A Shade of Blue
By Kristen Chin
I grunted as I picked up a cardboard box from the trunk of my car. There were words that were written in black permanent marker that said 'Trophies'. I felt a hand on my shoulder and cocked my head to the side to see Kyle, my ex-boyfriend-slash-best friend. Now here's the weird part, the two of us are moving into OUR new apartment. As if things weren't weird enough, his new girlfriend is always going to be over to make sure I don't "steal her man". She was a snob, at least to me she was, and she always blabbed about how she was a famous model in Canada. Guess what? No one freaking cares.
"I can get that for you Kat, I don't want you to strain a muscle" Kyle said with a smile, before taking the box from my hands and walking towards the gate entrance. What the Hell was that? If you say that to me, with a smile, I'm bound to blush and trust me, I look like I'm about to explode! Ugh…welcome to my complicated life. The sad thing is that, I still love him. Kyle and I started dating in our senior year of high school and all throughout college. He broke up with me because, he didn't want a long distance relationship once he would take his internship at a comic book company in Canada. That's where he met his snobby girlfriend. A year later they decided to move back to Portland, Oregon. I randomly received a text from him and hated myself each time I pressed the 'send' button.
"Come on Kat" Kyle said, turning back to face me. Good, he didn't smile this time, but I was still blushing. I grabbed my box of manga and fantasy novels and closed the trunk door. I walked beside him as we entered the gate entrance to the apartment complex. I've been here for about thirty minutes and already despise the stairs. It was like a never ending staircase to the moon (or something like that). We stopped at apartment 203 and Kyle placed down the box on the black and white checkered carpet. He inserted the key, twisting it to the left and turned the knob. As I walked in, I threw the box on the couch and dust particles whooshed into the air. Great, I'm such an idiot for not noticing the white fluffs on the brown sluggish couch. As Kyle walked in, he simply shook his head and snorted.
"Very clever Kat" Kyle said, before placing my box in the doorway of my bedroom. Awesome, now he thinks I'm in idiot. The apartment wasn't completely furnished, it just came with an ugly sluggish brown couch, a floral white lamp, and a large bookshelf that all sat in the living room. As you walked, the floorboards would make such a horrible squeaky noise, so I decided to take off my shoes and slide against them with my socks. Kyle and I spent an hour going through the boxes and placing items in the right place. My room was owned by a teenager previously, so I was glad that there were floating shelves. I placed all my books and trophies upon them. The posters were going to be a challenge since I'm only 5'3". Kyle on the other hand was 5'10" and could easily reach the high places I couldn't. I stepped out of my room, trying to build up my confidence into talking to him, but I noticed him running his fingers through his hair and sighing. He would only do so if he was stressed.
"Canada? For good? Marie you know I hate long distance relationships" Kyle said as he talked to his girlfriend on the phone. I came from behind him, remembering to slide my socks along the floorboards.
"Why? Well looked what happened to Kat and I. We didn't-"Kyle turned and saw me approaching. I stood there, baffled and anxious at what he was about to say next. He told Marie he had to go and ended the call. My face felt hot and this time I wasn't blushing. I tried to hold back the tears in my eyes, but one slipped and all began to fall. Kyle reached out his hand towards me, trying to place it on my shoulder, but backed up and walked towards my room. I slammed the door and fell on my bed, letting the tears help me eventually fall asleep. Though, I didn't sleep for long. I awoke at the sound of an odd wheezing sound and the light and fog that came from underneath the door. I sprung up from my bed, grabbing my baseball bat that I used in high school, and took one step. I jolted back, hoping whatever is out there didn't hear me. I slid my socks against the floorboards and turned the knob slowly. I exhaled deeply before opening the door and revealing something unexpected before my eyes. A blue police box stood in our living room. Had Kyle found it and begin to mess with it? Nope, he answered my questioned when he rushed over towards me and asked what the Hell was that thing. The door opened and the two of us took as many steps back until we reached a wall. A bright light was streaming from it and a figure stepped out from the police box. Kyle flicked on the light switch and revealed a man dressed in a plaid brown coat, white shirt, red bowtie and suspenders, with black pants and shoes. His hair was combed over to one side and he looked quite attractive. The man looked at us curiously and pulled out a weird object that looked like a large pen. He came towards me, but Kyle blocked him, not letting the man lay a finger on me. The man scanned Kyle down with his weird pen that projected a green light and looked on the side of it.
"Humans! I must be on Earth, yes?" The man said happily. He hugged Kyle and tried to lift him up from the ground, but couldn't and stepped away, placing his hands on Kyle's shoulders and smiling. Kyle didn't enjoy this as much as I did and punched him in the face, making the man fall backwards onto our couch. I screamed and Kyle turned to me, pulling me in for a hug.
"Everything will be all right Kat, I'll call the police" Kyle said, looking down at me.
"No need for that Kyle, he probably thought this was his apartment or he's super drunk"
"Yeah, I doubt that. I'm calling the police"
"Don't you see what's on that box? Police Box! He must be in disguise or something"
"I see what's on the box and maybe if we use the phone in there, we can get the police and the box out of here!" Kyle said, walking towards the box, he stepped inside and I followed behind him. We weren't expecting what we saw, but it surely wasn't human.