The light shines through the window getting brighter by the minute lighting up Leah's room with laser sun rays which in some ways are sharp enough to pierce through her eyes then shoot straight to her brain. Opening then closing her eyes in a space of a millisecond, she groans in great discomfort as she takes random turns at once on top of the bed. It has been just a couple of minutes since nighttime vanished and the sun rose from the horizon to bring light to this side of the planet. Leah turns her body to the right, then left, then right again, then lay flat on her back facing up, and so forth. In between turns, she plays a game of peek-a-boo without the use of her hands: she constantly opens and then closes her eyes. As she turns and twists trying to break free from the invisible glue that has stuck her body to the bed she also uses courageous energy in search of strength behind the retina to face laser-hot sun rays with open eyes.
The painful part of all this is that she has been fighting this battle almost her whole life but by the looks of it she is very far from emerging victorious.
After eventually waking up she picks a blurry thought about hearing her mother saying that she was leaving early for work and that she won't be here when she woke. Stretching her arms to loosen tight body muscles that thought is quickly peeled off her head.
*********
Leaving school Leah prepares to head straight to the bookstore as scheduled. Looking up she notices some hasty build-up of dark clouds which immediately made her put her trip in question. Only if professor Kolt hadn't stretched his lesson by almost an hour then maybe dark clouds would have not been in sight by now. Plus walking in the rain with no umbrella seems rather not sane. After a few seconds of pondering over it, she refuses to give in to assumptions mild as such. Plus obstacles are always there in life, it simply takes a fit mind to understand that only going forward you can reach your goals; Leah liked to believe she has a fit mind herself. Dropping her pride she picks immaculate focus and heads straight to the bookstore.
Finally, she arrives at the store but before walking inside she looks up as the clouds look down on her, and in this brief stare-down contest you could feel a dark demeanor build up in the air, she takes a deep breath and then mutely cuss nature. Walking inside she comes to a standstill before several bookshelves that to her look as if there were a million of them. Looking a bit puzzled it is safe to say she feels like her body size is of a toddler within a world of dinosaurs. The poor girl has no idea where to begin.
Walking down the aisle she turns to her right and then reaches for one of the books in front of her. The book title cover reads 'CHALLENGE YOURSELF' after a sigh, she attempts to return it to the shelf, but a very loud bang of sound shakes her body and she drops the book to the floor. A clangorous thunder strike shook her eardrums and made her nerves poorly dance with confidence, along with a few females in the store they all produced a synced scream. Now was the best time to leave. Picking the book from the floor she heads to the counter to pay for it. After paying for her first-ever novel, she quickly shrugs it on her handbag and then makes a run for the exit just to stop at arm's reach of the door.
"Oh great," Leah wails in frustration looking outside through a glass door as the rain starts pouring down. For a minute she thought of leaving before it gets worse. Maybe with luck, she will get a taxi right away but another strike of lightning erases that idea, comfortably.
"Oh, come on." She yells some more.
"Don't worry it'll pass." A voice comes from behind.
"I wish it would pass right n-" Turning around to follow the voice, Leah chokes when she sees a familiar face and learns that it is Troy. "Uh, pass now." Finally, she completes her sentence.
"What? You in a hurry or something?" Troy looks very calm. Leah can not help but stare at his half smile in marvel (how is he still smiling!)
"No. I mean, yes. I have to get home and uh-" Leah says throwing her hands up and down in search of an answer.
"- do some staff. Ye know."
"Ok. I hear you. Don't fuss it'll pass." Troy says while looking into her eyes ordinarily, for her, the look is deep. She nods then lowers her sight view to the ground. "You look familiar. Have we met?"
Her eyes still away from Troy's sight. "Yes. At the mall. At the bank." Leah tries hard to keep a normal conversation but her hand movement and eyes constantly dropping to the floor easily gave her away. He can tell she is uncomfortable.
"Yes, I remember now," Troy says, next follows a moment of silence followed by awkward unsteady eye contact. "You stay from around here?"
"Yes actually. I don't live that far."
"Uh, Okay." Then follows another awkward stillness. Not that Troy has nothing to say but because he wants to help Leah out and give her a ride home but he is afraid he will make her even more uncomfortable sitting next to her for a whole ride home. "I should head out," He says after realizing they had been quiet for long now, he walks past her to the door.
"Oh cool. Nice seeing you too, Troy." With a hurried twist of his body, Troy turns to face her stunned that she remembers his name. Leah panics some more after she learns that she put her yearning for the guy in plain sight.
It makes him feel a little awful that he does not recall her name let alone recall ever telling her his name. "I thought I could maybe give you a lift home. Since you are in a hurry and all." Vouching to only help out, Troy offers her a ride. "That's of course if you don't mind." In euphoria, Leah could burst out, full of mixed emotions.
"That'll be great. Thank you." Calmly she replies with all the fake behind her calm state. Troy nods with a meticulous smile as he opens his umbrella and invites Leah for refuge.
"If I may?" Slowly Leah walks under the umbrella, a trend of Troy's sudden movement as his arm reaches for the door handle making his shoulder brush against Leah's making her heart leap and forcing her body to quiver. Afraid to bullock the moment, all she could do is hope Troy did not notice. Troy's half smile widens a little more then he walks her to the car pretending not to feel her body tremble.
Getting in the passenger seat, Leah notices something new about her companion. With a view from the right side of Troy, she sees something she wishes she never laid her eyes upon. A whole dry dead skin formed a cascading scar from the bottom of his ear running down his neck and getting swallowed by the collar of his jacket, it seem as if he was burnt by raging fire or hot water; she assume. Feeling the imaginary pain of hot water being poured on her neck she frowns and clutches tight to her handbag in anguish. She could only imagine how far that scar goes. Driving through a downfall of rain, Troy had to give the road a little more focus than his passenger. Leah does not mind much seeing him preoccupied with driving because that means she has got a chance to steal a couple of glances at him. She takes safe and calculated glances. She does not want him to think that she is looking at his scar, she can not risk making her appetite-quencher uncomfortable.
