Chapter 14: Crawling up to his Balcony
"Pssst!"
No response
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"Pssttt!"
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I wait
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"PSSSST!"
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I wait some more
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"HEY!"
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"Why you knucklehead!" I pick up a fallen pillow from the floor and throw it in his way and it struck hard on his face. He jolts up and grunts holding his nose in his hands, sitting across me on his bed. "Finally you responded! I was worried if you were dead or something" I give a sarcastic smile.
"ARE YOU CRAZY!" he gets up from his bed and in a blink, he is right in front of me rubbing his nose.
He is in gray sweatpants and a black t-shirt. I can feel the anger radiating out of him and I lower myself in front of his lightning gaze.
"What are you doing in my house!" I release a breath, roll my shoulders and face him with the same ferocity.
"What do you think I do every day outside your house at his hour?" I deadpan.
"You are not outside my house. How did you get up here?! The front door is supposed to be locked." he asks me, frustration evident in his tone.
"But your door to the balcony wasn't," I say, pointing at the glass door.
"Wait-what? You came from the balcony? How?" He asks rather confused at my declaration.
"I saw a ladder in your lawn and so I used it to crawl up here. You must know better about your home." I shrug my shoulders, he keeps looking at me with squirmed eyes for a minute. "and besides I was calling out for you and I didn't know you had EARPLUGS IN YOUR EAR TODAY!" He heaves a frustrated sigh and goes back to his bed and lies down. My mouth hangs open at his attempt.
How dare he! Boss? my foot!
"You can go back down through the ladder and make sure you lock the door behind you." he shuts his eyes and cuddles with the pillow with which I hit him earlier and without even looking, he turns off the bedside lamp that I turned on before when I sneaked into his room. I near his bed and pick something up from the bedside table which I couldn't identify in the dark.
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Silence
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Thwak!
"What the hell!" He yells at me and turns on the lamp again and I see him rubbing his head while his eyes dart towards the thing in my hand. "Did you just hit me with A Tale of Two Cities?!" I ignore his accusation.
"Do you really think I was going to listen to you and leave?" I ask him, crossing my arms over my chest and start tapping my foot against the floor, impatiently.
"Well, you have to. NOW GET OUT!" He pauses for a second. "And give me back my book! That's a classic, respect her." he snatches the book from my grasp and puts it back on the bedside table.
"Not happening," I said shaking my head. "Not when you made me work for two extra hours and for FREE today! You are going to pay for that!"
"What-" and before he could say anything, I yank his ear and he stands up, groaning.
"Come down or I'm going to bang everything inside your room.... And you know how impossible I can be." I say the last part smiling innocently at him as he gulps and I see his Adams Apple moving down and back up.
~After an hour~
"Can't believe I'm doing this with you." he leans against the wall of the alley and heaves a sigh.
"Get used to it, it has been six days already."
"Eighth Day." he corrects me.
"Eight days? And still, you say the same line every day we come here." I make a face at him and then avert my attention to the building opposite to the alley. It's dark all around us, the roads empty, no movements at all.
The building seems quieter than usual. The guard on the tower seems to be asleep on his duty.
"Yeah. Because every time you blackmail me with something and I have no choice but to come with you." He grunts in exasperation."Its only the thought of Anna that certainly stops me from almost killing you."
"Why? do you owe her something?" I ask him and continue to stare at the building, watching out for someone? Anyone? Waiting for anything to happen.
"No... Let's just say she is a useful person. She is an editor of a well-known magazine which benefits me... You know last month she featured me in her magazine as the 'owner' of The Summer Delights." his voice filled with pride
"Next time I'll ask her to feature you in the worst bosses of the world." I scoff at him.
"Worst boss?! Or should you say the most lenient boss!" He whisper-shouts at me.
"Oh common! You make me work overtime every day like an animal and shout at me whenever a customer complains about the food even though when it's not the fault in the service but in the taste and it's not just that you shout at me for everything. It's like I'm the cause for everything that's happening when I'm actually not!" I hiss at him.
"And what about yourself miss oh-so-innocent? You never fail to barge in my office whenever you want even though it's obvious to every staff member and clearly written on my office door 'do not enter without permission'! and things don't just end here, when I ask for anything to eat or drink you almost throw them at my face rather than serving it to me and you intentionally bring my things late or add something to it so that it tastes bad and I might just choke on it!" he hisses back at me. Blood boiling in both our eyes as we glare at each other.
"Oh! I'll tell you-"
"Oh! Don't you start with me, you have no idea how crazy you drive me. Knowing that I have an old lady living at my home and still you make noises in the middle of the night outside my home, causing a disturbance in the neighborhood just so I could accompany you to spy and attempt a crime."
"I-"
"Do you think this place isn't under surveillance? Then let me inform you, we could get caught any time ending up in jail just because we were finding some lost guy who doesn't even want to acknowledge your existence. In the end, you are endangering my life and a poor innocent old lady who has nothing even to do with you. There's no one else to look after her if I end up in jail, do you get it!?" he takes a deep breath after finishing and rakes his hand into his hair, giving me time to absorb every word of his.
He is right, what am I even doing? I decided to risk my life for that brat and here I was risking not one but two lives who didn't even had anything to do with him. What good am I bringing them? This is not like me...
His words were like a sharp pain to my heart but at the same time, they brought me back to reality all of a sudden.
I can't continue doing this, risking his life for my benefit... I'm such a horrible person. Why I have to fall this low. I feel tears burning behind my eyes but I restrain them from falling. It was time I ponder over his words and couldn't stop recalling them over and over again in my head. We didn't say anything to each other for another half hour
I stood up from the ground and walked out of the alley as stealthily as we do and was back on the sidewalk. He came behind me and I didn't dare to look into his eye. This was the first long walk that we ever made back, no one spoke as we silently reached my home and before he could go back, I stopped him.
"Samuel wait." I hesitate, he turns to look at me. "I'm really sorry. You don't have to worry from now on... I wouldn't be disturbing your peace but thanks for making me realize it." I smile apologetically and he keeps looking at me, not trying to say anything but I felt like he had something more to say but he couldn't and later he just nods his head to me.
I turn to go inside my house and slowly shut the door behind.
I didn't see him off today, didn't wave my hand at him. Guess that wouldn't be necessary from now on.
Then why am I so upset today?