I sat at the table, just staring ahead of me. I took a sip of the coffee that I was holding, letting the bitter and warm liquid roll down my throat. All I could think about was the cold. The biting cold. And no matter how much of the warm drink I forced down, I couldn't escape the memory of the cold.
It was just a dream. I thought to myself, hoping that by repeating this mantra it would come true. But something deep inside—some wild, primal instinct—told me that it was something much more.
The sun hadn't even risen yet when Thomas emerged from his room. "Alex," he said when he saw me. "What are you doing up?"
"Nightmare. Couldn't sleep," I explained simply, standing up and stretching out my limbs, shaking the tiredness from them. "What about you?"
"I have business to take care of," Thomas responded, his eyes moving elsewhere and focusing on the wall, which I found amusing.
"Can I come?"
Thomas stopped and considered this for a second. He made his decision rather quickly, however. "No."
"What? Come on! Please?" I begged, surprising myself at my sudden desire to go, but I continued on anyway. "I don't know where you go and you never let me follow you. Just this once?"
Thomas didn't seem too amused. "No. I don't follow you to your classes, do I?"
I was at a loss for words for a second. "That's different. You know exactly where I'm going and you know exactly when I'll be back. Sometimes you're gone for days."
"Why do you care so much?" Thomas asked suddenly.
This time, I was at a loss for words for much longer. "I don't know," I said finally. "I just kinda worry about you. Are you in a gang?"
"Wha— no I'm not in a gang!"
"Then what's so important that I can't come?"
"It's dangerous, Alexander. And you wouldn't understand at first. I'll take you one day, I promise. But today is not that day."
I let out a sigh of frustration. "Fine."
A look of amusement lined his unnatural eyes. "You care about me."
"What?"
"You just said that you were worried about me, didn't you?"
"Well, I—"
"It's okay, Alexander," he said, smiling a pleased smile. "Your secret's safe with me."
"That's not very reassuring," I returned.
Thomas smiled and walked up to me. He placed a hand on my arm briefly. Any coldness I felt disappeared the instant I felt his warm palm against the soft fabric of my shirt. "I'll see you later, okay? Don't get into trouble while I'm gone."
"Get into trouble while you're gone? Got it."
Thomas laughed in return. In spite of myself, I felt a smile come over my lips when I heard that sweet sound. I watched him walk past me and close the door gently as I made up my mind. A minute or two passed before I began to trail after him.
I tried to keep out of sight as I followed him through the busy streets of New York City. I hadn't lived here for a while, but it didn't make too long to figure out where he was headed.
There were one or two times where I was sure he had seen me, but I hoped I was able to duck out of the way or disappear into the crowds quickly enough so he didn't notice. Even in the early morning, the streets were still crowded.
Finally, we reached his destination.
He stepped onto the path, and I waited a few minutes before following him. I winced slightly when my feet crunched against the gravel, but Thomas didn't notice. In fact, he was talking to the many birds that seemed to be... following him.
The sky was a light blue now, speckled by orange streaks as the sun started its rise like it did every morning.
I slipped off of the path and moved into the underbrush like a cat hunting its prey, staying as quiet as I could be.
It's important to note that Thomas strayed off the walking trail.
I frowned as I followed him, but as he disappeared into the woods beyond, I lost sight of him.
"Dammit," I cursed under my breath as I emerged and returned to the path. I began to search for him, but it seemed that he had just disappeared from this world entirely. "Where'd you go?" I whispered to myself distractedly.
And that's when I was attacked.
"Who are you?" demanded a voice as I was pushed against a nearby tree, my arm twisted behind my body. I felt something cold pressed against my neck, and with a start, I realized it was a knife.
"What the—?!"
"What are you doing here?!"
"Let go of me!" I exclaimed. "Please, I didn't do anything!"
"You were following him, weren't you?" they demanded. The rough bark of the tree scraped against my skin, and for a second, I thought that whoever this was was going to kill me.
I let my body relax, and their grip on me softened. I brought my foot down on theirs, and they let out a sharp curse and let go of me, dropping their knife. I grabbed it and swiveled around to face them, breathing heavily from the adrenaline racing through my body. My back was pressed against the tree as I studied my attacker.
He was perhaps an inch or two taller than me. His curly hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and he was heavily freckled. He seemed to be fairly young, and he was dressed in a dark blue waistcoat with a white shirt underneath and black breeches.
He crossed his arms and stared at me critically. "You appear to have bested me, human."
"What. The. Fuck."
His eyes lit up and his arms fell to his side. "Oooh! You said a baaaad word!"
"Why the fuck did you just attack me?" If you could even call it that; he had just pushed me against a tree for a couple of seconds.
"I thought you were someone else. But don't worry, you're just a human. Why would I wanna hurt a human?" He held out his hand. "Let's start over. Hi! It's nice to meet you!"
"You just pinned me against a tree."
"I said I was sorry."
"No you didn't!"
"Oh." He frowned. "I'm sorry. Anyway, it's nice to meet you." He held out his hand again and hesitated for a second. "I'm John! And you are?"
"Piss off," I returned before turning and stalking off, forgetting about Thomas.
"That's a funny name," John said as he raced after me and matched his pace with mine. "Y'know, I've never been here before. I'm kinda rebelling against my family, but that's okay. Fuck them! Oh, please don't tell them I said that! They mean everything to me."
I tried my best to ignore him, I really did.
