The Fools That Fall in Love

"I hear the sky is falling, here we are, I'm empty." I heard the words being sung by my best friend through my iPod. I knew every word, and my pride in him swelled as I walked along that brick street, going to a place I called home.
"I feel my heart is turning black tonight, save me." My phone buzzed in my pocket as the light nothings of rain started to drizzle on me.
"If all we are is dust and shades of grey.." I opened the text to find that my boyfriend, Jason, had text me, telling me I'd better hurry and get home.
"How I wanted to say, we are alone, 'cause I'm empty." My stomach twisted into knots, fearing is anger. Jason wasn't very nice, and I regretted going on that first date with him more then anything.
"I'm terrified..." The voice sang. I nodded in agreement, even though no one could see it.
I rushed into the small 2 story house where I'd been living with Jason for the last year and a half. "I'm home!" I called, ripping my ear buds from my ears and thrusting my iPod down on the couch. "Jason?" I called, hoping he left.
"I'm in the kitchen, Lydia." He answered back, sounding annoyed as ever.
"Hey. Sorry I'm a little late. Amy had to talk to me about her mom. She's not doing well.." I said sadly, referring to a friend at the coffee shop close to our house.
"And while you're out gossiping with your little friends, I'm here at home by myself starving to death!" He lectured. I expected him to yell at me, but not so soon. I'd usually give it at least an hour.
"Sorry." I muttered in anger, secretly wishing him away. I shoved past him and went to the fridge, searching for something to make for dinner.
"That better not have been sarcastic!" He warned.
"Yeah I know. It wasn't, okay? Go in the living room or something." I ordered, getting fed up with his shit.
"Don't fucking talk to me like that." He warned again.
"Okay! Now let me cook!" I said, awfully annoyed.
A hard and loud smack rang in my ears as I felt Jason's strong had glide across my face. "You little whore." He said, walking in the living room. I knew I'd brought that upon myself, and suddenly wished that I would have kept my mouth shut.
I made soup and brought it to him in the living room. "Here." I said sheepishly, knowing something bad would happen. He never ate anything I made without complaining about it first.
"What is that?" He said with a disgusted look on his face.
"It's broccoli and cheese soup." I stepped back a bit.
"You expect me to eat that?" He looked up at me as if it were all a prank.
"Uh, I guess not. Do you want something else?" I asked, trying my best to not get hit again.
"Duh. That's gross looking." I glared at me and a smirk reached his face as he pushed the burning hot soup into my body, pouring it down the whole front of me.
I let out a scream in pain as the hot soup burned my skin. "Why did you do that?!" I yelled, getting really pissed off.
"It looks better now. I think I'll try some!" He said, almost laughing. His smile quickly turned into a glare as he ordered me around. "Now go get another bowl and bring it to me so I can eat."
"Okay." I said, picking up the bowl and taking it to the kitchen, walking in a way that would keep my soaked and hot shirt from touching my skin. I poured soup into another bowl and took it to the living room, setting it down on the table next to him and going back to our room to quickly change my shirt. Again, as expected, I was getting yelled at for not cleaning up the mess in the living room. I often tuned out most of his lectures, knowing I didn't do anything wrong and could learn nothing from his lecture.
I cleaned up the mess, and when I was finished I got up and said, "I'm going to bed." And started off toward our room, even though it was only 6pm.
"The hell you are!" He exclaimed, getting up and throwing the bowl in his hand into the wall, cracking the bowl. "You lazy bitch! You're just trying to get out of doing shit around here! Well that's going to change! Tonight, you're going to stay up all night and clean until I say you're done."
"You can't make me stay up all night Jason! I have to sleep! I have work tomorrow! And you don't work, so how are we going to pay bills if I get fired for not being awake?" I lashed out.
"Guess you'll just have to deal with a little sleepiness then." He smirked. "You can start with the kitchen. Now." His smirk grew as he thought of all the things he could make me do.
Jason never went back on his promise. He did, in fact, make me stay up all night and clean the house. I know, it doesn't sound like a big deal, but it turns into a big deal when the abusive boyfriend decides to continually trash the house while you're working in another room and finds fun things to hit you with. THings got very violent that night, but that was just for "fun." I was glad he wasn't actually mad.
I went to work that morning, running late due to having to hide the bruises. I ran into the book store I worked at and realized that I was 20 minutes late and my boss, Clare, was standing by the door waiting for me. This is usual. Jason always found ways to make me late for work.
