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Apollo City Chapter 4

Underneath her drawing of him sitting on the train reading Kurt Vonnegut, she wrote:

Saturday 28th July 2012

235 London Street. That's where he lives. And there are only 20 apartments there (I checked). Today, I also tried the nicotine patch. It seems to be working, as I've only had 15 cigarettes today, instead of my usual 20. Or maybe it's just my obsession with him - Derek. That's his name - Derek. What a perfect name. He's a Kurt Vonnegut fan and was reading Mother Night on the subway - cute! But today, he was with another woman - Snow White. Does that mean I'm the wicked stepmother? Derek and Snow don't seem to be anything more than friends or co-workers, but still… No-one should be allowed near that god apart from me. He's mine.

She realised, over her menthol cigarettes (which were not as disgusting as she'd expected,) that he entries about Derek were becoming longer and more detailed. She flicked back a couple of pages and stared at the drawings for a while, before having a shower and getting into bed. She fell asleep instantly, the lack of alcohol and nicotine making her drowsy.

Sunday 29th July 2012

I woke up at 9 today, and I'm going to go back to 235 London Street to see Derek. I'm on the subway now. And I've got a camera now, because, although I love drawing him, it isn't the same as having 3D, colourful, real moments of time captured on paper.

Later: sitting on a bench outside the entrance to his building. I've taken a couple of photos of the area, just to remember it. It's interesting to look into someone's life like this. It's 12 now, so he should be out soon. I've been waiting for 2 hours already.

She looked up just at the right time to see someone leaving the building with a little white dog on a lead. It was Derek. He was wearing sweat pants and a vest, and saying

"C'mon Clooney!" Aww, his dog was called Clooney, like the actor. How cute! She quickly snapped a picture on her Polaroid camera. He had jogging earphones in, and started off at a reasonably fast pace towards to park.

Later: He just left to go running with his dog called Clooney.

And here, with her pritt stick she'd brought with her, she stuck in the newly printed photo, and started sketching his happy, relaxed face as the sun hit him when he'd closed the door of his building.

Later: Derek arrived back, two hours later. I was starting to go stiff. He looked sweaty and out of breath. He's definitely fit. I wonder what he does for a living - athlete maybe? No, he has too much time to be a professional athlete. Cop? I don't know. He's about three minutes away, down the road, but I can still see him.

Derek got closer, and Jennifer stared. She couldn't help herself. And he glanced in her direction as he neared his building. He glanced in her direction. HE GLANCED IN HER DIRECTION! Her heart beat faster and she felt herself go faint. He had a confused, amused, and slightly accusing stare on his handsome face, as if to say, "Why are you still here?"

Good point. Why was she still here? She hadn't meant to waste her whole Sunday morning outside his house. But she had. She hadn't eaten, drunk or moved in over 4 hours. It was two o'clock now. And Derek had a grocery bag in one hand, Clooney's lead in the other. He stopped to do some stretches for a couple of minutes outside his building before taking out his keys and opening the door. Then, he was gone.

She stuck in some more photos she had taken. One was of him stretching, and the other was of him reaching down to pat Clooney. Then, she gently placed the notebook in her blue bag and hurried back to the train station, unaware that Derek was watching her from behind the curtains in his bedroom window.

Monday 30th July 2012

Work was horrible. I couldn't stop thinking about cigarettes. But I've quit cold turkey and I am never going back to them. They kill people. I hope Derek appreciates what I'm doing for him. I left work early again and now I'm at Georgetown waiting for him to come.

He came a couple of minutes later, with Snow White. She studied them both: Derek was in black pants, as usual, with a light blue cotton shirt which was unbuttoned at the top to show the start of his wonderful chest. Snow White was wearing black ankle boots, smart black pants and a tight red v-neck t-shirt. Her eyes were beautifully large and her lips were natural this time. They were laughing together. She tried to work out what they were talking about.

"Emily, why?" Derek was saying. Oh… So she was called Emily.

"Because…" she said seriously.

"Because what?"

"Because I'm scared that I'm messing up the team. I can't grab onto my old life Derek." They were both serious now, looking into each others eyes. Jennifer could see that Derek was biting his lip inside his mouth.

"But…"

She took his hand here. "Derek. It's not as easy as it sounds. I spent seven months away from you guys. I can't act as though that part of the year didn't happen."

He sighed. "No…"

"I need a fresh start Derek." Her eyes were shining now. "I can't…"

He just smiled sadly. Then, he held his arms open and she moved into his grip, resting her head against his chest. He enveloped her in his hug, resting his hands awkwardly on her back. Then, he grew more confident, and stroked her hair. She said something that Jennifer couldn't hear, and Derek sniggered.

"Can I come over tonight?" she asked when they'd broke apart. "I can't really face my lonely apartment right now."

He smiled. "Of course you can."

"So you don't have any other plans tonight?"

"Nope." He grinned.

"No girlfriend number 5 of this week? Or late night parties?"

"Ha! I'll have you know Emily, I've only had one girlfriend for the past two months!"

"Oooh…" she said sarcastically. "Wow… Is that a record?"

They both laughed together, as the train that Emily would have got on pulled away from the station. They got on his train a few minutes later. She followed, making sure that she stayed close enough to them to hear their interesting conversation. So it seemed like Emily had been away from Derek and this team thing, and now she couldn't quite get back into the swing of things. Jennifer couldn't wait to find out more.