Destroy this City of Delusion
Break these walls down
I will avenge
Justify my reasons
with your blood
Muse –City of Delusion
I woke to warm sun light filtering in through window on to my bed; I yawned and stretched out, curling my toes. I resisted the urge to snuggle back down into bed and go back to sleep, and pushed myself out of bed, but as soon as my feet touched the icy cold wood floor I recoiled, slipped and hit my head on the bed frame groaning. I rubbed my head with the hand that wasn't pushing me off the bed, hissing in pain. Well. That was going to bruise.
Once I had finally got out of bed I got ready to go out for my morning run I pulled on my trainers and left my apartment, took the first turn away from the building and pushed off into a fast run. My feet pounded on the hard pavement pushing my body to the limit, I usually ran about five kilometres each morning and went with Alice to the gym each night.
Alice is my best friend and has been since I joined university. She had majored in fashion and I had majored in English so, really, we were practically polar opposites, but we clicked straight away when we had first met. She had come up to me on our first day at our free period we had together and sat down by me, started making conversation and then she asked whether I wanted to go have lunch with her. I accepted after she reasoned with me that neither of us knew anybody here seeing as it was our first day and we have been friends ever since.
She's like a best friend and a mother all in one - sometimes she worries about me too much fussing over the most menial things. Although, I wouldn't have much of a mother to compare her to. I breathed out, pushed those thoughts to the back of my mind and continued to push myself harder, increasing my speed. I took in my surroundings breathing in the fresh morning air watching all the green pass by me as I ran.
I crossed the road looking at my surroundings once more before hitting something with full force falling flat on my ass. When I looked up I could see what I ran into was less of a something and more of a someone. He held out his hand to me in a silent gesture almost as if avoiding conversation but as soon as are hands touched I felt a strong sense of déjà vu coming over me. I shook it off and stood up, opening my mouth to apologize when I saw two green eyes looking back at me giving me that déjà vu all over again.
Those eyes...
He smiled into my neck as our bodies where pressed against one another. He wrapped his arms around my waist pulling me too him in a loving gesture. I could feel his breath on my neck sending shivers down my spine tracing his fingers along my bare hip bone, his green eyes capturing mine for a second.
"Bella" he moa...
Oh dear lord. Was I just having fantasies about a total stranger? A total stranger whose hand I was still clinging to for dear life. A total stranger who was now standing there looking at me like I'm totally deranged. I probably am. Well Bella, you know what they say. Apparently your libido does go up as you get older... Wonderful.
Blushing, I mumbled a sorry, dropped his hand like it was a burning hot iron and continued my run home before I could embarrass myself further. Well that sucked. I finally find a man who is gorgeous and hopefully sane, and what do I do? Have horny daydreams about him. God, am I that desperate? Okay, okay it had been a while... But not that long. A couple of months at most. I think? Oh, hell. I am that desperate.
Trying not to cry at the thought of my almost celibate life I pulled out my phone to text Alice. I was in need of some retail therapy...
"Hello?" Alice's 'posh' phone accent trilled out.
"Allo? 'oo eez it?" I trilled back, in a French accent of course.
"Oh, it's you." Alice said back, returning to her normal London accent. I felt unloved.
"What! No 'it's wonderful to hear from you darling?' Not even an 'I missed you.' Well, I'm hurt."
"Bella, I saw you yesterday."
"We're soul mates – we supposed to miss each other." I fake cried.
"Bella I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times. I'm not a lesbian!" She yelled back.
If she's going to take it that badly "You know you're not going to be able to fight it for much longer! I'll be waiting!" I then rapidly switched tones. As you can probably tell, this was our usual phone call routine, only to be broken in emergencies. Like a Vivienne Westwood sale for example. "Anyway, darling, I'm in some desperate need of some retail therapy." I drawled, sounding like my fancy Aunt Barbara. The squeal that resounded down the phone nearly deafened me.
