Monsters & Fairytales (2 page)

The sound of a car driving closely by outside answered my question. They were definitely doing that whole staring-at-me-in-awe thing. Who could blame them? I didn’t blame them. I mean what were the odds that I would be leaning against the door at the same moment they were rushing out?
             
             

My nerves finally faded and I took a deep breath to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. I wasn’t. The adrenaline would wear off soon and my arms were going to hurt. I hoped they weren’t broken. I wiggled my fingers to make sure everything was in its working place. That was the easy part. My wrists could still be shattered. I was terrified to move them only to scream out in pain with this stranger watching me. I had had enough of falling down and people staring at me while I was in pain.

Something brushed up against my side. A huge, warm tongue licked my cold, sticky cheek.
Spike, my hero.
I nudged him away and carefully rested on an elbow. My wrists were fine. The only thing that seemed to come close to shattering
were
my glasses. They were just hanging from the tip of my nose.
Falling into the fountain must’ve really loosened them up. I pushed them back where they
belonged,
realizing how lucky I was that not only did they stay on, but that my wrists caught me. It could have been very nasty if my face had hit the floor, crushing my glasses through my eyes. Wait, why was I thinking about that?
             

I saw a stranger's hand out of the corner of my well intact eye. Spike stepped back some for the person to bend down. I wasn’t prepared for further human interaction. I wished I never had to have human interaction again. I wish I never had to have human interaction again.

“Oh
my gosh
, I am so sorry. Please, let me help you up!” A very melodic voice echoed in the lobby.
             

Despite the obvious hurry in his voice, it still managed to make me feel better. There was something about
him,
I just couldn’t quite place it.

“No, thanks.
I got it.”

I panicked. How was I supposed to show weakness in front of a stranger? I carefully climbed up my arms and rolled on my back to get up easier. When I looked up, I sort of wished I had kept acting weak and fragile. He was an angel. He was honestly, insanely, breathtakingly gorgeous. It wasn’t fair how good he looked. He made that guy from the park look like, well, someone unattractive. Hell, he made every guy I had ever thought to be attractive look like... someone unattractive.
             

I watched him bend down some more to get to eye level with me. He moved a perfect blonde curly lock of hair back behind his ear ((it must’ve fallen out of his perfect pony tail)). As close as he was now, I could tell he was blushing.

“Are you sure?” He stuttered the sentence almost, holding his hand out again for me.

He was nervous, too. Oh God, he knew I was staring at him and judging his every feature.
Wait, why would that
make him nervous? I bet he got this all the time, what with being so beautiful and all.

“Yeah.
I’m okay. Thanks.”

I finally managed to break my eyes from his. That’s when I remembered everyone could see my bra through my shirt. I was still soaking wet. I had completely forgotten. That meant he could see through my shirt, too. I jumped up and nearly fell again. This was a nightmare.
             

“Careful! Are you really sure you’re okay?”
             

He reached his free hand out to catch me. My shoes skidded a bit and squeaked in the empty lobby. I grasped his hand on instinct and tried to steady myself. Spike scurried around to try to stay out of the way of another catastrophe. He seemed confused as to where was safe exactly, though. I didn’t blame him.

“Yes. Thank you.”

I went to let go of his hand but he wouldn’t let me. I looked at him curiously.

“Really.
You don’t have to feel bad or anything, I’m fine. Besides, I was the idiot leaning against the door.” I teased, smirking. Why did I say that?

He let go of my hand and I reached for Spike's leash. My hands were shaking. I was nervous. I could feel my chest was tight with butterflies, or maybe it was still recovering from my near death experience. Either way, it was difficult to focus around this guy. I took a step and my shoe squeaked from the puddle I had made on the floor. Mr. Perfect threw his hands out, prepared to catch me again.

“Well, hey now! And for your information, I do feel pretty bad. You may’ve been the one leaning against it, but I was the idiot rushing through. I mean, there is glass there for a reason. All I had to do was look.”

He seemed to be honestly beating himself up over this.
How ever
a guy of his standards thought a girl of mine was worth beating themselves up over, was beyond me. Not saying my physical appearance was all that low, but it was oddly flattering. This guy was taking more thought into me than I ever imagined. Maybe there was hope left in the world?

“Then we’re even.” I stuttered.
             

Standing there next to the door, the breeze found its way in from the overhead window. Just the wind and no sun on my wet clothes sent a shiver down my arms. I tried to hide it. Now I was standing there in front of this guy, awkward, freezing, and
trying not to stare into his eyes. I was making it worse. I needed to look over at him and smile to be polite. When I saw his face, I found the smile came rather easily and made me all giddy inside. Everything about him had this funny glow that lifted me off the floor. I was walking on air. He met my eyes and then returned the smile. I felt my chest tightening up again.

“Right.”

I was blushing. I had to look away as soon as possible. That left me standing there again, awkward and quiet. My eyes weren’t wandering the room anymore though, so at least it seemed I was paying attention to him. Even if it was because we were both waiting for some reason to walk away, we weren’t doing it rudely and oblivious to the other's existence.

When he sucked in his bottom lip, I took that as my cue to leave.
Finally.
I nodded my head and turned to walk up the stairs without another look at him.
             

Focus; I had to be very careful not to fall and cause more of a reason for him to stay. The last thing I needed was for him to stay. He needed to leave. I didn’t want him to, but it was for the best. It was hard enough focusing on my feet and not allowing my eyes to wander, thus getting lost in that smile of his that made me crumble inside. He knew he had that effect. I could tell. Focus; I can’t fall again.
             

