You plopped on the couch and let your head fall back.
"Hmph." You sigh to yourself and brush your hand across your cat shaped pillow. "One day I'll make sure you're real, hehe." You give it one more soft squeeze and looked the time.
"Ah, shit! I'll be late!"
Your eyes widened, lost in thought you were almost about to be late or even worse, forget about, your dinner with your neighbour. He has been kind enough to offer you free food and a nice movie after you confessed to him you didn't have any plans tonight, when you met him out shopping (totally a coincidence, of course).
"I should just change my shirt. I did just bought that new one." You smiled to yourself thinking about wearing your favourite band's merchandise.
"Where did I left it again? It was right here..." You scan the room quickly but there's no trace of it, oddly enough you received it earlier today and left it hanging on the back of your desk chair.
"Wait. No one could've stole it, I'm being ridiculous right now. I need to stop watching so many creepy movies." You rolled your eyes at yourself and picked a beige tank top.
You turn off the lights and leave to meet with Jacob.
You cross the street and stop at his door. You can see his back in the kitchen from his front window.
You knock softly on the door but to no avail. Nobody was coming.
'Maybe he's busy.' You think. You try on the knob and to your surprise it was open.
You keep your hand still on the knob, questioning if you should really enter unannounced like this before twisting the knob open.
You opened your mouth to greet the man but instead you're hit with a burning smell.
"Ugh, Jacob... what is that... smell? It's almost... -you tilt your head to the side and raise your hand to quickly cover your nose- rotten?"
The short man jumps at the noise of your voice and turns around to face you.
"Oh! It's just you, Y/N. That's uh... one of my tropical fish died." He gave you a serious look and you weren't able to figure out his expression.
You lowered your hand with a soft smile (trying to ignore the smell and be sympathetic to the man), "Oh, my, I'm so, so sorry to hear that, Jacob! Who was it? Don't tell me it was Capta-"
"No! Absolutely not! It wasn't him, so don't worry about it, just a new exotic fish i got a few days ago and i thought it could survive. Guess I was wrong, heh." You could see a tiny small smirk forming at the end of his mouth but didn't question it. Nor did you question the sudden cut off you received. You figured he might be rather sensitive about his fish so you didn't push it.
"Ah... i see. Can't say I feel bad about that lil' guy after hearing that but, still. I'm sorry you had to go through that." You smile and give him a slight tap on his shoulder.
"Yeah... don't feel bad. -he looked away for a second, perhaps towards his hallway?- He dea- definitely in a better place right now." He nods to himself then looks at you dead in the eyes, seemingly lost in thought.
"Hey, Jacob? Are you alright? I'm here because you said you wanted to have dinner together but we could reschedule if you're not feeling well." An awkward tension rose up but you ignored it and rubbed your arm.
"No, please, stay. There's no need for that. After all, i made sure everything to be perfect... for you." He smiles and looks at you through his eyebrows.
"And... the smell? Let me help you clean up the tank... or something." You offered.
"Oh, no no! Just stay here in the room! The smell is even worse in the hallway so just... stay." His voice was low, almost like a warning.
Was he really that sensitive about fish?
"O-okay..." You sit on the couch and Jacob follows.
You reach your hand on the table for the remote, while seeing an album on the table as well. You pick up the remote and sit back in your seat.
"Is that a... family album or something?" You said lightly, ignoring his almost piercing stare.
"Yeah, something like that. I put the photos I take in there. You wanna see?" He looked genuine.
"I'd love to."
He reaches out for the album, looking through it before hand on his own.
"You know... actually... these aren't my best photos. So it's just better if you don't look through it." He closes the album and looks to the kitchen.
"The food is almost ready anyway. I'll bring the plates and all."
"Oh, in that case just let me help yo-"
"I told you to stay put." He said, almost like a growl.