"Oh. My. God! Let's hit Oxford Street and Covent Garden! I heard there's a sale at Harvey Nichols! Oh! And I saw some shoes to die for - they where red Jimmy Choos. Oh my God! This going to be so great... " she carried on jabbering at me. I just let her ramble on. She had gone to Alice land where all the clouds are made of candy floss and the sea is pink lemonade.
"Whoa slow down Tinkerbell I said I wanted retail therapy not a full shopping meltdown" I teased I could hear her huff through the phone. "Get your stuff together and get a move on. We have some serious shopping to do!" another squeal threatened to break my ear drums.
"Shall I come and pick you up as soon as I'm ready?"
"Perfection!" I said manoeuvring the phone so I was holding it between my ear and my shoulder. "I'll be waiting darling" l drawled. To excited to care she just chirped "Bye Bella" down the phone and hung up. I shook my head and put the phone down; I showered quickly and pulled my hair into a messy bun with hair pins. I pulled on some jeans and a long sleeved blue v-neck shirt.
Alice arrived at my apartment to pick me up and walked through the front door letting herself in, hard to imagine that this bothered me before, huh. Well, I've gotten used to it know she's even got her own key to the apartment! She grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the door eager to start our 'retail therapy'.
We drove out and park in a small car park at one end of Oxford Street, where we shopped the entire way up one side before we got to the more expensive shops at the top and Alice bought her jimmy choos she had been squealing about. We walked back down the on the other side stopping in whatever shops took our fancy. Which when your us was practically every shop we past I swear! We even went into some hardware store so Alice could buy some security cameras! I do worry about her sometimes, I really do.
We were both laughing when we were walking into the car park riding on a shopping high there really isn't anything better. Well, not anything maybe chocolate. Yum. Chocolate is apparently supposed to be as good as an orgasm. I wouldn't know though would I, I'm practically living the life of a bloody nun.
I turned towards Alice and that's when it happened. I was reaching in my bag to grab my phone, when some creepy – looking guy swiped my purse. I didn't even realise what was happening - it was like my body had gone into overdrive .I caught him by the back of the shirt before he could get away then it all happened so fast. My hands were flying everywhere, I was fighting off the guy in some very strange ways I didn't even know I knew how to do and I don't mean that in the naughty sense. It was all very weird.
Then he was underneath me on the floor, I was grabbing my bag and letting him up. He immediately started running off in the opposite directing, giving me a bewildered stare over his shoulder. He probably realised there was too much attention on us know for him to fight back.
I looked at Alice. "Um, what just happened?" I could hear my voice getting higher. This was all too much – I could not have done what I just did. It's just not possible. My hands were shaking and clasped tightly around my bag.
Alice put her hand on my arm "Come on Bella, let's just go. People are looking." she murmured, her big blue eyes looking wide and sad. But not frightened. It was like she had expected this to happen. "Bella its okay, you're in shock, we'll go in here." She soothed, dragging me into a nearby Starbucks detouring away from the car park.
The thing was, I wasn't in shock. It was more like I had done this many times before and that it was normal for me. I let myself be dragged by Alice into the coffee shop.
"S - Shouldn't we call the police?" I said, my eyes wide with confusion.
Alice shook her head. "Nah, its fine. Unless you want to press charges or something?"
I groaned."Oh God. Should I? Though they'll probably end up doing me for assault or something. And that's not the worst part. How on earth did I do that, Alice? To my knowledge I have never had karate lessons or whatever the hell that was! I thought I was a normal, kind person, not someone who goes around assaulting random strangers!" I was getting louder, rambling on. I should be quiet.
"Bella, the guy attacked you first." Alice reminded me.
"But still!" I wailed. Alice just smiled at me and I could sense that she was about to brush this situation off, make it seem unimportant, the change in her tone wouldn't have been noticeable to anyone else.
I was right. "Look, Bella, it's nothing. Some guy attacked you and you fought back – that's a perfectly natural response. It felt wrong because you're obviously not used to fighting people."
