Carter
27.
The sound of my phone ringing made me groan. I squeezed my eyes closed and rolled onto my side, away from the incessant buzzing. As hard as I had tried to will sleep to come, I could only feel the restlessness dig deeper.
The buzzing continued, seemingly endless, and I reluctantly turned back to silence it. Only, I caught the name before I could follow through.
Hazel.
I sat up straight and pressed the phone to my ear.
"Hazel? Why are you calling me?" I had to force the hardness into my voice, to keep any concern I felt at bay.
What didn't make me feel any better was that it was past midnight.
Only, a voice reminded me.
Why was Hazel calling me so late? Was there something wrong?
My mind raced as I thought about what danger she could be in, but I was fairly certain that I already knew. With the sound of Hazel's frightened voice, and remembering the last time I had heard it, it wasn't hard to tell.
"Someone broke into my apartment," she said quietly, voicing those exact thoughts. "A-Again."
The line grew quiet as Hazel took a deep breath. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean—I shouldn't have bothered you. I just needed to tell someone."
"Where's your apartment?" I asked quickly, before she could hang up.
"What—why?"
"Where is it?" I repeated, the words harsher than I had intended.
Silence fell over the phone, until, finally, Hazel said,
"Okay, fine."
Once she had given me her address, I stood from my place on the bed and quickly pulled on a shirt, saying,
"Don't go anywhere, I'm coming over."
I took the short trip across Manhattan to get to Hazel's complex. I could feel the heat of anxiety begin to take root in my chest as I parked, glancing up at the tall building and then to the busy street behind me.
Why was I even doing this? Why did I care? Surely, I could walk back to my car and not think twice about Hazel.
If that was true, then why couldn't I keep her image from my mind? I couldn't stop thinking about her.
Room 308 wasn't hard to miss. The door was left ajar, and one peek inside told me that I was most definitely in the right place. My eyes swept the room—it was like a tornado had come through—with broken glass to litter the floor, furniture knocked over and even more contents strewn the farther I walked inside.
There was no sign of Hazel at first, the apartment nearly silent except for the sound of a ticking clock. I held my breath with the two rooms I passed down a smaller, narrow hallway—but they were only a pantry and a bathroom, and clearly unoccupied.
The last door on the left was my only other option, and I strode toward it. To my relief, Hazel was inside, but her back was to me.
I took a step closer and called her name.
Hazel yelped in surprise at the sound of my voice, spun around quickly to face me, but stumbled forward, and would have fallen if it weren't for my quick movements and my arm that reached out to catch her.
I didn't pull away at first as I steadied Hazel, and was very aware of my hand that was holding the upper part of her back, which was bare and smooth underneath my fingers.
"Are you okay?" I asked slowly,
"S-Sorry," Hazel spoke, backing away from me. Her cheeks were a light shade of pink. "I thought you were an intruder."
Looking away from me embarrassedly, it was then that I took notice of Hazel's outfit, which was a long, flowing black dress that dipped lower around her neckline and around her shoulders. She had on nude heels to match.
Even in Hazel's distraught, embarrassed appearance, I couldn't bring myself to take my eyes away.
"I can't believe you actually came," she said quietly with a shake of her head. "My apartment's usually not—I'm not usually like this; I have no idea what happened. I'm sorry you have to see."
I laughed lightly at the sound of the nervousness in Hazel's voice, but whether it was because of me or her apartment, I couldn't fully tell.
Still, I said, "you didn't see anything?"
"I came home and it was like this," she replied. "The same as the other times."
A frown made its way to my lips, and I turned from Hazel to glance around what I could only assume to be her bedroom.
It was easily the worst of all the rooms, with clothes and pictures scattered across the floor, bedsheets torn and pillows that were ripped and lost their stuffing. It seemed there was nothing left untouched.
"What am I supposed to do?" Hazel asked. She turned her back to me and dropped to her knees.
For a moment, I watched as she began to gather glass pieces into her hand, only to drop them and move toward the clothes.
I came around to the other side of Hazel, making her startle and look up at me as I joined her on the floor.
"What are you doing?" She asked, her stare locking on me. Even though I wasn't looking at Hazel, I could feel it as I began to help her through the mess on the floor.
"What does it look like?" I said after a beat of silence, my voice lowered.
Hazel didn't say anything after that, and immediately felt the guilt fill me with those instinctive, cool words. An apology was on the edge of my tongue, but I couldn't bring myself to say it.
Instead, I glared at the ground and did my best to push the feeling away.
As I did so, a thought filled my head, one that brought warmth into my skin as I brought my gaze back to Hazel. One more time couldn't possibly hurt anything. Hesitating, I spilled the contents that I had picked up back onto the ground. Hazel looked up at me.
Nothing was going happen. I could make sure of that, easily.
"Come stay with me." I said quickly, before I could think to back out.
"Mr. Wright—?" Hazel's eyes flew up to mine.
I stood to my feet without giving her enough time to finish what she was going to say, and made my way towards the door.
"I'm okay to stay here for the night, I-I just think I'm gonna have to find a new apartment. I didn't want to, but it's probably not the..."
"Hazel."
Her gaze snapped up to my face with the sound of her name, lips pursed and her cheeks burning with embarrassment.
Hesitantly, Hazel replied with,
"Will you let me pack a bag first?"
• • •
I kept my eyes fixed on the road so that Hazel couldn't see my racing thoughts. Second thoughts that blinded and gave me no chance in hiding them. I didn't even want to try.
My mind was screaming for me to turn this offer back around and send Hazel back to her apartment, my hands practically shaking as they clung to the steering wheel. Could taste the familiar, bitter taste of fear that made my mouth go dry.
Thankfully, Hazel wasn't looking at me, with her gaze turned toward the car window. What was she thinking about?
Too soon, we were home and could feel my heart as it began to beat out of my chest as I led Hazel up the familiar set of concrete steps.
Inside, the warmth instantly felt like a relief, but with the company beside me, the feeling was short-lived.
"I'll go get some blankets—you can have the couch again."
I turned away before I could see Hazel answer a quiet, "okay," my steps heavy as I pushed myself up the stairs and to the safety of my bedroom. For a moment, I leaned up against the door just to catch my breath. I needed my heart to slow before I could face Hazel again.
Nothing's going to happen, I kept reminding myself.
But Hazel now knows where you live. My only safe-haven ruined.
With a deep and shaky breath, I gathered the blankets from the closet outside my room and made my way back to Hazel.
She wouldn't hurt me. Those words became a chant inside my head, became softer when Hazel's curled up form came into view. My first thought was that she must've fallen asleep, slowed my steps to keep them quiet, but when I came around the edge of the couch, Hazel's tired eyes looked up at me.
She sat up with an small, embarrassed smile. "Thank you."
I nodded. "Goodnight, Hazel."
As I went to turn away, her voice stopped me.
"Mr. Wright?"
Her bright eyes studied my face—lit up, as they always did, when she wanted to say something.
"Yeah?"
"How can I pay you back?"
That was not what I'd been expecting, and my brows furrowed. "For what?" I asked. Although, I was pretty sure I knew exactly what Hazel meant.
"For letting me stay here." She replied.
Shaking my head in response, I said, "don't worry about it."
Hazel wanted to say more, but with only a single glare, she remained silent.
I spun away quickly, suddenly eager to be as far away from Hazel as possible.