"Nice to see you Lydia." She said with sarcasm.
"I'm so sorry. My boyfriend, he, uhm, turned off my alarm and.. Yeah.." I hung my head in sorrow, tired of lying and making up excuses.
"One more time.. If you're late one more time then I will fire you! Do not doubt me." She warned, moving aside so I could clock in and get to work. I knew that if I just told Clare what was going on, that she would understand and do her best to help me. But I couldn't let her, in case it didn't work and he came back for me.
I walked over to a big cart in the back and brought it out to the rest of the books on the shelves. As I placed the books in their correct space, I noticed a very strange looking man in the corner of the room, sitting in a chair and on the phone. I looked at the window behind him and realized that the rain had really started coming down and there was little to no sun to be seen, which was pretty normal for Seattle.
I overheard him talking. "What are you talking about? Back? What do you mean 'back'? ... Are you kidding me? .. Okay so now we have to get involved for what reason? ... Yes I'm here.. I know she does.. Would you answer my damn questions?" He sounded annoyed, but his smile betrayed the sound. He was obviously getting annoyed, but he seemed to have a kind or tolerant nature, something I wasn't used to. Though his appearance sure didn't give me a clue that he was any kind of saint either.
His long black hair hung to his shoulders, looking very soft and well kept, and brushed over his eye. He flipped the hair from his face, exposing his dark eyes that were plastered in black and red make up, making him look dead, his pale skin not helping the cause. He had on black skinny jeans that were tucked into his black combat boots. A button up black shirt covered his torso and the rolled up sleeves exposed his many tattoos that covered his arms. I distinctly remember taking a mental note of how he talked, it was strange. He obviously wasn't from Seattle, he sounded more.. East coast.. But in a past kind of way, as if he watched too many movies from the 40's and hung around too many dudes with surf boards. His eyes and teeth drew my attention; his teeth the most perfect I'd seen, and his eyes constantly moved. I noticed he tended to roll his eyes when he wanted to look in a different direction. He was kind of creepy, in a "different from society" kind of way.
"Okay, so I do my thing, snag their ticket back to hell, let her go, live life like normal?" He paused and started laughing. I found his laugh cute. "As normal as normal gets for us, that is... Okay. Does Phil know about this?.. Okay. Thanks Aaron. Yeah yeah yeah. I know how to keep myself alive, it's raining. Don't you know we're in Seattle?" He smiled. "Okay. I'll be back later. Bye." I noticed that he was actually speaking quietly, but I was so into what he was saying that I didn't even notice.
I felt weird about eavesdropping, so I continued places books on shelves, trying not to pay much attention to the man. I also found it strange that I found him attractive. I was so used to people like my parents and boyfriend telling me how people, who look like him, are evil and worship Satan. That's what they said about my best friend, Wil, but I knew that wasn't true, which was probably why I was able to be attracted to this man, and not afraid.. Well to an extent. He did make me feel like I should be cautious, for some reason.
After a few minutes of doing my job, I had to move to another shelf, seeing as I'd already spent far too much time at the one I was at and had no more books in that section. I took another glance back at the man and we made eye contact. I stopped dead in my tracks for a second, unable to move or make any human function. The man stopped as well, staring intently into my eyes until he managed to break and walk up to the cafe area, probably to get more coffee. I only made that assumption because he had 2 empty coffee cups next to him already.
I decided that leaving the area would be a good idea, but was suddenly forced to go back over to the sitting area and put some of the books and magazines back in order, as directed by my boss. He had just sat down and was on the phone again.
"Tell me what she looks like." He almost demanded. "And her name?" He sounded anxious, as if he were on the verge of solving a mystery. "And she works where? ... Really?.. Well that's, uhm, convenient? ..Yeah I am actually." HIs mood lightened a bit and his face seemed less stern. "Got her... Yeah.. Right here... No I'm not even kidding right now.. Good timing huh? ... Of course not! That would be so dumb.. Like I said, I'll do my thing. Never fails. ... Stalking is such a strong word!" He laughed. I suddenly found him very strange.. Stalking? I thought it was a joke, of course, if he were actually stalking someone he wouldn't joke around about it, or even talk about it in public.. Right? "Yeah yeah, later." He hung up the phone and started typing on the lap top that I hadn't even noticed was sitting in front of him until that moment.
I was highly suspicious, but found it in my best interest to pay no mind to it and ignore everything he'd just said. He was probably just a stupid adolescent guy having fun with his friends.. Right?