Elias looked through the window and saw Nikoletta walking around inside the house. Her long, champagne blond hair had been pulled back, and the top half had been secured with an elastic. Her sky blue eyes were busy finding the items she needed to put in her purse before leaving the house.
"Nikoletta!" He banged his hands on the window. "Stop ignoring me! We need to talk! Notice me, damn it!"
He had tried for days to make her talk. She never opened her door. She kept ignoring him and it was driving him insane.
"Open the door, sweetheart!" He yelled.
She didn't even react to him knocking on the window. He assumed it was the headphones in her ears that drowned out every sound. She put the strap of her purse over her shoulder and aimed for the front door. A car horn sounded and he turned his attention to see Nikoletta's best friend Rhea had arrived.
"Let's go!" Rhea yelled.
"I'm coming!" Nikoletta yelled back.
Elias turned his head to see Nikoletta run towards the car. He hadn't even heard her leave the house, and apparently she hadn't seen him standing there. He had missed her again. He watched as she got into the car, closed the door, put on the seat belt and placed her arm in the open window.
"No, wait!" He yelled.
Rhea stepped on the gas and the car took off down the street.
"I just want to talk!" He yelled.
Of course they didn't hear him. They were already gone. No one heard him these days. He gritted his teeth and walked downtown. He knew where they were going. Every Tuesday they met up like this and went out for lunch together. He didn't stop walking until he reached the Italian restaurant where they always went for lunch.
He stopped and looked in through the window. The two women were eating and talking. He couldn't just barge into a restaurant and start throwing a tantrum because his girlfriend was ignoring him. He wasn't like that. He was a normal man not understanding what was going on. He just wanted answers.
"Notice me," he said lowly.
He placed his hands on the window and hoped she would feel him stare at her. She didn't. She kept her eyes on Rhea while talking. The women soon finished their lunch. They paid and walked out of the restaurant together. It was a busy day with a lot of people outside so he didn't want to cause a scene right in the middle of the street. Instead he followed behind them at a safe distance.
"Where are you going?" He mumbled.
They weren't heading back to the car. Instead they walked side by side through town. He figured they were going to go shopping but they passed all the stores without even looking through the windows. They soon turned a corner that took them away from the busy streets with all the shops. There were less people now. He picked up his pace to try and reach them. When they turned into the graveyard, he stopped for a second.
"What are you doing here?" He asked.
He couldn't recall Nikoletta having told him about Rhea having lost someone recently. Then again, he had been ignored for a while now. And maybe it wasn't recently. It could be the anniversary of someone's death or someone's birthday. There were many reasons they could be there.
He followed behind slowly, falling behind a bit, trying to hide to allow Rhea to pay her respect to whoever she was there to see. It wasn't until he heard Nikoletta crying that he sped up again. He found the two women in front of a tombstone. Nikoletta was crying, and Rhea had an arm around Nikoletta's shoulders to comfort her.
"I'm sorry," Nikoletta hiccupped.
"Don't apologize," Rhea said. "You can cry all you want. It's okay."
Nikoletta nodded, then turned and started to walk away. Rhea was right there next to her. Elias was standing in the women's way but it was like they didn't even see him. They walked right past him.
"Sweetheart?" He asked. "Please, talk to me. Why are you crying?"
He got no answer back. The women continued walking. He walked over to the tombstone and gasped when he read the name on it. That was his name.
"I'm not dead," he whispered.
Weird images of a car crash suddenly poked through his memory. Images that he didn't want to see. He tried his hardest to push them away again.
"No, I'm not dead!" He yelled and turned to see the two women walking further ahead. "Nikoletta! I'm not dead! I'm right here! Notice me!"
The two women turned a corner, and he was suddenly left alone at the graveyard with a tombstone that had his name on it. Somewhere deep inside he knew this was all real. Somewhere deep inside he knew the truth but he refused to accept it. It all made sense when she kept ignoring him. She wasn't really ignoring him. She couldn't see him. Not anymore. Never again.
"I'm not dead," he whispered in a shaky voice. "Notice me, please."
