The front door creaks open, letting in a pool of darkness that threatens my burning candlestick. The candle begins to flicker sideways, the small light being pushed to the side. With one last turn of my head in either direction, I head back inside.
So what was Marcus looking at?
I go back to the beginning, Marcus and Lola were playing some board game downstairs. Imagining my sister with that traitor made bile rise up my esophagus. So I pressed a pillow to my ears on the bottom bunk and eventually my thoughts settled and I fell asleep.
I was all snuggled up and warm under a few blankets, but unfortunately, I woke up what couldn't have been too much later, it was still near pitch black in the room. I still had a pillow lazily pressed over my ears and unconsciously curled up into a ball.
The door squeaked and candlelight flooded into the room, the faint heat radiating onto my closed eyes.
"Good night, Marcus," My sister whispered through a yawn.
I pressed my eyes shut as if it could keep them away, I couldn't just sit there and listen to them like this. I slowly readjusted my hand to press on the pillow, but it did nothing to muffle them.
Lola walked towards me and the ladder but the door didn't close, Marcus didn't leave.
I opened my eyes just a small bit, only enough to see through the fuzziness of my eyelashes.
"Shouldn't you at least talk to her?" Marcus said, still under the assumption that I was fast asleep.
She sighed and turned to me sadly, "She thinks you're with the EAA," she must not be able to see I'm awake, "And I just can't even begin to fathom you being one of them long enough to argue."
Marcus darted his eyes to the ground and stuffed the hand that wasn't holding the metal candlestick in his pocket.
But then his eyes fell on mine. He couldn't have seen me, it was dark and I was barely awake. I could barely see him but as soon as our eyes locked he darted his view back to Lola like it never happened.
He didn't hesitate to speak, like he never saw me, maybe he didn't. "I may not have known you two forever," he watched her like he couldn't look anywhere else, "But you're too good of friends-of sisters, to ignore each other over me."
Finally, I thought, something that couldn't be used to deceive my sister further that came out of his mouth.
But then I began getting worried that he really did know I was awake and this was to trick me into thinking he was better than he truly is. Well, he won't be tricking me.
His eyes didn't fall on me but it was unclear whether it was intentional or not, it seemed fairly natural.
Lola walked back over to him and pulled him into an embrace, "Night, bae."
I closed my eyes to avoid cringing even more than I already was. As Marcus left I could feel his evil eyes staring over me.
"Good night, Lo," He said sweetly.
Lo? Since when?
Ew.
The ladder leading to the top bunk squeaked but then Lola stepped back down.
She paused, then pulled my blanket from my waist to cover my shoulders, "I just wish you could understand. He's a good person, he really is."
She went up to her bunk and within minutes a soft snore filled the room.
I spent the next hours lying awake, completely restless and feeling like I would jump out of my skin at any second. I went through all of the different things that could help you fall asleep, counting, all of that clear your mind meditation, basically everything my parents told me to do when I was little and I couldn't sleep.
I eventually said screw it and made my way to the kitchen to get some water. But to my surprise, Marcus was already down here.
With one hand he held a glass of water and another propped up the corner of the blinds he was peering out of.
I cleared my throat loudly enough to startle him, "What are you doing?"
He jolted away from the window, the tremble in his hands rattling the glass enough to nearly spill his water, "Water... getting water. You couldn't... sleep...either?"
I nodded, unable to shake my suspicion.
"I thought I heard something," He rushed over to the kitchen to get some paper towels.
I walked closer to the window to peek out.
He stepped back to let me through and discreetly gripped the glass of water he was holding tighter than needed, "There's nothing out there."
Out of everything he may or may not have been lying about this whole time, This wasn't a lie. Nothing was out there except the norm, a combination of dead plants and overgrown ones taking over the city.
With a small hesitation of pulling my eyes away, I turned back to him, "What did you hear?"
He darts off to sink to dump out the remains of his glass of water and sets down the cup forcefully, "Probably a branch or something."
I glance back out, something telling me that there is something out of place. But nothing is any different.
He gets to the stairs but pauses before taking even a full step up, "Have you seen anything...weird lately? Like another one of those van's or something of the sort?" His strong Italian accent falls into a quiver.
"No," I say blatantly, trying to tell if he's a really good actor or if this is authentic.
He shows no sign of either before making his way back upstairs.
