Chapter 9 #2
“Been there,” Jonas muttered as he clicked another button on the screen.
His brow furrowed, and he clicked it again before pulling up the code itself.
“Is this button supposed to do something? The code looks like it’s supposed to—You’ve got a colon instead of a semi-colon.
” He adjusted the code and hit the button.
“Perfect. Anyway, Noah made you realize that you’d been sitting on the couch…
floor? Probably the floor knowing you… for what? A day? Longer? Less?”
“No idea,” I admitted. My friends knew me too well.
“But yeah. He made me take a shower, made me some chicken, had me take a nap, then we watched a movie. He went home, but he’s started texting me around lunch and calling me around dinner to make sure I’m eating more than just chips.
” I sighed. “It’s making things really hard. ”
“How is your boyfriend taking care of you making things hard?” Seb questioned. “Pretty sure that’s what boyfriends are supposed to do.”
“It is,” Jonas piped up from his spot on the floor. “Silas always makes sure to take damn good care of me.”
“I bet he does,” Eli teased. Even I couldn’t miss the lewd undertones of his comment.
Jonas picked up the dark blue rubber duck I’d been working with from under the table and lobbed it at Eli.
Unfortunately, Jonas couldn’t throw and Holden was the one that got hit.
The living room filled with laughter, and I was grateful for the distraction of the momentary duck war that started when Holden threw it back.
Luckily, there were only so many ducks out. If they’d come over Sunday, the duck war may have become an epic battle.
“Okay, okay, truce!” Jonas shouted from the floor after he’d been pelted with enough ducks. Holden answered by throwing one last duck. “Weren’t we trying to figure out how having a caring boyfriend is a problem for Matt? Because I’m pretty sure we were doing that.”
“You started it,” Holden whined.
“Hush it,” Eli cautioned with a grin. I would have rather they kept throwing ducks, because Eli’s sharp eyes were back on me, and I knew the interrogation was about to begin again. “So, you gonna tell us why it’s a problem?”
“Because we’re supposed to be taking it slow, and he’s making it really hard.” I explained myself a little more to my friends, and I answered a few more questions before Jonas dubbed my project workable for a phase one. I hit save and closed the laptop. I’d clean up the coding in the morning.
The rest of the evening was dedicated to my friends.
The next day, I had the project sent in by lunch.
I spent the rest of the day cleaning up my apartment.
It had become a bit of a mess, dishes piling up in the sink and dirty clothes all over my bedroom floor.
Rogue ducks were laying around, and they needed to return to their respective bins in the small living room closet.
I was pretty sure it was supposed to be a coat closet, but I’d never once used it for the two coats I owned. They hung on a rack by my door instead.
“So, you’re done?” Noah asked over the phone when he’d gotten off work.
“I am, but I think I need tonight to unwind,” I told him. “Want to do something tomorrow?”
“Lunch? And then I need to get a few things for my place. Want to tag along?”
We made plans for the next day and disconnected the call.
I just needed a lazy night, one where I wasn’t using any emotional energy.
That included talking to Noah, because it took a lot of emotional energy to keep myself from falling for every sweet thing he did.
I also needed to catch up on my sleep. I made myself a quick dinner, took a long shower, and was tucked up in my bed by ten.
Probably not the most exciting Friday night, but it was exactly what I needed.
A few hours later, my childhood alarm went off.
The piercing beeps caused me to jolt up in bed, and I started looking around.
I didn’t understand how my childhood alarm was going off, because it was at my mother’s house.
Ma hadn’t shipped it to me, and I’d never asked.
I used a cell phone alarm on the rare days that I set one.
And why would I set an alarm for three in the morning?
It took another few moments for my sleepy mind to catch up. It wasn’t an alarm clock. It was the fire alarm.
My building was on fire.
My heart pounded in my chest. I’d had nightmares of dying in a fire when I was younger, after I watched some rescue show.
My parents had taken me to the firehouse after that, taught me what to do if there was a house fire.
I grabbed my phone from the table and jammed it into the pocket of my pajama pants.
There was no smoke in my room, but I grabbed a shirt from my laundry hamper anyway.
I tied it around my mouth and nose to protect myself from smoke and moved quickly to my bedroom door.
I rested the back of my hand against the wooden door, and I didn’t feel any heat.
The fire, if there was a fire, hadn’t reached my living room.
I opened my bedroom door and felt a sense of relief when I wasn’t greeted by a wall of smoke.
I started toward the apartment door. My laptop was on the way, still resting on the table beside my couch where I’d left it.
I yanked it up as I walked, leaving the charger behind, and hugged it to my chest. There was no heat behind my unit door, so I went into the hallway. I could smell smoke.
My neighbors were peeking their heads out.
“Do you smell smoke?” the old lady across the hall asked.
“Yeah. Do you—do you need help getting downstairs?” I’d never noticed her having any mobility issues, but there was no way in hell I would be leaving an old lady in the hallway if there was a fire. It didn’t matter how scared I was.
She shook her head and ducked back into her apartment.
I decided to give her thirty seconds. If she didn’t come out of her apartment, I’d make sure I told the firefighters.
Oh my god, had anyone called the fire department?
Panic started to rise in my chest, and I forced myself to take a deep breath.
A deep breath that smelled and tasted like smoke. That did not help the panic.
I heard the creak of my neighbor’s door, and she emerged with a cat carrier in one hand.
I could hear her cat protesting inside. She rested one hand on my arm, and it grounded me, pushed me forward.
A few other neighbors joined us as we made our way downstairs.
I recognized one of the people from the fourth floor halfway down.
He had no idea what was going on. I just knew I was excited when I got fresh air into my lungs.
Most of my neighbors were gathered in front of the building already, and a few stragglers piled out after us. Sirens pierced the night air, and I looked up at the building.
I could see smoke in a window on the top floor and lighting that could only be fire.
Tears stung at my eyes as I watched. My hands shook as I grabbed my phone out of my pocket and called the only person I wanted in that moment.