Word count: 2646
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Tuesday was coming to an end as the sun set behind the horizon. For normal people this would be the perfect time to start thinking about sleeping as they would have work tomorrow.
For you though, this was only the beginning of the day.
The last rays of sun woke you up through the blackout curtains your cat Obsidian, also known as Obi, had rudely moved while jumping off the window still.
You covered your eyes with your hand while letting out a few curse words, but in the end decided it was useless to try to go back to sleep.
You took your phone from the nightstand and turned to your other side, now facing the emptiness of your queen sized bed.
You pulled your blanket over yourself more firmly as you unlocked the phone to reveal the icons of the same social media apps you always used.
You knew you should stop being on your phone so much and actually do something with your life. But what were you supposed to do?
Your parents had always told you to get a real job, art or music weren't ones in their eyes. You saw art and music as an escape from the world, and it was one of the few things keeping you sane at the moment.
While opening up Twitter your cat Obi jumped on the bed to greet you, it was clearly time for his breakfast, or dinner at this hour?
Obi climbed on your side, his soft paws putting pressure on you while he purred and let out a few meows, just in case you didn't notice him already.
"Yeah Obi, I know", you said to the cat as an answer. Since you didn't see much of your friends anymore, Obi had become your best talking buddy. Black cats were usually pretty vocal, and so was Obi.
You didn't know that fact when you decided to get him, but got used to the constant meowing for food or attention.
After browsing through a few more tweets you closed the phone screen, and finally got up from the bed.
You headed for the kitchen, Obi running ahead of you towards his bowl that was currently empty.
"You know, if you didn't eat it all at once you wouldn't have to wake me up to be able to eat", you said to Obi as if he understood you at all before putting some food in his bowl.
Obi started to munch away happily while you walked to the fridge only to realise it was mostly empty when you opened the door.
The bad thing about living alone was that there was nobody that would go shopping for you. Another bad thing was that you were responsible for keeping the apartment clean.
With seasonal depression making your casual depression worse, it was hard to keep everything clean and food in your fridge.
With the fridge empty that would only mean you would have to walk to the nearest store to get something for the night at least.
You knew it was late already and that you shouldn't go outside at this hour alone, but you didn't have any other choice.
Before you were able to leave the comfort of your home you had to sit down for a second and collect some energy to actually go outside.
It would have been so easy to just go back to bed and do nothing all day, but you knew that the hunger would get annoying eventually.
You sat on the kitchen table browsing your phone for a while even after Obi had finished eating, he was now running around the apartment like crazy.
You checked your apps, but there really wasn't anything new, so you just kept going back and forth until you got enough motivation to get up to leave.
You checked out of the living room window and saw it was raining a bit, but not too much for you to take your umbrella with you.
You changed out of the t-shirt and shorts you had worn for the night and put on some of your favorite comfort clothes that fit the weather outside.
After that you put on a black face mask to match the rest of your outfit, after all, there was still a pandemic going on.
You took your keys and wallet before stepping outside and locking the door behind you.
It was already dark and at that moment every horror story you had ever heard in your life came rushing into your brain. You tried to shake off the feeling of being scared and vulnerable, but didn't fully succeed.
Normally you would have turned back, but this time decided to be brave.
You did carry a small pocket knife with you in case you needed to defend yourself, and that was currently the only thing giving you a safe feeling.
The store wasn't that far away from your place. It was only a 15 minute walk from your apartment complex, so an easy trip there and back.
You pulled the jacket hood over your head as you started walking, and you truly hoped it wouldn't start raining more.
Water splashed under your boots as you hit a few puddles while walking. So far it had been about five minutes and everything was going fine.
You came close to your local park that was between you and the shop. Going around it would take longer, but did you really want to risk your life by walking through the dark park.
You didn't have long to think about it because you heard an unusual sound coming from behind you. You quickly turned your head to see if there was anyone walking there, but saw nobody.
There was no way you were imagining that and the sound had to have come from somewhere.
You picked up your walking speed and felt like there was someone behind you doing the same, and you swear you heard footsteps.
As you came to the gates of the park you started running full speed away from whoever or whatever you thought was following you.
Maybe running into the dimly lit park wasn't the best idea, but at least the trees and bushes would give you more cover.
The rain felt harder on your face like it was trying to cut open your skin, but you didn't even think about it at this moment, your only goal was to run.
The mask over your face was giving you some trouble since you were breathing heavily, you could only hope you wouldn't get a panic attack because of the situation.
You weren't sure if someone was still following you, so you just kept running and running even though your lungs felt like giving up.
You rarely exercised anymore so this was really hitting your body hard.
After some time of running you had to look back, you tried to see what it was you were running from, but didn't see anybody. You hoped you had lost them with all the dodges you made past the trees.
You slowed your running pace, but before you had a chance to turn your head back to the direction you were running towards, you hit someone, hard.
You collapsed on the rough and wet ground that was covered in small puddles formed by the rain.
"I'm- so- sorry!" You said, pausing between words because your breathing was heavy from the running.
Your eyes were closed from the pain and you could tell that your arms and elbows were scratched, F to your clothes.
The person you crashed into was very quiet and didn't say a word. Usually people would just start yelling in that situation, but whoever this was, didn't.
You finally opened your eyes and looked at the person quickly just to make sure they weren't going to attack you, before looking back to the direction you were running away from.
