Chapter 47 #3
Someone was banging hard on the door.
“Guess what I brought you, Davian!”
Quill's eyes widened when she heard Tony, and she immediately slid off me, only to scramble back to her feet.
I also pushed myself up with my hands, jumped to my feet, and the dog ran excitedly to the door.
Quill and I looked at each other as if we had committed a crime, then there was another knock, and I frantically pointed my index finger toward the stairs.
A key was inserted into the lock, and Tony audibly unlocked the front door.
Quill was still staring down the hallway, and I pushed her, a little too hastily, under the stairs next to the bathroom door.
A second later, Tony – dressed in a casual dark green knit sweater and jeans – strolled into the hallway with a bottle of whiskey and a bag of Asian noodles in his hands, waving the bag around in the air with a grin.
“Food for my busy hustler.”
Running my fingers through my hair, I walked up to him and forced a smile.
“There's something for Lara, too.” He rummaged through the bag. “In case she wants to pretend she can handle spicy food again.”
“Lara's out.”
I resisted the urge to look around for Quill as Tony hung his jacket on the hook.
“Too bad. Well... More for us.”
He patted me on the shoulder before his eyes fell on the dresser in front of the mirror and his smile disappeared.
With growing panic, I followed his gaze.
“Since when do you have a thing for flowers?”
He laughed in disbelief and something inside me relaxed.
“Lara...” I sighed, and it sounded halfway believable.
“This is... new to me?”
Tony grinned, reminding me of Quill for a moment, then he pressed the Asian noodles into my arms and pushed past me. But instead of turning into the kitchen, he strode down the hall toward the bathroom.
“Um... Where are you going?”
“To the restroom?”
Tony turned to me, walked backwards, and at that very moment, Quill emerged from under the stairs behind him and scurried over to the doorway into the living room.
I held my breath as Tony turned around again and continued walking, but suddenly stopped in front of the living room doorway. So did my heartbeat.
He slowly turned to me, squinting his eyes.
“What's that on your face?”
Shit.
“Me?”
I quickly touched my cheek, rubbing it, while Tony returned, and, out of the corner of my eye, I saw how Quill arrived in the dining room but stepped back into the shadows when Tony stopped in front of me.
“Who else?”
He eyed me suspiciously with his eagle eyes as I rubbed the spot even more hastily.
“Just ink...”
My best friend narrowed his eyes.
“Sometimes you're really weird, Davian.”
I smiled awkwardly.
Fortunately, he turned away from me and walked to the bathroom, this time really disappearing inside.
As soon as the door closed, Quill came out of the corner, hurried past me with her lips pressed together, through the hallway and up the stairs, not without turning back to me and giving me a mischievous smirk.
That goddamn woman.
Runaway Train
Soul Asylum
After Tony and I had eaten, Lara finally came home, ate what we had left for her, and, as she always did, packed pumpkin cookies and cinnamon rolls for Tony.
I let the two of them talk about her studies and disappeared into the bathroom, where I looked in the mirror, just before taking a shower, and realized that the ink stain was still there.
As I stepped closer and held my cheek to the mirror like a man possessed, I thought I could make out a word.
Paradise.
I stood there for a good five minutes, staring at the mirror, just as I did all night long with the ceiling above my bed.
The rational part of me regretted every second that I hadn't pushed Quill away and thanked fate for Anthony's visit. If he hadn't come... Everything could have gone downhill in a matter of seconds.
When had I lost control over myself and my life?
When I still couldn't sleep at three in the morning, I got up to make myself a cup of tea, but a soft whimpering sound in the hallway made me stop, and my gaze wandered through the slight crack of Quill's ajar door.
I cautiously stepped closer, listening to the barely audible, anguished sounds until I discovered Quill rolling back and forth in her bed, her eyes closed.
Something inside me wanted to go to her, sit on the edge of her bed, and hold her hand.
But after today, that was the stupidest idea I could have.
I knew I would stay with her. Something I was not even allowed to think about, so I turned away from the door with growing self-hatred and disappeared downstairs.
Over the next few days, I avoided running into her, drove to university earlier than usual, and came home as late as possible.
But it was pointless to pretend she didn't live under the same roof as me. Even when I used the downstairs bathroom, where her toothbrush wasn't, I found traces of her everywhere in the house. First and foremost, the tulips.
On campus, an entire tulip bed had been stripped bare, which upset Arnold, and I couldn't deny that it amused me to know exactly where Quill had gotten her flowers.
The white petals had filled with her ink as if they were the pages of a book. Touching these petals felt like running my fingers over her skin. Fragile paper, stained with her blue tears. Skin worth drowning in. The only death that would truly save me.
We reflect each other.
And I don't know what is stronger.
My fear of my reflection or the blue thread
that pulls me through the mirror toward you.
– Leaking Batteries Diary