Chapter one: Passing [Prompt 62]
Based upon the FanFiction 100 Challenge.
You're walking down the street. Today has been a busy day for you and you could use the relaxation. You've decided on a walk to clear your mind. The streets in LA are perfect to calm yourself down. Here, outside, you're one amongst many. Not just one in front of the class. No pressure, whatsoever. Nobody needs anything from you.
You sigh to yourself when you feel your phone vibrate in the front pocket of your jeans, interrupting you and your thoughts. You can never get some rest. Reluctantly, you pick it up, "Yes?"
You stress the following to come minutes as the other person on the line starts off with an enormous rant about what you need to accomplish in a short amount of time.
"Yes, I know, I'll see to it. Don't worry", you constantly reply, over and over as if it's becoming a mantra and slowly, you'll start to believe your own words while, in fact, it's just too much to do in little – too little - time.
You hang up, your gut wrenching. You don't feel good anymore. In fact, you feel much worse than you did when you started this walk. Hoping to get it off of your chest, you continue your walk anyways. You just love to stare and observe people. You come across many, different and unique ones – different hair colours, even pink, purple and green. Spiked hair, gorgeous, flowing hair. You could've sworn you've seen Princess Leia's buns in there, somewhere, as well. Not to mention that they all come in different sizes – little, tall, thick, thin, big nose, really small nose, "I've-had-too-much-to-drink-already" strawberry red nose, black, white or even a combination of the two. But they all seem to be frowning, mouths pressed into a hard line. And even when they smile at you, you can see through them, the fake smiles. They're all playing pretend. They're unhappy, frustrated, just like you. You can only see empty, shallow eyes pass you by. Eyes that are too busy, too preoccupied, perhaps even too selfish with their own little things to even pay you some attention, to notice you're watching them.
Suddenly, someone catches you off guard. He dares to look at you, even if it's only for a couple of seconds. He stares you right in the eyes and smiles warmly at you, smiles genuinely at you. You're not sure if it's directly at you or at the person on the other side of the line. Well, you realize the person on the other line is not even going to see it. It's a nice, welcome alternation and you smile back at him, just the same. He chuckles, showing his perfect white teeth. He passes you by and you find yourself to be awestruck.
You stop dead in your tracks, turn around to look at him, to watch him and see him disappear around the corner. For the briefest of moments, he, a complete stranger, captivated you. You smile to yourself and continue your journey ahead. But, before you can do so, something small and dark up ahead catches your attention. You lightly raise one of your eyebrows and look at the item lying on the ground a couple yards away. You quickly make your way over to it and as you approach it to pick it up, you realize it's someone's wallet. You look around and see if someone's staring at you as though you're a thief or perhaps you'll notice someone acting strange, as though they've just realized they dropped their wallet. But no one does.
You can't quite kill the sudden rush of curiosity surging through your veins. You just have to take a peek inside. It won't hurt anybody, right? Giving in, you slowly open the black leather wallet and you are immediately greeted by the smiling stranger you came across moments ago. This is his wallet and he probably didn't even realize he lost it.
You quickly put it in your pocket and start to run towards the same direction as the stranger went. You go around the corner and run as fast as you can. In the far distance, you can see him.
Just a little more!
When you finally reach him, you place a hand on his shoulder. He immediately directs his attention to you, lowering his cell phone and places his other hand on top of it. You stand before him, gasping for air yet you manage to lift your hands up, both index fingers pointing at him, non-verbally telling him he needs to wait and be patient. You don't even dare to look him in the eyes, yet he does. You can feel his eyes burning on your skin. He tries to look at you, make eye contact, but you won't allow him. He must be suspicious, but he doesn't say anything. To not make him wait anymore, you quickly fish his wallet out of your jeans with one hand and present it to him.
"You've, eh, lost your wallet", you manage to say as you hold the black item up in front of you, still a little out of breath.
He blinks a couple of times, regards the piece of leather as though he's unsure it's his. You flick it open with your middle and index finger. Immediately, his ID-card is shown.
"I, I… I suppose you're right", you hand him his wallet and he takes it, putting it back in his pocket, "Thank you". He looks back up again and you can see his mouth dropping slightly open. You can feel his eyes roaming your face, inspecting before locking gazes with you.
"You're not from around here, are you?", he suddenly asks, his voice a little lower.
"No", you respond and you wonder why he asks that. He must've noticed you're not wearing any kind of make-up. Or, perhaps, he noticed how your hair is in a messy bun, dangerously being upheld by a single pin. Or, perhaps, strangers returning found objects are extremely rare in this popular city.
You watch him lick his lips ever so slowly before biting down on them and you can feel your gut wrenching once more, but this time, it's not due to stress or agony. It's because him licking his lips does things to you, does impeccable things to you. You can feel the muscles clench lightly in your abdomen.
"Can I buy you a cup of coffee?", you abruptly ask, overtaken by emotions. A small smile appears on your face, trying to hide the fact that you can feel your cheeks redden just a little.
"Eh..", he whispers softly, seemingly out of words to speak while he directs his gaze towards the floor. You cock your head lightly and copy him, looking at the ground yourself, chewing onto your lip. You immediately realize he's not going to say yes. You look up to find him staring at you. You lightly shrug your shoulders, placing your hands on your back.
"Look, I'm…", you cut him off. He must've noticed the disappointment in your expression.
"It's all right. Don't feel obligated. And don't feel bad about it", you smile politely at him and see how his harsh expression filled with guilt softens, "Have a lovely day, Mr MacFarlane". He smiles back at you and you slowly make your way back to the main street, without looking over your shoulder – not even once, back to your walk. Even though, you don't really need it anymore. You feel as calm as a butterfly fluttering casually through the air.
But had you looked over your shoulder, you would've caught him doing just the same.