When you saw you weren't currently in danger you turned back to look at the person you crashed into. They had also fallen to the ground, but had now gotten back to their feet.
When you saw them reach a hand out to you, you realised you were still sitting on the cold ground. You were too shy and embarrassed to look at their face so you just stared at the person's hand instead.
After a few seconds of hesitation you took the hand and the person helped you up, but you almost fell back down again from the pain on your right ankle. The person quickly caught you so you wouldn't fall to the ground.
"Are you okay?" A deep male voice asked, it caught you off guard. You weren't expecting a voice like that at all.
For the first time you turned to fully look at the guy who was currently keeping you up and balanced.
Your e/c eyes met his brown ones in the dim lighting. His face was mostly covered by a black face mask, but you could tell he was good looking. Now you felt even more embarrassed about crashing into this cute individual.
After a few seconds of you just staring at him stunned, you realised what you were doing and quickly answered.
"I-.. I'm fine.. I'm so sorry about that! I wasn't looking where I was running.." Nicely explained Y/n, talking way too much.
You once again looked to the direction you were running from, making the guy look into that direction as well.
"Are you fine? Again.. I'm sorry!" You said for the 100th time as you looked back at the guy who was still holding you up by your arms. Your breath was still uneven, but a bit better now.
"Yeah I'm fine.. Can you walk?" The guy asked, his voice sounded really familiar, but you weren't sure where you had heard it before. You'd think a voice like that would stay in your mind forever.
"I think I should be fine.. Just going to the store nearby", you said as you tried to fully stand on your own by putting pressure back on the right ankle. Even with a mask on the guy saw from your face how much pain you were in.
"Yeah, I am fine!" You said clearly lying, you weren't that good of an imposter in real life.
"I can walk you to the store if you need me to.." the guy offered with a bit of worry in his voice, but you didn't notice the slight change in his tone.
You were quiet for a moment before shyly agreeing with a small nod.
You gave one last look back towards the direction of your home and wondered how you'd get home safely with your ankle hurting that much.
You put your hand over the guy's shoulder and he helped you walk to the store.
Both of you were silent the whole way there, you were mostly just anxious about being this close to a complete stranger.
It took around ten minutes to get to the store, you would have gotten there much faster if it wasn't for your ankle.
"Thank you for the help", you said shyly as you stopped at the entrance of the store.
"I think I can handle it from here.." you said with no confidence in your voice at all.
"If you don't plan to be shopping forever I can walk you home.. It seemed like you were running away from someone.." The guy brought up, and you froze for a bit.
Did he see someone or was it just that obvious from the way you had been acting.
"Oh yeah.. I think it was just my imagination running wild", you said cringing at the memory of crashing into the guy.
"But seriously, you don't have to do that. I think you have helped me more than enough for one night", you said with an awkward laugh.
"It's fine, I'm not in a hurry", the guy said, and after that he helped you inside the store.
You took the carts just so you could lean against something else that wasn't a human being you didn't even know.
You gathered all your favorite foods you would want to eat in the upcoming days. You also got some of your favorite snacks and some better food for Obi so you could spoil him a bit.
Your cart ended up having way more stuff than you originally planned on getting, this is why you should never shop when hungry.
While you paid for your stuff the guy went to pack your stuff into two bags. You still felt super awkward about it all, you had never been in a similar situation before. Not many strangers stopped to help others like he was doing right now.
You took one of the bags and the guy took the other before he helped you outside the store.
From there the two of you walked back towards your place, also going through the park you had come from before.
You kept looking around the area, but didn't see or hear anything suspicious this time.
Neither of you talked anything on the walk to your house, but on the spot you had crashed into each other, you let out a small laugh.
"Is it weird if I apologize again?" You asked softly and the guy turned to look at you. You were glad it was dark so he couldn't tell how red your face was from the embarrassment.
"Not that weird honestly", he stated with his low voice. Again, you wondered where you had heard it before, but nothing came to your mind.
Some time later you arrived at your apartment complex. You wondered if you should take the guy all the way to your door or just stop there, but you figured if he wanted to hurt you he would have had plenty of opportunities before this.
You decided it would just be easier to let the guy walk you to your door so you wouldn't have to mess around alone with the bags.
Luckily you lived on the ground floor so you didn't have to struggle on the stairs.
You took a deep breath at the door, before taking out your keys from your jacket pocket and unlocking the door.
At the entrance of your house there was a small mudroom that was closed off from the rest of your apartment by a door, so Obi didn't run out of the house when you opened the front door. At least the guy couldn't see inside your home this way.
"You can just leave the bag there, I can manage it to the kitchen", you said pointing at a floor space by the entrance that was next to some shoes.
"You sure?" He asked to confirm, maybe wondering if you could truly make it to the kitchen with all the stuff.
"Yeah, it's much easier when you don't have to worry about people coming after you", you said jokingly, and the guy let out a small laugh.
"Okay then.. Try to be more careful next time so you don't injure yourself.. Or others", the guy said playfully as he placed the bag on the floor by the front door.
"I'll try for sure.. And thank you! I know it's weird to just help someone like that. I hope your night wasn't totally interrupted by me", you were talking too much again.
"It's fine.. Just being a basic human being", the guy said half jokingly.
You said your final goodbyes to the person before he started walking away from your door, you closed it after seeing the guy was gone.
That was a totally different shopping trip you had planned.
Maybe you would go back to sleep after putting away the groceries to forget about the stress of today...