"That's not what felt wrong Alice" I looked at her in the eyes seeing something there I couldn't fathom. Guilt. "What felt wrong was the fact it felt natural." I couldn't shake the feeling off. Alice's theory made sense, but it didn't feel right somehow. I knew that being able to fight that way with no training whatsoever was not natural, especially not with the stares I'd been getting. I knew I was right.
I sighed and asked Alice what drink she wanted. "Espresso." Was the immediate answer. I swear that girl exists on coffee.
"Right away, madam." I saluted. Shaking my head, I walked to the end of the queue. Humming, I scanned the menu. Ooh chocolate cream frappuchino! And because I was distracted, I had to stumble into the nearest object or person. Of course. No, Bella can't go a whole day without bumping into at least five different things. No sir.
"Sorr..." Oh my "God I am so sorry" yes he certainly was a god. Gah, stop it! My eyes widened taking in the person before me the same man from this morning. I resisted having a full blown mental breakdown and took a deep breath. He let go of the arm he had grabbed when I had fallen into him, steadying me.
"It's not a problem." he said, his eyes not meeting mine before turning around and making his way over to the counter to order to his drink. I followed him with my eyes. My eyes trained on his ass ogling him until I realised what I was doing and pulled my eyes away.
"Espresso and Chocolate Cream Frappuchino" The barista called out. I went over thanked her and got away as fast as I could over to Alice.
"Alice" I hissed she was engrossed in her magazine on the table "Alice!" she still didn't look up. i picked up one of the menus of the next table and hit her over the head. She looked up at me startled.
"What the hell was that for?"
"You weren't listening!" I argued.
"That doesn't mean you have an open invitation to hit me! What did you want anyway?"
"Well." I started "You know I never told you the reason I called this morning. Well he just walked in" I told her taking the seat next to her.
"Who is it?" she asked perking up scanning the coffee shop eyes drifting round coming to rest back on me. I motioned over to the far corner where he was now sat with his drink reading a newspaper.
"Over there" his head shot up and looked over here, I blushed and looked away but Alice kept on looking I noticed they seemed to be almost having a conversation with their eyes. It lasted for all but a second, I just about caught the exchange in their eyes. After a short amount of time his eyes flashed to mine then back to Alice, Alice's head whipped round to face me, a smile planted on her face.
"What was that about?" she looked at me confused bringing her espresso cup to her lips.
"What was what about?" she said giving me an incredulous expression
"Well, Alice, I highly doubt you where having a staring contest with him"
"What if I was?"
"Well, I've got dibs" just as I said this the guy looked up and smiled, oh God did he hear me!? No. No, impossible, I'm imagining things. Then why did he look so pleased with himself? Whilst I was pondering this Alice had took her phone out and started texting. I leaned over and took a look over her shoulder and she immediately moved it from my line of sight.
"God Alice, you would make a crap spy"
"Really? And how would you know?" her eyebrows raised "Wait, that doesn't make any sense." I was only half paying attention because Green Eyes just got up to leave.
"Oh well" I chirped "it's such a wonderful sunny day. Let's go for a walk!" Alice just gave me another incredulous look.
"Excuse me? What the hell has gotten into you?" I watched as he walked towards the door, then pulled Alice up and away from the magazine. She let out a shocked squeak making everyone in Starbucks give us odd stares. I grabbed our drinks and her magazine after her protests about leaving it. There! I spied him by a tree, yes!
"Ok, the real reason I want to go for a walk is that Green Eyes just walked out of Starbucks" I said pulling her down the street keeping a good distance behind him so he wouldn't notice we where following him.
"So you want to stalk him!? Green eyes? Really?" she asked as we carried on following him turning a corner.
"Well I don't know his name so this is was the best I could come up with. It's not like I had prior warning an extremely hot man would suddenly become available, is it? And no. We are not stalking him we are walking in the same direction as him whilst I subtly observe him." She just looked at me
"Bella that is classed as stalking! I so do not want any part in your little stalking game! And since when do you do anything subtly? Remember Mike Newton?" I grabbed her before she could walk away.
