Summer Screen Doors

Chapter One

Erza was minding her own business, quietly munching on her strawberry cake in the backyard of her small duplex she shared with her best friend, Lucy. That morning had started off well and progressively got better with every second. She had woken up to the soft sound of birds chirping instead of the blaring sound of her demonic alarm clock. Her Saturday would be a peaceful one this week, she decided as she got dressed and made her breakfast.

Unlike most days for the recent college graduate, the redhead had left her schedule empty for a token "me day". While the rest of her friends went out to the beach for a day in the sun, Erza decided to skip out and sleep in instead. As much as she loved her rowdy friends, it was nice to have the duplex to herself.

Ever since she had joined her corporate law firm, she had next to no free time. The job was not nearly as glamorous as she had hoped. Instead of meeting billionaires and taking high risk cases like on Suits, she was stuck fetching coffee for her cranky bosses (which was essentially everyone else in the firm) and taking notes in that tiny seat in the corner of the boardroom.

Hooking her phone to her new speaker (she never said her job didn't pay well…), she put on some calm music to complete her absolutely perfect matinée. The young woman slowly swayed to the beat of Turning Page by Sleeping at Last while she munched on her delicious cake. Her thin, long sleeve sweater and matching leggings were the perfect fit for the warm, early summer weather. As she sat down at the metal, Parisian-style white table, she couldn't be happier. She really needed a break from her life.

As she slowly sipped her orange juice, she looked up to admire the willow tree from her neighbour's backyard that flowed over to hers. She smiled as the wind slowly blowed each branch, creating a soothing whoosh noise.

Looking back down at the table, she sensed, for the first time since sitting down, that she wasn't alone. Trusting her gut, she carefully sat up further in her seat, muting her song as she did so. When the music was finally off, she heard it.

Growling.

Right at her feet.

Eyes widening, she slowly turned her head downwards. There, she saw the most vicious looking dog she had ever laid eyes on. Erza was scared of very few things on the whole planet but dogs? They made the short-list.

Now, she wasn't scared of all dogs. She was perfectly content petting those fluffy, tiny, little things that fit in handbags. She was even fine with those big adorable Saint-Bernards. But she was deathly afraid of Pitbulls… like the one drooling and growling at her feet.

Trying desperately to remain calm, she slowly pushed her seat back, wincing when it made a scratching noise against the wood of the porch. The dog barked loudly and stepped closer to her. At this point, she abandoned her cake (it was a desperate situation) and started to move towards the back door of her place. As she approached it, though, the dog intercepted her, lying in wait between her and her escape.

Convinced the dog was the devil, Erza started to think drastically. This was the sort of beast that would be able to rip your carotid artery with its teeth. She started to slowly lose herself as logic left the picture and her adrenaline levels sky-rocketed. The redhead looked around trying to found a way out, not caring how dumb or risky it was to a sane person.

In the corner of her eye, she spotted a part of the fence that was slightly lower than the rest leading to her neighbour's apartment. Desperate, she made a run for it, regretting the fact she was barefoot. Surprising not only herself, but the dog as well, she made it over the fence by jumping it, landing semi-gracefully on the other side.

She crouched on her neighbour's lawn, hyperventilating but trying to find her chill. The lawyer started taking deep breaths and she was almost calm when she heard it.

The desperate clawing of an animal trying to get through a fence.

And then she saw it.

The demon dog's head peek over the fence.

With a shriek, Erza pulled herself up to her feet, ignoring the dampness she felt on her leg.. With a start, she ran towards the only thing she could think of. Her neighbour's house.

She noticed a light on inside and realized that the door from the back porch was open. So, she made a run for it.

Five steps away.

Four. Three. Two.

One.

Bamn.

Jellal Fernandes was a busy man. Always on the move, he rarely had enough time in his mornings to eat a decent breakfast, let alone enjoy life or watch television or spend time with friends. He led a rather sad life during the week. On weekends, though, he was a party animal, up for anything. His mischievous friends always seemed to have tickets to the hottest concerts or entrance passes to the newest night clubs.

But once in awhile, the successful stockbroker enjoyed a quiet morning to himself. Regardless of the fact that he held a very high position for someone of his age, Jellal shared his new duplex with his best friend, Erik. This meant that the bluenette had very little alone time, considering how… energetic the maroon haired man could be.

As he sat, slowly enjoying his cheerios while he caught up on his favorite shows, he realized that he was alone at home. Having slept in after a long night of partying, he didn't even notice until that moment that Cobra was not at home. Mildly concenrned, Jellal played back the last night in his head, trying to remember if his best friend made it back home.

After putting some thought into clearing the fog in his head, he finally recalled that Erik had slept over at Midnight's, the host, as he had taken too many shots and passed out on the poor man's couch.

With a chuckle, the bluenette went back to eating his cereal, feeling completely peaceful and calm.

Bamn!

