Chapter 14: Nadir Plays with Matches
Erik knocked on the door of Nadir's apartment at the crack of dawn, but the man was already awake and dressed in his police uniform, ready for work.
"Your keys, my good man." Erik theatrically bowed and dropped the keys into Nadir's hand. When Erik turned to walk away, Nadir grabbed him by the collar of his coat and dragged Erik into the apartment. He tossed his masked friend on the couch and shoved the still-heaping bowl of Halloween candy into Erik's lap.
"Here. Take as much as you want-actually just take the whole bowl while you're at it!" Nadir wailed. He wasn't big on sweets, but he could be tempted. Oh, why did he overbuy candy every single year? It all ended up in Erik's stomach instead of adorable children with costumes. Erik greedily reached into the bowl. At least someone gained enjoyment from the sweets.
"Alright, Erik. Now that I have you trapped. Tell me about her," Nadir demanded.
"Christine? She's just an acquaintance of mine."
"Oh, yeah? What kind of acquaintance?" Nadir smirked, but a horrified look came over Erik's face.
"Not the kind of acquaintance you're thinking of…" Erik shook his head and opened another chocolate. "We ran that summer camp together, the one I was telling you about."
Nadir nodded. He'd heard some interesting things about that summer camp. If Erik was to be believed, the camp was a real fiasco, but then again, Erik had an inclination toward pessimistic exaggeration.
"So you took her home?" Nadir asked.
"Yes. I took her home to her house, and then I went home to mine. That's it."
"I give you my car for two days, and that's the story you bring me? My god, Erik. You're so boring." Nadir smacked his friend's shoulder. Erik was hopeless when it came to women. Maybe he just needed a gentle push. "You know, Erik," Nadir said slyly. "She's not bad looking."
"I suppose..." Erik had noticed Christine wasn't bad looking. In fact, he might even say she was rather good looking, but Erik didn't say such things and certainly not to people's faces.
"Do you like her, Erik?"
"I don't know...maybe." Erik dug around the bowl for more chocolate, but Nadir had left him with nothing but gross gummy bears. Good enough.
Nadir smirked. He was an old pro at reading his masked friend's facial expressions, and Erik was blushing beneath his mask. He liked Christine very much. No doubt about it.
Erik couldn't say when it'd started exactly. At first he hadn't cared much for Christine and her snooty, goody-two shoes attitude, but Erik's distaste didn't last long. He'd walked into the theater one day and Christine had been twirling across the stage, her blond curls trailing behind her and the skirt of her sundress billowing around her waist as she spun. She'd disappeared backstage and emerged with a prop or something in her hand. Erik didn't know what it was because he'd only been paying attention to her. Had Christine seen him lurking in the shadows? Perhaps she hadn't noticed his presence, but perhaps she had and just didn't give a damn what he thought of her. Well, Erik thought it had been the most adorable thing in the world if it mattered much to her. He'd had a fleeting desire to join her on that stage.
That's when he first realized.
And then there'd been that accursed incident with the playground slide! Erik would admit a few times after the incident he'd lain awake in bed and wondered what it'd be like if she were beside him. He'd run his fingers through her golden curls and gaze into her clear blue eyes. Then, right before she kissed him, she'd murmur the confession that she'd secretly been in love with him the whole time just like he-No! He wasn't in love with her!
Erik's eyes snapped open without realizing they'd been closed.
"Don't look at me like that," Erik groused at his smug best friend.
"Like what?" Nadir said self-righteously. "I'm just standing here. If you don't like it, close your eyes again and think about Christine!" Nadir was pelted by a handful of candy wrappers. "You better pick those up! I won't let you trash my home!" he ordered. Erik grumbled, but he collected the wrappers and trudged into the kitchen to toss them in the trash.
"Anyway," said Erik when he returned. "It doesn't really matter. Christine would never fall for someone like me."
"Why not?"
"Well, for starters, I've been a complete jerk to her up until this point."
Not to mention all their other differences. Christine was beautiful and sweet, always dressing in vibrant colors and sundresses to compliment her radiant personality. Erik was neither good looking nor sweet. He always wore black and occasionally very dark grey to demonstrate to the world he was living in eternal anguish and would they please call again later, or better yet, never.
"Hey, would a jerk have brought her home the other night?" Nadir said, trying to bolster Erik's confidence.
"Yeah, I guess, because I did."
"Erik, stop it," Nadir scolded. No doubt, his grouchy friend was just up to his old pessimism again.
But little did Nadir know, Erik wasn't far from the truth. Erik and Christine's relationship had been off to a rocky start, and it was a downhill avalanche from there. Erik hadn't meant for the mutual dislike to happen, but they were past the point of no return. Both were too stubborn to extend the olive branch and make movements towards friendship, let alone anything beyond friendship; however, maybe, just maybe, their drive home had been the start of something new. Erik's heart fluttered at the thought.
"I offered to give her opera lessons," he said proudly, "because she used to be an opera singer and wants to go back to it."
"See? It's not that hard to be nice to people!" Nadir laughed. If nothing romantic came of Erik's little crush on Christine, at the very least, the masked man could gain a friend. "Alright, Erik. I've gotta kick you out now," Nadir said when he glanced down at his watch; he had to leave for work. "No. Just take the bowl with you." Nadir waved away the bowl of candy Erik had set on the table, and Erik gleefully picked it back up. He was more than happy to take the candy off his friend's hands. "And Erik, Can I have the key to my building back?"
"Fine, but that means you're going to have to come down and get me every time I want to visit."
"Or I could just leave you out there…" Nadir muttered. "Fine, keep it, but don't go banging on my door after midnight anymore."
"Fair enough." Erik shrugged and stepped into the hallway with Nadir following closely behind.
"You better not have left your crappy classical stuff playing on my car radio."
"No. I left my glorious classical music playing on your car radio." Erik smirked and Nadir rolled his eyes.
The two men parted ways at the entrance to Nadir's building. Nadir walked down the street in one direction toward the parking garage where he kept his car. Erik went off in the other direction with his bowl of candy and a train to catch.