Amata woke to the brutal sound of someone pounding on her apartment door. She opened her eyes groggily and looked at her watch: 7:30am. Amata groaned and pulled the covers up to her chin. The knocking continued. She groaned again and pulled the pillow over her face. Go awaaaay, she thought, what kind of person gets up this early?
When she realised that the knocking wasn't going to stop anytime soon, Amata gritted her teeth and flung the doona and sheets off of her. She kicked her feet out from the tangle of sheets and flung her long legs over the side of the bed. She rubbed her eyes and yawned then stretched.
She got up slowly and wobbled into the kitchen. She really couldn't care if she looked like a zombie; it was whoever was knockings fault that she had to get up this early. She ran a hand through her hair then unbolted the door and opened it. Clark stood at her door, clearly in a fuming rage. Dark stood behind him, looking embarrassed but then amused when he saw her dishevelled appearance.
"Yes?" Amata asked stifling a yawn.
"You! You are three days late, again!" Clark fumed showering her with spit and pointing a chubby finger at her. Amata just stared at him with sleepy eyes.
"Uh, Dad? I think you woke her up," Dark said trying not to laugh.
"I don't care!" Clark raged, "this is the third time that she's been late with her rent. I won't stand for it any longer!"
"As I told your son yesterday," Amata said, "I'll pay the damned rent when I have the stinking money." Clark just looked at her, eyes bulging.
"If you haven't paid it by Thursday, you're out!" Clark said gesturing with his thumb. Amata just nodded and yawned again.
"Is your apartment in good working order?" Dark asked, "can we do anything for you?"
"Yeah, actually. You can do something for me," Amata said.
"And what would that be?" Clark scoffed.
"You can get the fuck away from me and let me sleep!" Amata growled and then she slammed the door. As she walked back to her bedroom, she swore she could hear Dark laughing and Clark cursing her.
Amata didn't end up going back to sleep. Once she was awake she stayed awake. She sat on the kitchen counter, sipping her coffee and trying to read the morning paper but nothing interested her. Maybe I should go for another run. Get a little more fit before I go on my hunting spree, yeah, another run. She slipped off the counter and padded back into her room. Thank God I didn't put away my running clothes. Otherwise I'd have to open my closet.
She pulled on her leggings and tank top again and added a grey jacket. She then fumbled under the bed for her mp4. In the hurry to get out of bed this morning and open the damned door, she had knocked her mp4 off the table and onto the floor. She found it and stuffed it into her jacket pocket.
She walked out of the apartment and locked the door. She then hurried down the stairs, not wanting to encounter Clark again. She heard the door to their apartment opening and she started to sprint towards the lobby and smacked head first into Dark.
"Oof," Amata said as her breath whooshed out. She landed on her butt and looked up.
"Going somewhere?" Dark asked as he reached out to help her up.
"Yeah, I'm going for another run," Amata answered as she rubbed her sore rump. That's going to cane for another couple of days.
"Since when have you been so interested in keeping fit?" Dark asked, amusement twinkling in his eyes.
"I've always been interested in keeping fit, it's just that I never bothered to try," Amata explained wondering why it was her who had been knocked down and not him. After all, she hit him pretty hard and if he was any normal guy he would have gone down like a tonne of rocks. So it was pretty strange to her to find herself on her butt instead of him; and it was down right embarrassing.
"And so you're trying now?" Dark asked, completely oblivious to what was turning in her mind.
"Yes," Amata said, "you only get to live once." Ha, not in my case.
"True," Dark said shrugging his shoulders. There was an uncomfortable silence.
"I should get going," Amata said, edging around him.
"Yeah, sure. See you," Dark said as he walked off. Okaaay, that was…strange, Amata thought shaking her head. She still couldn't understand why she had landed on her butt and he hadn't. It just wasn't right.
She set off for the beach again, this time sprinting but not enough to make people turn her way. She didn't want people to be staring at a strange blur streaking across the beach. She slowed down as she approached the pier and decided to walk onto it. She walked out onto the pier and walked to the very end. She then stared down into aqua blue water below. She hadn't been swimming in a while; maybe she could go for a quick dip….
Amata stripped off her jacket and dumped it onto the pier then dove into the water, not even bothering to think if there were any rocks down there. She surfaced and pushed her hair out of her face. That felt good. She swam back to shore, ignoring the strange stares people gave her. She walked back out onto the pier to retrieve her jacket but found that it wasn't there. What the? Amata looked wildly around for her jacket. She couldn't see it anywhere on the pier. Maybe some damn bastard came and bloody took it, Amata fumed, God Dammit! My mp4 was in there too!
Amata scowled as she returned to the beach, her eyes on the lookout for anyone with a grey jacket. She soon saw a guy standing on some rocks with a grey jacket in his hands. She approached him slowly and took a better look at the jacket. It was hers.
"Hey!" Amata shouted as she ran up to him. He didn't turn around.
"Hey!" she shouted again, "that's my jacket you've got!" Still he didn't turn around.
"Excuse me, I said-" Amata started then stopped and stared horrified as the man turned around.
"Oh, my God," she whispered.
"Miss me?"
Oooooooh! Who is it? Review and you'll find out!
VampSa