Anna Et Romy

After swimming, Romy walked me home. A fine mist had settled over everything like the city's tears. Street lamps set an eerie glow under our feet like golden coins. My hair was damp and I felt extremely cold, but walking beside Romy gave me a warmth I couldn't quite grasp.

"Won't your sister be worried?" I asked him making sure I enunciated every word. He reached into his pocket taking out his cellphone and pulling up his texts to show that he had messaged her. I nodded unsure of what to say next. What could I possibly talk about with someone who was deaf? We were nearly to my street and I didn't want this walk to end. Silence was our conversation, and we had so much to say. Reaching Julie's loft, I pointed up.

"Do you want to come up?" I asked boldly. He looked up hesitantly but nodded following me, we rode the elevator upstairs arriving at my apartment. I unlocked the door, praying that Juliet wasn't here and to my relief the apartment was silent. I closed the door behind us, hanging up my coat and offering to take his. As he shrugged it off, a smell like mint and rain tickled my nose. I led him to our open kitchen and put a kettle on the stove for a warm drink. I grabbed a pen and a small memo pad from a junk drawer by our fridge and handed it to him. He smiled gratefully sitting at the dinner table.

"Do you like coffee? Tea? Hot chocolate?" I asked wringing my hair out into the trash so it wouldn't drip everywhere. He hunched over tthe pad scribbling something and showed it to me. It read 'I don't like coffee, I like hot chocolate though.' in neat handwriting. I grinned.

'me too.' I mouthed. He scribbled something else and handed the pad to me. He wanted to see my darkroom. My heart skipped a beat. He wanted to see my pictures. I bit my lip and nodded, hoping to stall him by starting to make the hot chocolate. When I had put the water to boil and set the hot chocolate packet out I motioned him to follow me. We trekked to the spare room, the long hallway dark and ominous. I suddenly wished my sister was home. If Romy turned out to be a creep, at least she'd be here to protect me.

I jiggled the doorknob pushing it open and flipping the switch on the wall. Romy looked around in awe. The redlights flooded us in an eerie light and the enlarger greeted us with sputtering acknowledgement. All my pictures hung on the line blowing with the breeze of our movements as we approached my half finished work on a table.

Romy touched the corners of the pictures I took while on the train. There was specifically one of me catching my own reflection in the window. I looked sad, depressed and worst of all...empty. But I wasn't sure what he may have seen. He turned to me signing: Beautiful. I blushed, happy he couldn't see how red my face was in the dark lighting.

'Show make picture.' I picked up next. I nodded vigorously going over to a glass cabinet that held hundreds of negatives. I pulled one out at random bringing it to him and hoping he could see me talking under this dark light.

"Bring it to the big machine." I said motioning to the enlarger. He went over and put it on the tray. I came over standing by him, so close that I could smell the detergent on his shirt. He smelled like apples. Looking down at me, he waited for his new instructions. I took the tray and gave it to him, walking him through how to angle the photo paper and zoom in on the film, he watched me with rapt intrest.

I had never been watched forn so long by a guy before and it felt weird..but nice. His eyes were dark in here and I could feel them like electric currents boring into me as I finished up printing it.

"Then you process it." I said walking to the trays of liquids. He watched me as I let the developer wash over the picture, exposing a photo of a dog looking to the sky. I laughed remembering the dog that had stolen my glove, forcing me to chase him 2 blocks. As I handed the picture to put into the next tray, our hands brushed, shocking me. I was glad he couldnt hear my heart pounding in my chest. The slippery wet photo fluttered to the ground. We both dropped to pick it up, a lick of his hair brushing my cheek as we patted the ground for the photo. As I stretched to find it, our faces met suddenly. My face became warm.

He smiled, winking. He was so close, I could feel his breath on my face. My heart hammered in my chest and it was like a feeling I had never felt before. There was a high pitched whistling from outside of the room. The kettle. I laughed nervously backing away. He followed my lead, not hearing the kettle.

"The water..." I said motioning to the door. He nodded following me out of the room. I felt dizzy as I closed the door and went to the kitchen.

Did we almost kiss? Or was I imagining it? Probably the latter, I concurred. Romy isn't interested in me, he's a rock star, who's hot...I looked over at him as he sat at the counter, his hair fell into his eyes as he looked at me.

I pushed my glasses up onto the bridge of my nose, swallowing hard as I poured water in a mug for me and him. Mixing in the hot chocolate, I placed the steaming cup before him. He signed thank you and brought it to his lips. He put it down before taking a sip, rummaging through his pockets and taking out his phone. He read a text message and slid from the stool.

"Do you have to go?" I said trying to hide the disappointment on my face. His was emotionless as he nodded, saying thank you again. He reached for the pad and pen writing something down as he went to the door to retrieve his coat. I followed watching as he shrugged it on. I waved awkwardly as he opened the door. My glasses were falling off of my face, he reached out and pushed them up. Smiling with half of his mouth. And then he was gone.

I went to the kitchen rubbing my cold arms, goosebumps raised. As I cleaned up the small mess of powder on the counter, I came across what he wrote on the pad. 10 numbers.

He gave me his number.