Spike jumped a few steps to get ahead of me just in time for me to keep walking safely. I was sort of glad he preferred to lead the way. It was as if he knew better, that walking that close to me would be the best scenario for danger. Or I was just too slow for him. I kind of hoped he knew better.  With him walking in front of me, he was sort of my support to stay upright. Not to mention it’d be nice to know he and I had that type of a connection.

I heard Spike’s paw click on something. It was my complete utter demise of these steps, the one thing I was focusing so hard not to get caught up
in,
the
tricky step. I fell the first time I walked up these stairs and
the realtor
just laughed at me. She did have the decency to explain I’d eventually get used to it and subconsciously avoid it.
I wasn’t ready yet, but I had heard it.
No, I would not let it get me again. Not today.

I looked up to Spike real fast to check if I could see the step coming, and in that second felt my mistake. I was so dumb. I should have kept to myself, watching my feet. The toes on my right foot caught it instantly. There were cracking noises, gasps, and then silence as my knee landed on the step below me. My hand slipped from the railing and both of my hands immediately wrapped around my knee. I applied as much pressure as I could muster. Somehow pressure was always the first response to numb the pain. However I was in so much pain it didn’t seem squeezing it affected any amount of intensity.
             

My eyes closed and I tried not to well up with the tears sneaking up the sides of my eyes. My breathing was deep, trying to get the calmness back in me. I was such an idiot.
I knew the tricky step was there, I felt it, and it still got me.
If that guy was down there still, he would definitely be thinking I was the worst damsel in distress ever. I didn’t want to
check ,
though. I didn’t want him to think I needed him. I grunted and leaned back onto the steps behind me in frustration. There was a small chuckle from the lobby. I stuck my head up carefully; of course he was still there. He was laughing at me.

“Oh
my gosh
, I’m so sorry I’m laughing. You’re really hurt? I thought you were just kidding! Here, let me help you this time, please!”

He rushed around the stairs and stooped down in front of me. His arms were under mine and he was steadying me against him in two seconds. I had no time to react against his help. This guy was some crazy fast superhuman.
             
             
Staring at him, reality caught up to me. We were close, real close. An odd tension was hovering between us like an invisible peanut gallery. I could hear the remarks in my head, taunting me. We were sitting in a tree. I had cooties. I felt like I was going to throw up. I had to break the ice.

“So let’s see, first you make me fall on my face and then you laugh in my face. Thanks so much for helping me this time, but I think I got it from here.” I joked, pulling slightly away from him.

He had this odd look in his eyes; was he hurt? I felt myself not wanting to leave him now. I was intrigued with his every feature. The way his lips curled said that he was on the verge of saying something. His cheeks dimpled a bit, he seemed to be holding back. What was with him?

“I really didn’t mean it.” He said with a hint of sympathy in his voice.

“I’m sure you didn’t. What were you doing hanging around anyways?”

I knew it came out snappy, but I was flustered. This man was holding me again. What was I supposed to do?

“I uh, well, you see... ”

He was very nervous. What was going on? I watched him fidget then grab my hands. He placed them on the railing and took a step back. Was he going to run? Had he been thinking of talking to me? We were staring at each other again.

“Yes?” I urged him on, curious.

“To be honest, you’re the girl that fell into the fountain earlier, and I just wanted to make sure you were okay. That and that step gets a lot of people.” He chuckled.

“You saw that?”

I was so embarrassed that my heart started fluttering.

“It wasn’t hard to miss, I was standing right there.”

He turned and pointed towards the lobby in a very nonchalant manner.

“No, I meant the-”

I stopped, he was smiling now. He had made a joke. He wanted me to laugh and relax.

“Tricky. Well I tried to make sure I’d remember it, but it seems something else is clogging my brain.”

I grinned and rubbed my head. Maybe it was okay to make fun of myself and poke a little back at him.

“That’ll happen when you’ve hit your head, twice.” He leaned over and whispered.

I smiled and felt my face go blood red at the innuendo. Oh no, not now. I needed to create a distraction. I was panicking. I was just standing there staring at him with rosy embarrassed cheeks.

“Yes. Well I’m okay now. Thank you.” I lied. I was very much back to where I had been a few minutes ago, in terrible pain and completely not okay.

“You’re welcome. It’ll take some time to get used to it.”

“Used to what?”

My brain was still in the gutter.
He couldn’t possibly be talking about what I was thinking about, could he?

“The step.”
He laughed and pointed at it.

“Oh, of course.
Head injury.”

I rolled my eyes and twirled my fingers. He looked away and I was finally capable of looking at something other than his eyes. That’s when I noticed that I had gotten his shirt wet. There was a perfect oval from where I had been pressed against him earlier. I couldn’t bring myself to say anything though. It was so cliché: ‘
Oh dear, I seem to have gotten your shirt wet, won’t you come inside and change?
’

“Did you just move in?” His voice broke my fantasy dream.

“Huh? Oh, yes. I’m actually in the process of moving in.”

“Really?
Well, welcome to the neighborhood. What’s your name?” He asked shoving his hand out.

His foot went up a step to make himself eye level again. The second our eyes locked, I was lost in la-la land. This is what I wanted to stare at the rest of my life. I couldn’t imagine anything else more perfect. Everything was perfect. I didn’t even care that his attire was definitely something I would never like on a guy; he was too country-
esque
, but clothes were something that could be changed.