Jumping three feet in the air, Jellal freaked the hell out at the random noise. Not expecting something to disturb his peace and quiet, he accidently threw his bowl in the air, leaving him drenched in milk, thus ruining his calm morning. Scowling, he went over to the screen door, to investigate the source of the noise. If it was another fucking squirrel, he swore to God he would go on a mad hunt to cull every single one of those evil creatures.

Being friends with the mad bunch that called themselves Crime Sorcière, Jellal was used to seeing strange things. Just the other night, he had watched as one of his friends shot another out of a canon (Richard was convinced it was a good idea).

Nothing that wild bunch had done would prepare him for the sight he saw when he finally reached his porch.

Crumpled in a ball at the bottom of the door was a beautiful scarlet-haired young woman, clutching her head and whimpering in pain. She seemed to have hit her head rather hard on the plate-glass door of his house as she appeared to be float=hind her, a dog slowly crawled its way closer to the vulnerable

And not just any dog.

His dog.

Swinging the door open, he noticed a small pool of blood growing under the girl. Completely forgetting about his current drenched state, called his dog back, making his Pitbull scamper away, frightened. Quickly, he scooped the redhead in his arms and brought her inside, paying extra care to the wound on her head and on her leg. He slowly set her down on the dry part of his leather sofa.

He looked her up and down, trying to determine which injury was worse. Deciding that her head should take priority over any other body part, he leaned down into a crouch to examine the semi-conscious girl.

Jellal slowly pushed her hair off her face with his hand, trying to find where she had knocked her head. Although the entire situation was really confusing to him, he tried putting the pieces together as best he could.

From the few events he had witnessed, he assumed that his dog had somehow chased this girl and she tried to take refuge in his house, not noticing the glass door in her way. The bluenette knew it was a bad idea to let Cobra, the biggest clean freak to walk the Earth, shine the windows.

He finally found the cut on her forehead, relieved to see that it was rather small. That feeling of relief was short-lived as he noticed the massive bump forming on her head, already starting to turn different colors. His eyes widened in fear as he ran out of ideas in his head. He was no doctor, he had absolutely no idea what to do.

"It's ok," the girl muttered, groggily regaining full consciousness. "What am I doing? Where am I…"

"You hit your head on my screen door. I brought you inside."

"Where's the demon dog?" she pressed, attempting to sit up but giving up halfway and flopping back down on the sofa.

At this point, Jellal seriously wondered if she had a worse head injury than he had initially thought. Her beautiful brown eyes looked up at him, trying to place his face in her head. Though when he looked closer, he saw that she had a clarity in her eyes that proved she didn't have a concussion.

With a deep breath of exhale, he responded, "Don't worry, she's outside. She won't be coming in anytime soon after this."

"Good," she said, her eyes fluttering. Her brow scrunched in concentration as she realized something crucial she had missed. "Who are you?"

"My name is Jellal Fernandes. My friend, Cobra, and I just moved in next door." She continued struggling to get herself up. He put a hand carefully on her back, applying enough pressure to help her without making her feel uncomfortable.

"My name is Erza." She replied as she finally was able to sit up, her wounded leg outstretched in front of her. "I'm really sorry about all of this. It's just I'm scared of dogs and -"

"No, no. Trust me, it's okay. I know that Becky can be a little bit… over-excited for most people. I'm sorry about this whole thing. Let me get you some band-aids for your leg."

"My leg?" Erza asked, seemingly oblivious to the bloody cut the length of her leg. She looked down at it, noticing it for the first time with a puzzled expression on her face. "Oh, well then…"

With a chuckle, Jellal walked over to the kitchen where Cobra kept his first-aid kit. Ever since the toxicologist started cooking out of pure necessity (with Jellal working so late, there was only so much take-out he could handle), the bluenette had purchased a massive, emergency-room level kit to prevent the mad scientist from losing a limb or his other eye.

As he continued back to where the young lady sat on his couch, he realized she was staring at him with a mild look of confusion and disgust.

"Is something wrong?" he finally inquired, unable to handle her strange regards much longer.

"...Why are you drenched in milk?" she finally asked, honestly wondering what sort of person this neighbour was. Having a demonic dog and taking showers in cereal were not normal people endeavours. They were the sort of things to set off her crazy-person alarms. These alarms might be a bit defective, considering the people she hung out with willingly.

"Oh," he said, quickly grabbing a nearby rag to dry himself up a little bit. "I was a bit frightened by your sudden appearance, and well… I was eating cheerios and I sort of jumped and well…"

"I get the idea," she hid her small smile with her hand. He was so amusing to her, she thought as he slowly cleaned her legs, stopping when she flinched though she tried not to. He paused for a second before restarting.

The whole while he cleaned and cared for her wound, Erza looked up at him, silently admiring the way he bit his lips as he concentrated.

Oh God.

This was not going to end well...