There is just something about his presence that makes her life feel a bit worthless, she just can not help but judge her life in comparison to his. The first time she saw him he gave her an ultimate buoyant feeling (courtesy of a permanent half-smile and raging casual impression) just by looking at him that she was so impressed by his character she lost herself, oblivious to a lot of staff she could not even catch a glimpse of his scar at that time.
Talk about dazzling and razling people with the right 'lies' and they will go blind to the truth right in front of their eyes. Even now she is in awe of his essence.
From a feeling of adoration she hops straight to fear when she perks up ahead of the windscreen and sees a car headed in the opposite direction swerve onto their lane, putting both her hands on top of the dashboard; trying to take it in her own hands to stop the car off a reflex, she screams. Too late to stop Troy stirs to the side of the pedestrian lane, just on the verge of colliding the stranger stirs his car back onto his lane and right on the tip of hitting the capstone, Troy directs his wheels back on the road, with difficulty restoring stealth it zigzags along the road until he brings it to a complete abrupt. Momentarily, Leah is still screaming at the top of her lungs. The first thing Troy does is look up in his rearview mirror to check how the stranger is doing but the car is not in sight.
"Are you Ok?" He turns his attention to Leah who has just stopped screaming and now her body is shuddering.
"Is that guy crazy or what?" After a moment or two, she wails in anger while her heart keeps pumping like an introduction drumroll.
"Don't worry about him now. Are you fine?"
"He almost killed us," She shouts. Her body can not stop trembling. Twisting her head to face Troy immense shock run down her spine seeing him still wearing a half smile and relaxed as usual.
"Here." Troy reaches under the dashboard and pulls out a bottle of water. "Have some water. It will help make you feel better. " He hands her the bottle.
Not taking her eyes off him she grabs the bottle from his hand.
"Thanks." After a few seconds of gaping in stupefaction, she takes a couple of gulps, and her trembling eases seconds after.
After gathering enough composure to converse, she speaks. "How is he anyway? Or is it a she?" Her voice is low.
"He or She just drove off. Must've thought he harmed us. Poor guy must have been terrified and drove away." Troy says as he moves his body around aiming to restore it to the healthy position it was before the ruckus transpired. Leah realised that his half-smile has weakened when he spoke of the perpetrator's wellbeing.
"Only 'poor guys' here should be us. He was at fault, not us." Jotting in bitterness, She re-positions herself as she picks up her handbag which had flown to the top of the dashboard during the force of brakes and turns, she safely tucks it under her arm. Troy eyes her frustrated state and chooses to not utter a single word. From the corner of her eye she can catch sight of his heavy stare, she turns and looks his way again, Troy's smile widens.
"Ok. Let's get you home. Shall we?" Pressing his feet against the accelerator he put the car in motion, Leah's awe over him came with a sour twist to it as she sees a big happy face coated on his head.
So far throughout the journey since the near-death experience, the only words that were spoke determined direction. "Turn right." "Turn left." For the moment the car is a reflection of silence and Leah alters her emotions now and then. First, she is irritated by the reckless culprit who almost cut her life short. Also, she is irritated by her driver who is supposed to be her knight for the day for not showing signs of convincing concern for her. For all, she knew he is in one team with the culprit and they planned to have her murdered (again, talk about dazzling and razling people with the right lies and they will go blind to the truth right in front of their eyes.) Then again her bitterness depletes as she believes that her knight might have shown signs of concern since he did indeed ask if she was alright, plus he offered her some water, and recalling this event vividly she could have sworn she saw great concern in his eyes when he offered her some water. Taking another glance at him, this one not well calculated, she stares firmly at his happy face in bewilderment. His nerve control is something she largely craves to understand. Her pupils still fixed on his face, silently she wish to take residence inside his head even if it was for a couple of seconds.
The car pulls over to the side of the road, Troy drives slowly then brings the car to a stop near the gate of Leah's home. Troy turns his face toward her direction forcing her to break an uncalculated stare, she quietly unbuckles the seatbelt and clears her throat.
"I am sorry about that little incident." Finally Troy speaks.
"Why? It was not your fault."
"I know but I have to say I didn't like seeing you frightened. Not for a bit." He says still wearing a smile. Even though he is smiling, Leah can see concern behind his pristine whitish sclera. Hiatus stealth, only heavy raindrops puttering against the windscreen made a sound.
"Thank you for your concern but I am fine now." Looking away she clutches her handbag tighter.
"Here. You can have my umbrella." Troy stretch her hand to the back seat to grab the umbrella forcing his body nearer to Leah. His scar is greatly exposed to her nigher eyes, instead of a scowl she is saddened but still curious.
He hands her the umbrella. "But. Won't you need it? It's yours after all."
"I can have your number and I will call then perhaps come and get it tomorrow." He reaches into his pocket and pulls out his cell phone. "I won't need it that much today." He says handing his cell phone to Leah. "If you do not mind."
"No, I don't." She reaches for the cell phone then inserts her number. Just as she anticipated, he uses an old-fashioned cellular with rubber buttons concealed in rubber buttons. She hands him back the cell phone.
"I almost said good night. This dark heavy rain is quite disguised in nighttime." Troy says with a soft laugh. Leah follows up with a sweet smile.
"Thanks for the ride."
"You are welcome."
"Bye." She hops off the car and steers her legs home.