TWENTY- NINE

TWENTY-NINE

I heard the faint knock on the front door just as I came out the bathroom, patting my face with a dry towel. At the sound of the next knock, I froze, finally registering properly that someone was knocking on the door. Unsure of who it was and why they would knock at such ungodly hour, I quickly tiptoed to the bedroom and snatched my phone off the desk.

It was just past twelve in the night, and I was just about ready to head to bed. I had gotten rid of every speck of make up on my face, showered at eleven in the night, did some laundry and finally went back again into the bathroom and washed my face again.

I dragged both my feet slowly out in the hallway until I stopped by the head of the stairs. From here, I could only see half of the door so I carefully took a few steps down, inwardly praying that whoever was outside would be gone now.

The instant knock that came after my prayer was like a small kick in the gut. Damn, why wouldn't they just leave?

I decided to wait it out because no sane person would open the door at this time. I slowly lowered myself on the top of the stairs, pulling my knee's close under my chin as my eyes peered at the door- as though they could see right through it.

The next few knocks at the door where much harder and louder, and I could tell the person outside was getting impatient and sounded like they were not about to leave. I pushed myself up off the stairs and tip toed down sluggishly.

When I came at the door, another knock followed, this one making the door itself vibrate at the force of it. "Seriously?" I muttered under my breath.

I was not going to open the door. I was simply going to look through the peephole and then run back and crawl under my bed covers.

My eyes looked through the small hole and the guy knocking at the door was facing away from me, their hands on their head. From the small vision I had, I could see that he was wearing a white dress shirt and dark jeans.

He turned around and I literally felt my lungs catching their breath.

"Are you kidding me?" I gasped out loud, not thinking twice as I wrenched the door open.

"Are you actually kidding me?" I repeated loudly, coming face to face to his raised fist getting ready to knock on the door again.

"Finally." Link exclaimed, his face telling me everything I already knew. He was pretty damn frustrated. "Why did it take you so long to open the door?" He asked.

I raised my eyebrows at him, wondering if he was dead serious. "You seriously thought I'd open the door after midnight?"

Link frowned at my response. "You look through the peephole and see who is there." He said as though I was dense to not do so.

If I wasn't so tired of everything I would have had spat out my usual remarks. Instead, I let out a sigh. "What you doing here at this time? Palmer is already fast asleep." I told him.

Link shook his head. "Don't act like you don't know why I'm here."

I braced myself for what was about to come. "You here for what then?"

Link ran his hands through his short hair, taking his time to carefully say whatever he had to say. "I got caught up."

I smiled at him, although to every eye it was clearly a fake smile. "Understandably." I replied back.

Link didn't seem to like my reply as a small agitated grunt escaped from him. "I got caught up with really important stuff and I only had the chance to come now."

"You ever thought to step aside for a second and send me a text at least?" I told him bitterly, instantly regretting my words. I did not want to show Link the fact that he stood up me affected me in any way. In fact, he did a favour because I just really wanted to stay in tonight.

"I couldn't- trust me."

My eyes suddenly glanced down at the collar of his white shirt. At first I couldn't make out what it was, it looked something like a red mark on his collar. But then I realised, finally the shape of the red mark coming together. Bright right lipstick, the shape of a wide kiss.

Trust... he said.

"Okay sure," I said. I felt so stupid.

"We alright then?" Link asked.

I wanted to tell him that we were never 'alright' to begin with and that we just went by and acted as though we were cool. But I wasn't going to say anything to continue this conversation. "We're alright." I lied. "I want to go back to bed." I added quickly

Link eyed me carefully, standing in front of me and not saying anything for a long time. Or it felt like a long time for me. "Okay."

I didn't care about anything after that. Not about his lie, or whatever the hell he was doing. After tonight, I will stop officially communicating with Link. Everything in relation to him was stupid and it has to come to and end. I nodded, unsure of how to say goodbye without saying anything further. So I carefully closed the door, not caring that it was rude or whether he was done or not. I locked the front door and slowly turned around, calmly walking up the stairs.

As I got to the top, I nearly fainted in fright at the dark figure standing there. The figure moved and came slowly into the light that was peeking through the window.

"Palmer." I breathed out.

She looked at me, worry etched across her striking face. Her slivery hair hung down her face and was pulled to one side, resting over one shoulder.

"Was that Link that finally came?" She asked me softly.

I wanted to lie but I wasn't so sure how long she was standing here. For all we knew, all the knocking might have woken her up and was standing here from the start. She also knew that Link had just come now, and that the date we were supposedly meant to go on did not happen.

"Yeah," I answered.

"Did he apologise?"

I was momentarily rendered speechless as I realised that, although he came all the way over here with a feeble excuse, he never actually apologised.

I shook my head, hanging it down in shame for no unapparent reason.

Palmer tutted. "You'd think I taught him better than that." She muttered under her breath. "Did he at least say why he didn't come?"

"Something important he had to do." I said. "It looked very important considering he had red lipstick all over his dress shirt."

I let out a loud, exasperated sigh. "I mean, I don't care that he was doing god knows what but don't ask me out on a date, leave me hanging whilst some other girl is necking you. Do whatever the hell you want in your sad life but don't drag me down and be an absolute asshole and expect me to just trust you, you know?"

"I totally get you, Honey."

"Coming knocking at the door with your massive hands and expect me to come down and just waltz the door open and merely accept your shitty ass excuse of something important to do doesn't sit well with me. But I'm not going to let him know that because this is all probably one of his many stupid sadistic games he's playing, thinking he can fiddle with my emotions and call it a blood night. And then come here asking me to trust his bloody sorry ass!" I was on the verge of screaming. All the calm demeanour I was fronting just seconds ago blew right out the open window.

"I knew we were not alright." Link's voice came from behind me. I flipped my head around and saw him standing there, his arms crossed and just staring down at me.

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> y'all can do whatever the hell you want to me but just know I'm really sorry for the month's wait. I'm sorry.

> snapchat: naja_x3 (holla at me)