Different
6.45 am, the alarm screams.
Is it Wednesday? Thursday? Oh, you can't even remember. All of your days are dully similar – the best you can do to survive their suffocating routine is yawn in their face, the same way every morning.
Now go wash your face, get dressed and open your door, ready to spend the next eight hours at your dusty desk. You hate living in that office, so boring and monotone, like everything else is.
You still don't know what you want to do with your life – it may seem a bit late, yes, but you don't like this routine at all. That is why, every morning, you wake up fifteen minutes earlier to have breakfast outside – a moment of relax, a distraction from your life. And then there is the girl.
She came out of nowhere – she appeared at the coffee house early one day, indifferent as if she had always been working there. You never changed café since you saw her; for every morning, while you peek at her from behind the newspaper, she brings you your coffee and a fragment of uniqueness in a grey landscape.
This is the best part of your day, when you sit at the same table, in the darkest corner of the room, waiting in silence. Although they may seem quite normal for anyone else, they are ten precious minutes for you.
She's been there for months, and still you can't help spending a bit of your time in contemplating her. Every new morning surprises you again, as you notice how fast and sure her gestures are when she aligns rows of identical coffee cups. She seems to fit in the world better than anyone – and yet some days, when heavy rain taps against the window panels of the café, it looks as if her glance travelled far, seeking for a world in some other universe.
You don't know where she comes from nor what made her become that way. All you know is that she, in the concrete skeleton of your town and its citizens, is different. Different from any other girl, any other man, one step higher than mankind. And oh, she is so beautiful.
Then, as you walk out of the café, she greets you with the rare smile she addresses to those who dare look into her burning eyes. It's quick and small, yet strong as can be, and enough to make unique each ring of that long chain of days. You walk away with a sigh, following the direction of her gaze.
You would never guess what lies beneath.
Random I-don't-know-anything guy! XD
Post-Portal fanfic, in a time when Chell will have gotten over it all and inserted herself again in mankind. I still want her to be alone and sure of herself - yet I cannot ask the world not to notice her, with the monster of personality she has.
Not a romantic fic, and whatever it is it's one-sided. XD
I adore Chell - if anyone didn't notice. Especially Portal 1 Chell. *blushes*