Chapter 2

I was making my way up the staircase when I noticed a tall, slender, brown haired woman observing me from the kitchen doorway of the. It took me a few seconds to realise that it was not my mother and that either way she belonged there It hit me hard on the inside, but I showed nothing on the outside. My expression remained blank. Her name was agent Royce. I gave her a courteous nod and stalked off to my room. I locked the door and lay in bed sinking into the soft duvet with another depressing sigh. I decided that I was too depressed to stay in the house so I drove off to Benny's, my favourite cafe. I sat at my usual spot watching the sunset as usual when I realised that the girl from earlier on in the day had just entered the cafe. "Well" I told myself " There's no harm in trying". I got up and walked to her table and sat opposite her using the little confidence I had left. "Are you waiting for someone?" I asked. She smiled politely at me. "Nope. You?" I shook my head. "that means you have the privilege of keeping me company" .I realised how ballsy that sounded but it was too late It had been said. I tried to look as normal as possible but I was feeling straight up awkward.

"Well, I'm Khelani, but you can call me Kelly and I'm like the most complicated person in the world and that's that's pretty much it." I raised an eyebrow at her. " Clearly, you haven't met me. I laughed. " From that sentence onward it was all laughter and some amount of flirting and an annoyingly endless playlist of love songs over the speakers. It all came to an unfortunate end when her mother called her. She put her number into my phone and left me alone with my sick, depressing thoughts. I got home to see a glossy yellow Bentley convertible parked in front of my garage. There was only one person I knew who had such an appalling taste in cars.I let loose a torrent of foul words that would have made my mother cringe before getting out of the car. I barged into the house to find the devil himself leaning against my wall sipping my champagne from my glass. I struggled to suppress my tongue from becoming mad and the growing urge to empty a magazine of bullets into his thick skull, empty head .Being the self respecting mature almost adult that I was, I comported myself and calmly said "hello David."

He broke out into a wide smile annoying me on purpose. "Hi little bro." Then calmly again with much more effort, I said "get the hell out of my goddamn house and please, do me a favor and let the door hit you in your way out." I was hoping for him to leave but I knew him better than that. That little shit of a devil stayed right where he was. He flashed me another demonic grin and took off his Prada jacket and hung on a coat peg. He was sending a message that I refused to hear. I thought to myself. "The devil does wear Prada" I swallowed a large gulp of murderous words and unholy curses that would have made the devil beam with pride. "Just to remind you, I'm still waiting" I growled at him. Another demonic grin was sent in my direction, " It's my house too you know". It took all my physical and emotional strength to prevent myself from strangling him right where he stood. He was right it was his home too. His soon to be funeral home .I sighed. I wasn't going to let him get into my head as always. I retreated upstairs to the once comforting solitude of my room. I took my phone out of my back pocket and texted Khelani "Hi." I plugged it in and thrust myself into my bed, allowing the firm softness of it to consume me and transport me to another dimension.

The morning came to me as uninvited as a nightmare and I closed my eyes, wishing I could go back in time. The only good thing was that it was the weekend, but second thoughts proved otherwise. I spent almost ten minutes examining myself in the full wall mirror. My skin seemed to have gotten paler, but otherwise, my dirty blonde hair was the same,hanging lifelessly around my face, my grey eyes stared coldly back at me, my slightly crooked nose reminded me of my first broken nose painfully, my sleek athletic build remained the same. I put a stop to my narcissism. I quickly got ready and escaped to Benny's cafe . I sat at my usual booth with my eyes closed listening to music through my Air Pods. I was slowly sinking into the music, but for some reason, I decided to grab a doughnut. Weirdly enough, I wasn't as surprised to see Kelly at the counter placing her order. Naturally, I paid for hers. We got our orders and headed back to my table. Her long brown and blonde hair brushed ever so slightly against my cheek and neck and I breathed in the faint smell of her lemon verbena shampoo.

She sat beside me and we ate our food and continued are conversation form where we left off the day before. We spoke and ate for about two hours, fully consumed by each other's aura. Using the theory of attraction, we probably vibrated at the same frequency. Out of the blue, she said "I hope things are not getting misconstrued ". My breath caught in my throat." I stammered uncontrollably not knowing what to say to her. To my heart's relief, she burst out laughing. " don't worry, I totally like you". At that juncture, one would say something real mature like me. "Urmm" I was confused. Maybe I had finally bitten off more than I could chew "Yeah" she smiled. " I'm glad we're friends." There were three words in my head. " what the fuck". She stood up saying she had to go. " you have my number text me don't call." Wow, but unfortunately, it was at that moment as she walked out that I remembered what I had secretly been trying to ignore the whole time.