SOULS WITH SCARS | Ryan Clarke

2

Blair

A knock on my door wakes me up. A very desperate knock. I get out of my bed and run downstairs to open the door, but I look through the peephole and see the guy from last night, Clarke. I open the door by an inch and look at him, his eyes run up and down on me and he smiles. "Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up."

"It's okay. What are you doing here?" I ask him.

"I have a gift for you," he answers.

"Gift?" I look at him and see that he has an arm behind him, holding something.

"Yeah, you know. Damaged control... For what I did last night. Although I deserved what you did to me."

"Oh wow."

"You don't want it?" he asks me and I look back up at him. He looks even taller right now for some reason, probably because I'm sober from last night.

"No, I didn't say that I didn't want it. I was just not expecting it," I say.

He looks at me and laughs lightly. I open the door a little more and wave my hand to tell him to get in. He enters the house and I can tell he is trying not to look deeper than where my top stops at. I Put a hand on my chest, a little embarrassed to be in my nightwear in front of him, a stranger. "I'm a gentleman, Cora. I love giving gifts to people that I've caused trouble too."

Cora. He hasn't forgotten. I smile and say, "I'm sorry for being harsh on you..."

"It's okay. I know it's difficult to deal with me, like I said, I totally deserved it. I was being a jerk, so I'm sorry for that," he says and flashes a cute little smile. I am so not awake enough to control the feeling I got in my body.

"It's okay Clarke, you don't have to apologize, we both were drunk... But can I see the gift now?" I didn't want to sound curious, but I can't lie, I was curious as hell about what a guy like him could possibly get me.

His arm swings in front of him and he is holding a white bag with red ribbons. I look at the bag and then at him, he is just smiling. I take the bag from him and open it. A bear. I pull it up and smile when I see it holding a heart with 'Sorry' written on it. He leans forward and presses on the heart. "This is so embarrassing and weird but I am so sorry, please accept this teddy bear, he would like to be adopted by a pretty woman like you." I laugh as I hear his voice and he laughs awkwardly with me. "It's even more awkward to hear it next to you," he mumbles.

"You have a nice voice there," I say and laugh. "Thank you, I appreciate your effort for making it up to me when in reality I should be apologizing like this as well," I add and we just stand there by the door awkwardly. I point with my thumb upstairs and say, "I'm going to quickly change into some proper clothes, you can just go inside. I'll be right back." He nods and I quickly run upstairs and change. I get back downstairs and see he is sitting on the couch. I get into the living room and sit on the other edge of the same couch. "Do you want anything to drink? I can make us some tea, coffee, or even get you some cold drink."

He looks at me and says, "Juice will be good actually. If there is some of course, if not then just water." He smiles and his eyes get smaller. I am wide awake and I'm still not able to control the warmth in my chest I get when he smiles. I stand up and walk to the kitchen and then pour two glasses of orange juice. I walk back with the glasses and hand him one of them. He looks at me and for a second it looks like he is hesitating to take it from me, but when he does, our fingers touch, and I quickly remove my hand.

"I uhm... I hope you like orange juice, it was the only juice I had." I sit on the couch again.

He takes a sip of the juice and places the cup on the table. "I like all juices," he answers. I take a sip of my glass while he looks around and then he asks me, "Do you live alone here?"