"You are staying and that is final! I stick by you when you have a wacky scheme now you will stick by me during mine!" I whisper – yelled, blushing at the Mike Newton comment. She so didn't go there. She sulked next to me knowing there was no way in hell she was getting out of this. Green eyes turned down to the road leading to Hyde Park so I pulled Alice in that direction making her trip up in the process.
"Hey, stop it!" She snapped straightening her coat as we hurried across the road under marble arch. Wow it's so tall! We hurried under it once I had stopped marvelling at its height. I mean c'mon that thing is huge! Green Eyes was now in Hyde Park and had slowed down. I slowed my pace considerably so we wouldn't be noticed; we carried on following him for a couple of metres.
"This is absolutely ridiculous! What are you going to do when he wants to go home? Set up camp in front of it!" she said loudly maybe a little too loudly as Green Eyes looked around at us. So as to not look suspicious I turned and found a woman with a baby walking next to us. I started talking to her.
"Aww he is so cute what's his name?" I cooed whilst looking at the baby bundled in her arms. The women's happy expression turned insulted. What did I do?
"It's a girl!" Oh my bad, she huffed and walked away across the park before I could apologize. I mean, it was an easy mistake to make. That child looks like a boy, and it's not like she was dressed in pink. What was I supposed to think? Beside me, Alice was in stitches doubled over with laughter. I glared at her and sat next to her.
"You should have seen your face!" She said between laughs "How did you manage to mix up the gender of the baby? It was obvious!"
"Hey!" I defended myself "In all fairness that baby was very masculine and I wasn't paying any attention" this still didn't stop her from finding it any more hilarious than she did before. When she had finally stopped laughing we realised Green Eyes had walked off and we couldn't see where he had gone. As you can imagine, Alice was deeply disappointed.
"Ah well we can stalk him some other time, but for now can we get to the car? My feet and arms are killing me carrying round all these bags" She said happily pulling me back through the park to the car park. We managed to stuff all the bags in the car boot and back seat.
We made our way back to my apartment in the car singing along to Queen songs on the radio at full volume. We were in fits of laughter we got to my apartment getting strange looks from my snooty neighbour Mrs Hardy. She is convinced Alice is my lesbian lover and always gives me disapproving looks when I take her to my apartment which I personally find hilarious - that was where the lesbian joke came from.
"Hey Mrs Hardy" I grinned at her she gave me a weary smile.
"Did you have fun today girls?" she asked
"Oh yes thanks. A lot of fun" Winking at her she looked startled, obviously taking it out of context. Perfect. There was no use in correcting her, she wouldn't believe me, so I just played along and had fun with it, much to Alice's dismay.
We went up to my apartment leaving a startled Mrs. Hardy downstairs. We flopped on the couch after bringing the bags in. I looked at her I knew we were thinking the same thing.
"Movie night?" She grinned and nodded. We got comfy and started with our favourite movie - Phantom of the Opera. I still say Christine should have stayed with the Phantom. Raoul is just boring. I mean yes, he's got all the money, but no personality! When the duet between Raoul and Christine came up, we sang along together I was Raoul and she was Christine. We fell about laughing at the end seeing as neither of us can sing and e were adding suggestive lyrics. Afterwards we watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail, with me reciting all the lines. Personally I think I should be made an honorary Python, but I haven't gotten a response from my letter yet… After the last movie had finished I looked over at Alice to see which movie she wanted to watch next and saw that she was fast asleep.
I yawned only just realising how tired I was and grabbed her a pillow and duvet so she could crash on the couch. Once I had tucked Alice in I got myself ready for bed and snuggled down under the covers, reflecting on the day. It really was an odd day - even for me. I fantasized and stalked one stranger and attacked another after I was mugged. Let's hope tomorrow is more normal.
Normal? Me? Yeah that's going to happen. I can always dream, I guess…