Cobly's eyes were lazily following the fluttering about of the curtains when she entered
As the door clicked, Sarah cocked her head to the side, her thin lips in a smile, intending to catch his gaze, but it remained adamantly fixed on the curtains.
"Can I check something on your phone?" He asked suddenly, out-stretching his hands without delay.
She frowned. "Oh. Ok." Her hand disappeared into her pockets and and reappeared with a phone, handing it over to him like a baby egg she has become afraid to lose.
He held it the way he holds a stress ball. With unusual speed, he swiped open the phone and began browsing different news outlets, social media. He searched about everything and anything related to San. Any recent news, recent outing pictures. Anything.
"What you are searching for, you won't find it there."
"And what am I searching for?" he said, his voice cold and angry.
She squeaked.
He paid her no mind and continued his search. Through Instagram–different handles that San hides by.
"I don't think people with strong afflictions to gangs ever go on socials," she began again. Her hands spread out out in gesticulation, she added: "I mean, it's a giveaway."
He gave her a once over, the first since she entered the room. "Afflictions with gangs?" he asked in a puzzled voice.
She exhaled disappointed. "Don't act dumb. That will just make me dumber, and I may be sick, but never dumb. You were left for dead in the streets. If I had wasted any minute, the vultures would be resting right now from having filled their bellies."
She paused, checking to make sure Cobly was listening and he was. His eyes were drilling into her's in aggression.
Attention was attention.
Sarah waded through the storm: "After I made sure you were breathing. Breathing and stable mind you, I went in search for answers. Not on my phone but on the streets. I had to. Only a fool would want to live around the four-walls of ignorance."
"And you are no fool," Cobly interrupted.
She breathed out and smiled. His anger was receding. She walked over to his bedside and sat. Her hands began playing with one another.
"You are a fighter or some underground glorified wrestler. To go through your gym bag is one thing but to witness men talk about you like you are some kind of legend was another thing– although most of them were drunk; all were drunk." She laughed. Looked at him and wiped away her sunny expression. "I was at the Golden club on another night a man walked into. He had this presence about him and it was not because of the other men flanking him. My instincts told me he had something to do with you and when I heard his name, it felt like the wort I had last year that couldn't come off my skin...San.
She felt him tremble. "You saw San," he stammered out.
"I followed them towards the VIP corner. There, he said to another man, "Is he dead?" To which the other man simply replied, "yes." So you see..."
"How was the other man like?"
"San?"
He looked at her with gnashing teeth. "The other man?"
"Oh. He have these cat-like eyes. Was built lean and his lips. When he stretched his mouth into a smile..."
His hard look caused a stop to anymore gushing as she looked down demurely.
"I was just joking," Sarah said apologizing.
His gaze did not falter.
"He was mostly covered in tattoos," she said.
Cobly felt his mind was near exploding. It was like a bucket of cold water has been poured on him in the middle of winter. He gnashed his teeth against each other that his jaws shaped into a rectangular war table. He attempted getting up but she pushed him down. He gave her another hard look but this time, she was not perturbed.
"What are you going to do?" Sarah asked. Race over there on those rubber legs and make them feel all you are feeling right now. Pour out your rage. Try to do to them what they did to you." She shook her head before continuing, "I just rose you from the dead, you just barely lived, and what? You are in a hurry to return to it. Does this life not mean a damn thing to you." She barely finished before she broke down and began sobbing.
He looked around uncomfortable, his eyes floating through nothing. She kept on sobbing and started wheezing in-between. He placed a hand on her shoulder and began patting.
"This is awkward," she said between sobs, giving a small laugh.
Cobly smiled. "Yes it is. I've never done nothing like this."
She laughed, cleaning the corners of her eyes. "Staying in a makeshift hospital bed?"
"No..."
"Being told off by a woman?"
"Yes and..."
She waited, her eyes still red and watery.
"Consoled a woman," he said, his voice gentle.
Sarah eyes went round and she wheezed sporadically. He patted her shoulder smiling.
"I've always been about strength and the next fight. Nothing could matter again because when my life is always on the line, nothing else could matter. So each day I go through rigorous training and mentally prepare myself for the punches I'll receive, the punches I'll will return. How only one will come out the victor and the other will end up in the hospital or worse. So you see, even a woman sitting on my bedside is foreign to me."
Sorry for making you feel so uncomfortable," she said and rose to stand but he held her hand back.
"I like it. That's what I'm trying to say. I like it. This change and not trying to put people in their early grave."
Leaning forward, he brushed his hand against her ears. It tinged pink immediately. He grinned.
"Maybe, only you could stop me from running over there in my rubbery legs and getting revenge."
Her mouth formed a o. How? she seemed to ask
He placed his hand at the back of her head, grabbed a fistful of her hair and pushed her forward.
"Like this," he whispered against her beet root face. Kissed the edge of her mouth. She gasped. He crashed his lips against her's.