My hands were shoved in my pockets as I started the long walk back to my apartment, and despite my closed off attitude, John didn't seem to want to leave me alone. He was going on about his family or whatever, but I was hardly paying attention.
"What are you doing?" I finally snapped, turning on him.
"Uh, talking? Walking? Breathing? I don't know, what are you doing?"
"Walking home."
"Oh, fun! Well, I'll go with you!"
"Please don't."
"Why not?"
"Well for one, you just attacked me—"
"—And I apologized—"
"And two, the last time I brought someone home, my roommate didn't take it too well."
"Oh. That's not fun. Is he the jealous type?"
"No? I don't know. Maybe? Look, it doesn't matter, okay? Why don't you go home, kid?"
"Don't call me 'kid'. I'm probably millions of years older than you."
I blinked in confusion. "What?" Is he... high?
"And I'm going to make sure you get back to your apartment. Look, you shouldn't stick your nose where it doesn't belong, okay? If I wasn't there to stop you from going through, you could've gotten seriously hurt. You're a human. Your life is limited. It's better for all of us if you never go back there, okay? You can thank— woahwhat'sthat!?" John exclaimed suddenly, cutting himself off.
I looked to see what he was pointing at. "Uh? That's a car?"
"A car..." John murmured slowly, running the word across his tongue as if it were the first time he said the word.
He's definitely high.
As we continued walking home, John seemed utterly fascinated in the daily routine of New York City, as if he had never seen it before. Meanwhile, I was utterly fascinated in the idea of snapping his neck.
"We're here!" I exclaimed, more relieved to see the apartment than I ever had been before. "You can go now."
"No way, Pissoff!"
"What?"
"Isn't that your name?"
"What?! No! My—" I sighed. "My name is Alexander."
"Thaaaaat makes a lot more sense," John said. "Well, hello there Alexander." He held out his hand. "I'm John."
I couldn't fight back the smile any longer, and I accepted his hand, giving him back the knife he had threatened me with earlier. "Alright, alright. What do you want from me?"
He shrugged. "Nothing really."
"You can go now, if you want."
"I don't, so I'll stick with you! I've got some time."
"You're very cheerful, aren't you? Is this a normal thing?"
He hesitated for a second, unsure of what to say. Finally, he replied with, "Yep! I try!"
"You know what, John? I like you. You're weird." And it was the truth. Even though he was rather strange and unpleasant at first, he kind of grew on me in the ten or twenty minutes we've been together.
"I like you too. You're the nicest human I've ever met! Also, the only human I've ever met, but that's okay!"
"So you've never been to New York City before?"
"Nope! I've never been to this world before."
"What do you mean?" I asked as we walked up the stairwell to my apartment.
"Oh, I shouldn't tell you. You're human. You wouldn't understand," he said with the air of a child who had a secret and was flaunting it in your face.
I unlocked the door and held it open for him.
Thomas was sitting on the couch, reading. I'm not sure how he got home before we did, but here he was.
"Hey, Alex," he said without looking up. John froze besides me.
There's no way that Thomas knows John too. Like, the odds are so impossibly slim that he would know the second person I've brought home out of the millions of people who live in New York City.
Right?
Wrong!
"John?" Thomas asked as he looked up, his gaze riddled with confusion.
"Umm... no."
"John."
"I don't know about this 'John' you speak of. My name is... uh, Pissoff."
"Does Eliza know you're here?"
"Umm... about that..."
"What are you doing here?"
"I'm gonna go ahead and assume you two know each other," I said. "Please don't try to kill him?"
"What are y— oh yeah," Thomas said. "I won't, I promise." He turned to look up at John. "You really should not be here."
"Oh? So you're talking to me again?"
Thomas looked hurt for a moment. "I'm sorry, okay? I didn't mean what I said."
"Yeah, well, it still really sucked."
I felt like I had been invited to a friend's house, and they were arguing with their parents while I just sat there awkwardly.
Silence hung heavy in the air.
"John, I'm really sorry, okay?"
John finally softened. "Yeah. Me too." Pause. "Man, Earth is strange!"
"John!" Thomas exclaimed, looking horrified. He was up in a moment and wrapped his hands around John's mouth, staring at me. "You can't stay stuff like that! How much did he tell you?"
"About what?"
Thomas let go of John and took a step back, crossing his arms. "You really need to go back home."
"Do I have to? It's nice here."
A smile came over Thomas' face. "Tell you what. I won't tell anybody you came here if you go home."
"And should I refuse?"
"I'll walk you home myself and tell everyone."
John crossed his arms, like a pouting little child. "Fine. But only if you promise to walk me home anyway."
Thomas smiled in agreement.
I raised my hand. "Yes, what is going on? I'm, like, really lost. You two seem pretty close... so... umm, are you two... dating or something?"
Silence met my words.
"Well you don't have to look so horrified," John informed Thomas.
"Alexander? Do me a favor. Shut your mouth. Never open it again."
Alright. Not dating. Got it.
"Anyway, I'll be back later, okay?" Thomas told me. "C'mon, John. Let's go before Eliza realizes you're gone and Angelica beats the shit out of me."
"That would be fun to watch."
"I'm going to rip out your spleen and feed it to the dogs."
"That's fair! So how do cars work? Can you explain them to me?"
Thomas smiled at me. "I'll see you in a few, okay?"
"Umm, okay?"
The two promptly left, leaving me alone.
And suddenly, I was back to thinking about the dream from the night before and the biting cold.