Chapter 2 Two

Chapter Two.

Nina's POV.

The sky is covered with many ashy heavy clouds and within them, on occasion, would thunder strikes. I'm not the type who is scared of the dark, but truth be told, I hate the annoying sound that those lightening makes.

With that in my mind, I put my hands in my pocket and bring out my earbuds. It doesn't take me long to fix it to my ears and once I have connected the Bluetooth, I tap on a playlist of Sam Smith's songs.

Thankfully, there are tents attached to the buildings, so I do not have to use my umbrella yet. Oh, my, God. Speaking of umbrella, I've forgotten mine at the coffee shop.

Jeez! My inner voice is kidding me that I left a souvenir for my boss to have as a reminder that I once worked there.

That's rubbish, as I need it. I have crossed to the next building, but now considering if I should go back to pick it up when I receive a call from my uncle. Fuck! He's going to fry me tonight.

I take a deep breath and slide the screen of my phone to the right. "Hi, uncle." I say into the piece, but instead, he complains he can't hear anything but the splattering sound of the air.

Oh.

I disconnect the connection and change to loudspeaker, so he could hear me. "Can you hear me now?"

"Yes..." He trails off. "Oh, my God, kid, you are still outside?" He sounds like he's about to lose it, but I know him by now that he's just trying to faze me.

"I'm sorry," my voice is tiny, "I forgot to tell you that today was to be my last day to read my book to my physical readers, so I had to finish it and that took time..." He stops me mid-sentence, before he takes over.

"Oh, please, whatever that's supposed to mean. The time is to-Eleven, and I need you to be home before Eleven on the dot. Understood?"

"You're not going to start today's horror movie without me, are you?" I question right away. Today is Friday, our horror movie day. Funny enough, we have each day for different types of movies that we watch at night.

Plus, he's not the kind of person who can watch a horror movie alone. He would most likely not be able to sleep after.

"Well, as a punishment, I shall."

"I see you don't care about yourself, about your health." I say, trying to change his fixed up mind, but he chuckles.

"Get home before Eleven on the dot." And he cuts the call. Afterward, I make an, "argh," sound with my arm jabbing to my side.

Huffing as I put my phone back inside my pocket, I reach the end of the second building and stop. My face wrinkles all of a sudden, as my hand goes to my jaw and I hiss.

Fuck! He fucking did it again. He messed up again! Ashley...he... oh-mi-gosh, I might just break up with him right now. He does exactly those thing that makes me want to get away from him for at least a year and have my own peace of mind.

I told you he would not come: says my inner voice. Before I could blast her, she has cowered back into her space.

With annoyance, I take out my phone and dial Ashley's contact. I mean, the meet-up conversation was simple. He is supposed to have been here. Of course, I am late, which has a reason, plus, I don't do it often, like he does.

My reason for being much more vexed is that to cross this building to the next, I would get so drenched because of the distance and my feet are just too tired to run really fast.

He picks up the call on the second dial. "Babe..."

"Why-" he manages to hold me off and quickly states his excuse.

His voice is shaky, "babe, listen to me. Please, I'm so sorry. I know that I've messed up, again. Not my fault. You know that Cinematic building across from your place of work?" He's being rhetorical; he continues, "my parents are there, and they mustn't know I have their car brought out to pick you up. They'd eat me alive." When he finishes, I sigh. He had added effects to his words to make me believe him much harder.

I shake my head in disappointment. His parents know me and they can't be angry, as he's claimed.

"So, what do I do now?" I don't have time to fight him tonight.

I look at the street. Everyone is inside these buildings, so the street is silent and empty of any other than myself. I don't even see any incoming car, either. It's all dead silent.

"I'm parked four more blocks away. Do you think you can make it there?"

Like, I have a choice?!

I groan, "I'm going to get drenched." My voice is sobered.

"And I'll pull you into my embrace, pass onto you my warmth, from my warm heart."

That makes me hiss lowly, "technically, it's a cold heart, because you wouldn't sacrifice for me," and to be honest, I meant what I said.

Our dating life is a mess. He's my first boyfriend, and he's never been focused on just me. I know you're asking what that's supposed to mean, and I'm about to tell you a piece of it.

Our relationship is placed in an open one, so he's free to have sex with anyone he wishes, but he dare not disrespect me by doing it in front of me.

Me, however, wouldn't do anything with anyone else, not even with him, so yeah, I'm pretty much what you're thinking in your head: I haven't lost my innocence.

Ashley's tried to, many times, but I just won't allow him and we always fight afterward, because he knows that I have my reasons, but this isn't the time to discuss them.

I am back to the now, "babe, just try to understand me."

"I'll see you in a bit." I say and roll my eyes.

Once the call has dropped, I take a deep breath, close my eyes and opening it, I run into the rain, heading for the next building that would shield me from it, but unfortunately, I run into a thick frame.

My fiction senses called it a brick, but my brain senses what I've slammed into as a person.

My eyes flare at the realization. It is a person and crazily, his body is so hard. My fingers hurt a bit, because I had tried to push myself back by pressing them on his muscles, but my brain isn't thinking of that now.

"I'm so sorry," I tell, confusion evident in my voice.

Before I blinked and head into the rain, I hadn't seen anyone coming towards me, I swear.

He's wearing a black hood, matching with his sweatpants. His frame still looks huge inside the outfit.

"It's okay, Miss." Is all he says in a mixed accent of American and Russian, if I'm not mistaken, then my eyes drops to his chest again. I had felt something differently wet there earlier, sticky. Staring back at him, I see a crimson red stain on his clothing.

I swallow a sudden lump in my throat, as I tell myself it isn't what I'm thinking. To be honest, that isn't helping, especially with him having the killer type body, and I don't mean just hot.

Out of nowhere, someone else comes from the dark, from behind me, and calls, "Vance."

My head has never turned that fast before. The stranger I had hit, whom I now think his name, is Vance.

He nods at me briefly, then leaves with the new stranger who had called him. In my head, I think that person's vocals and accent is the same as the one I collided into, whose name I think is Vance. Also, as they walk away, their gait resembles each other.

Oh, and back to the stain, quickly, I check my fingers, but they have been washed by the rain, so I couldn't be confirming, to be sure if that was blood I saw.

Now that they've left, I realized I'm still under the rain, and I'm now feeling icy. Hurriedly, I make my way to the fourth building and seeing Ashley's parents' Mazda MX-5 parked there, I stomp towards it, ready to give him the best speech of his life for being the worst first boyfriend I would have.