Had My Heart on Lockdown

SISKY’S POV

‘Are you sure that you don’t want to sleep on the couch?’

‘No, I should get home, see you tomorrow, Bill.’

‘Don’t you mean today?’ he asked, grinning.

‘What? Oh…yeah,’ I murmurred tiredly, waving my hand in farewell and leaving his apartment, silently pondering how he didn’t show any signs of tiredness.

I glanced at my watch as I walked out of the building and onto the street. 00:45.

I’d somehow ended up trapped in a Harry Potter marathon at Bilvy’s, and couldn’t bring myself to leave until The Prisoner Of Azkaban was over. I just felt bad for Sirius Black, poor guy, damn that Peter Pettigrew.

I rubbed my eyes, trying to stop them from closing, and pulled my hood up, trudging slowly down the street.

As tired as I was, I wasn’t in the mood to go home and sleep so I decided to wander around for a while.

As I rounded one corner, a small café caught my eye. The idea of a cup of coffee suddenly seemed very appealing, so I pushed the door open, cringing at the shrill noise the bell above the door emitted.

Gesturing to the waitress that I wanted some coffee, I slid into a booth.

The café was deserted except for the waitress and a girl who was sitting at the counter. As I waited for my drink to arrive, I took in her appearance. She had long, auburn hair, and was slouched over the drink, her stare, as far as I could tell, fixed on the counter.

She was hardly moving, I could only tell that she was alive due to the way that her shoulders rose and fell with each breath she took.

Even though she wasn’t facing me, there was something oddly familiar about her.

I sat in silence, thanking the waitress when the coffee arrived on my table, and sipping quickly, savouring the warmth that spread throughout my body, but eager to get home.

The girl at the counter suddenly caught my attention when she stood up and walked swiftly to the door, her gaze never wavering from the floor. As she passed by my table, I managed to get a glimpse of her face: she was pale, the only prominent colour in her face was from her lips and even they were quite a pale shade of pink, and she had grey eyes.

They were what caught my attention, her eyes. I knew those eyes. She left the café as I sat there, pondering the thought, and almost all of a sudden I remembered. Isla.

I hadn’t seen her in almost 2 years, since the last day of high school, we’d been close when we were younger, and grown apart - I never thought I’d see her again. She didn’t look like she’d used to. Well, technically, she did, but there wasn’t any glow in her cheeks, or sparkle in her eyes. She looked…sad.

I frowned, trying to work out what could’ve happened, when it suddenly hit me how late it was. Why was she out so late?

Almost on impulse, I stood up and left the café. I didn’t want her to get into trouble on the way home, so I figured I’d just follow her, and make sure she got back to her house alright.

I glanced each way down the road as soon as I was outside, immediately heading off in the direction she was going, trying to keep myself a suitable distance behind her.

She kept speeding up, until she was almost running down the streets, and it suddenly occurred to me that I might have been scaring her. I didn’t want to do that at all, so I slowed down until I was at a standstill, and when I looked up again, she was gone.

I don’t know why, but I felt sad, like I’d missed an opportunity.

Sighing, I headed off in the other direction towards my apartment.

It hardly took me any time to reach my front door, I pulled the small key out of my pocket and entered the apartment, flicking the light on as I went and pushing the door shut with my foot.

I sank down onto the sofa, my body exhausted but my mind alert from the coffee, rubbing my forehead. I couldn’t get her face out of my head. She’d looked so sad, so different.

Part of me wondered if I’d imagined it, if my mind had been playing tricks on me…but I knew that wasn’t true. She didn’t seem like the Isla I’d known in high school.

The fact that I’d never see her again bothered me somehow. She’d been out of my life for two years, and barely in my life in the past hour, but part of me wanted confirmation that that wasn’t the last time I’d set eyes on her, I just couldn’t work out why.

I grabbed the tv remote and flicked through the channels in a bid to distract myself.

Somewhere along the line, I fell asleep.