Here I am now, stepping outside with a candlestick with a handle covered in sweat. But just like Marcus said, there is no trace of anything outside.
***
After another hour or so an orange hue of sunrise fills every room with windows. I lie down on the futon, unable to take my mind off the possibilities of what Marcus could've been up to last night. Could he have just gotten back from a Meetup with his buds?
I stare blankly at the ceiling, wondering if it's too early to go to see Nayan. I wonder what he would think Marcus was doing in the middle of the night.
When I was little, and by little I mean when friends being together outside of school was referred to as 'playdates' instead of 'hanging out', I loved playdates. My Mom would tell me several hours beforehand something like 'We'll leave at two, so find something to do in the meantime."
How was I supposed to wait however many hours to go on my playdate?
So I would watch the clock.
Listen to the tick tick tick sound it made for what felt like forever. Even though it was probably more like two minutes before I went to go watch TV. The ticking noise of the clock that was in the kitchen rings in my ears on a nostalgic loop.
And just like I did then, my two minutes have passed. But I don't have the Disney channel to watch, and nor do I have my Mom here to tell me how early in the morning it is.
One day, Mom, I'll be home.
So instead of waiting I bound off the futon and scribble out a note on the table.
At Nayan's, will be back later. I consider signing but what difference would that make?
I toss the pen onto the table and pull my black sweatshirt on, the one that has my school's logo on it, and then I make my way out. An earthy smell fills my nostrils from the exppance of a city overgrown in plants.
Without pause, I clamber through the coffee shop, past the door that probably says 'Employees only', and up the stairs.
I knock with the back of my knuckle a few times, "Hellooo," I call.
Seconds pass and all I can hear from inside is the footsteps of my friend making his way over.
The door sluggishly opens with Nayan on the opposite side deadpaning me, "Don't you have a sense of time?"
If we had a real clock, it would be probably be seven in the morning give or take. He looks just as awake as me, but it's not a jovial awake. The kind of awake you see from someone who would rather be sleeping.
"I think Marcus was up to something last night," I say.
He takes a step back to let me inside with a yawn, and doesn't seem thrown off by me ignoring his question, "What did he do?"
Once I get inside he shuts the door and I hop onto the table across from him, "I don't really know. It was just the middle of the night and he looked seriously paranoid."
He leans back of the countertop opposite of me, "So you think he did something that he didn't want you or Lola to know about?"
I think back to a few hours ago, when Marcus was peeking through the blinds and the look of having a heart attack when he saw me. What could he have been hiding? It's not like it was the middle of the day where he would have needed to hide something from us.
"I don't know, I don't think that was it. But what else could it have been?"
"Maybe the EAA was coming and he didn't want you to see them?"
I lurch off the table with a toothy smile, not really the kind from being happy, but from figuring something out, "I bet Marcus was going to let them in to capture us--or kill us, or something!"
I catch myself after saying it, the energy in my voice that isn't mine. What has happened to me? Those words don't feel like they should belong to me, but they came out of my own mouth. My own thoughts.
What happened to the whole optimism thing? I'm not supposed to be the one who's making assumptions about people trying to kill us--former friends trying to kill us for that matter. I'm supposed to be the one going on about why he wouldn't kill us!
Lola should be the one who says morbid stuff like that. Hell, I would see Nayan saying something like that long before me!
Nayan looks at me like I just said...well exactly what I just said. Like I brought the topic from one to a seriously morbid ten real quick.
He arches his brows at my suggestion, but it doesn't seem like he doesn't believe me, "I'd rather not he get us killed," He says in all seriousness, "Have you actually asked Marcus about it?"
I shake my head, "I haven't, but he and Lola may as well be glued together. We'd never be able to talk to him without talking to them both. AKA getting cussed out by Lola, only making our situation worse."
He contemplates this a moment, "Well, didn't you say at some point that she always gets up super late?"
"Not anymore. If one of those two lovebirds are up, the almost always both are. Would you be able to come over really early?"
His serious expression changes drastically to a playful smile, "Lemme think. Between my busy schedule of sleeping, hanging out with you, and, oh yes, more hanging out with you!" He overly tries to make his smile genuine, only making it look more ridiculous, "I don't know if I'll have time."
I lean forward and shove his arm, "So you're up for it, right?"
"Of course I am."
I smile widely, feeling like something is going right. Like we really are on our way out of here, "Awesome."