he was saying. I wonder if he seems nervous with all of his guests. His eyes shift towards the door. For a second I question if this is even his house.
I sit in the swivel chair and spin around once. I turn to see the computer sitting in front of me. "Two monitors. Fancy," I say as I drum my fingers on his desk.'
"Oh yeah, it's better for gaming, I guess," he says, raising his arm to scratch the back of his head.
"You game a lot?" I try to latch onto this conversation piece. "Well, obviously why else would I have coded this?"
"Yeah, just a little of a lot." He moves his thumb and pointer finger near each other to show a small amount. "Here, I'll log you in."
Nick reaches over me as he types in the PC's password. I find myself holding my breath in the close proximity. Luckily he types pretty quickly.
He moves out the way and I see the code and Minecraft both pulled up. I nod once, reaching my hand for the cursor. I try to run it once in game just in case.
"Really?" Nick chuckles. "I told you it wasn't working."
I smile over my shoulder. "Just checking."
He scoffs before letting me work in silence. I scroll through the lines and lines of code a couple times, deleting and replacing some things, adding others. I undo them when they don't work.
I don't say a word for five, ten minutes. Nick stands quietly behind me for the first bit, but as we approach the twenty minute mark, he decides to sit on his bed.
I shake my head once, not understanding where I went wrong with the code. I spin in the swivel chair to face Nick.
He's on his bed, scrolling through his phone. His hat is lopsided against the pillow now. I mean, he's not bad looking. He's better than the creepy stalker perv that I was expecting. I would say he's somewhere around my age, maybe even a little older.
It takes him a second to realize I've turned away from the computer. He sits up straight and fixes his hat. "Did you get it?"
I shake my head slowly and shrug. "I can't figure out what's wrong."
He moves his jaw a couple times as he thinks. He lays back on the bed. "I'm not going to be much help."
I chew the inside of my cheek, unsure of what to do. "Can't you send it to one of your coder friends? It might need some fresh eyes."
"You know what? Let me read through a little bit of it." He nudges his chin in a direction, hinting for me to let him have the chair. I don't mention that he ignored my question about his other friends. Are Gary and Clyde even real?
After so much staring at a computer, I reach my arms behind my head to stretch. My stomach growls. The sushi sounds fantastic right now. I should've asked to come over later after I'd eaten.
I sit on the edge of his bed since there isn't anywhere else to be. I check my phone, noticing a text from Gemma asking where I went with the sushi. I don't answer since I know she would track me and immediately come pick me back up.
But I do kind of need to go pick up my food soon.
"What's the most important part to be reading?" Nick asks over his shoulder to me. "Like that helps with running the game?"
I smile. "Wow, did someone actually listen about specific sections during our lesson?"
He turns to me. "I was occasionally a good student."
I walk over to the computer and point out the specific lines of code. He nods once before inching closer to the computer screen. I can't help but laugh at the little hunchback he became when he went into focus-mode.
My laugh is cut short by the sound of a loud door shutting downstairs.
Nick's back straightens as he mutters something unintelligible. I scan his facial expressions for any sign that he knew someone was going to be here.
"Nick," I say slowly, "what's that?"
He takes a sharp inhale. "That would be my roommate."
My shoulders relax, but I notice he hasn't. My brows furrow. "Is that a bad thing?"
Nick turns himself towards me in the chair. "Umm, he can't know you're here."
I scoff. "Why not?"
He's quiet. It's a familiar quiet that I recognize from the phone. It's the same from when he isn't going to say something about his personal life.
I grab my phone from his bed. For some reason I find myself tiptoeing around like I'm hiding from an ax murderer, which I kind of feel like I am.
Am I an idiot? Who willingly goes to a stranger's house like this? Only idiots, that's who.
I notice another text from Gemma, and I look back up to Nick. "Well how am I supposed to leave? I got food and my own roommate waiting for me."
He sighs, probably realizing the code isn't getting fixed tonight. "Give me a second."
With that he leaves the room for a couple minutes. The stillness of his bedroom is almost suffocating. The flag on the wall seems to be getting closer and closer as every second passes. I'm chewing my cheek when he finally reappears.
"Okay he went to his room." Nick nods once. "We're in the clear."
I give him a look as I leave the room. I follow him down the narrow hall, which seems weirder than it did the first time I walked down it. The stairs creak and I jump. The whole situation feels unsafe. Probably because I know nothing about Nick or the random roommate that's somewhere on this downstairs floor.
We've reached the bottom of the stairs when a door towards the back of the house opens. I don't think I have ever stood this still in my entire life. Seconds tick by as Nick peeks his head around the corner and gives a thumbs up for an all clear.
Nick opens the door for me, and I shudder once again at the ugly-colored door. I risk a glance behind me to see Nick before I leave, but I actually see something different just a little bit behind him.
It's only the back of his head and it's too far away to be able to identify any closer details, but I am positive there's a tall, blonde man walking away towards a room farther in the back of the house, down a hallway I had ignored earlier. Well, tried to ignore.
I turn my head around to not be obvious that I saw him, especially since he didn't see me. I turn slightly towards the right to get to my car. The hedges at the edge of the house don't allow the front door to see me, but that doesn't block sound.
"Why do you have the front door opened, Nick?" a smooth voice asks.
I pause in my tracks, curious as of to who this mystery person is that I'm not supposed to meet or see or know the real name of.
"Oh, I was just checking for the mail," Nick says as casually as he possibly could. I remember wondering if he would be able to lie his way out of not knowing anything about coding. I now know the answer is no.
"Why would the mail be here at this time? It's night time." The other person scoffs. "You're an idiot."
"You never know." I imagine Nick shrugged with this.
I want to turn around so badly. I want to just get one peek at the person, but I know the fallen leaves will break my trust and expose me.
"Hey, do you know why the neighbor's car is parked right in front of our house?" the person asks.
I cringe, knowing very well that it's my car parked right in front of their house.
"Why would I know?" Nick's getting a little defensive. "I don't talk to them."
The guy yawns. It's one of those obnoxiously loud yawns that you're only really comfortable doing around your close friends. It feels like a breach in privacy to be here. Well, nevermind, it is a breach in privacy to be here.
"If that car is still there in the morning, then I think you should say someth-" The guy's voice is cut off by the sound of a closing door.
I let out a breath of air that I didn't even know I was holding.
I know three things now. One: My code isn't working, and I don't know why. Two: I know what Nick looks like and that he's a decent guy. Three: Nick is hiding something that has to do with that guy.
_ _ _
Gemma glances up from the TV when I walk through the front door with sushi in hand. "Where in the world did you go?"
I take a shaky breath before plopping myself on the couch.
"That bad?" She grabs the take-out bag from me. "What happened?"
I shake my head slowly. "It was just a really weird night."
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
finally a longer chapter with substance.. now how are we feeling about the mystery stranger and just the story in general lmao?
in all honesty, idk how i'm feeling about it right now but i have plans for a good plot so i hope it works out
have an amazing day :)