FREE⇡RIDE⇣HOME [Elevator Hitch || COTAG]

It was a spontaneous decision

"I heard some commotion upstairs from your apartment and decided to check what's going on, but... it seems that I've interrupted something."

"E-Elizabeth?" My voice cracks.

It's my old female neighbour who previously befriended my boyfriend. At least it's not my landlord... although, I'm not sure if I'd prefer her or my landlord to see us like this...

"I can leave if you want," she assures, still staring at me and at the idiot who still hasn't gotten off of me.

"Y-You can stay, if you want. We're waiting for my landlord anyway. I don't have anything to treat you with, though..." I finally manage to push him off of me, and approach my old neighbour. My boyfriend follows.

"Hey there," he greets her. "I wonder why you're always coincidentally in the building when we are too."

"I'm always in the building," she says, waving her fingers in the air. "I literally don't go outside, unless I'm forced to. Anyway! Are you two finally dating?"

"Finally..? Yeah," I nod. Of course she'd think that.

My boyfriend puts his hand on my shoulder. "Yeah! We just concluded that we should have s–"

"Shut up," I slam my hand on his face, "shut up, kindly."

I make awkward eye contact with Elizabeth, as I talk to my idiot, who almost made an inappropriate comment. "Shut up."

Elizabeth couldn't care less. "Well, I made apple pie. I can bring it and we can have some together!" She walks backwards and through the door, waiting for us to accept.

"Yeah, that'd be nice," we say in unison.

The second she walks outside and I hear her footsteps getting quieter, I feel so relieved. Obviously this cabbage-headed dimwit tries to make out with me again, but this time I stop him with a straight face. "At home, okay?"

We wait for Elizabeth to come back with the apple pie, and make some room for it in the kitchen. I... do not have a dining table.

She comes back with a pie in her hands, and clumsily opens the door with her elbow.

We all dig in shortly after. I'm so hungry, I could swallow a horse whole. And I do exactly that, but with the piece of applepie, instead of a horse. Itilt my head backwards, pinch the crust with my thumb, index finger and middle finger, and support it from below so it doesn't fall apart, before stuffing my mouth with the tip going in first, like it's a pizza slice. My boyfriend stares at me in astonishment.

"Great pie!" I compliment Elizabeth inbetween the chews, trying to distract him from me. "Mmh! I've missed your delicious pastry."

She nods, thanking me, and turns to my boyfriend, waiting for him to leave a comment too. "Do you like it?"

"Hm? Yeah," he peacefully chews on the pie, and I can see the serotonin radiating from him. "It's really good. Say, would you be willing to bake a cake for our wedding sometime?"

"Wed–" I choke on the pie and start coughing violently, covering my mouth with my elbow, "slow down! T-That's not even legal..."

"It doesn't have to be legal. Betty can lead the wedding, and we can marry unoficially."

My knees feel weak. This is so embarrassing... Why is he talking about this in Elizabeth's presense? And when did he become so close with her..? "N-No thanks."

My landlord finally enters, greeting all of us, including my boyfriend. Elizabeth gifts the rest of the pie to us and leaves, not wanting to bother us during our meeting.

My landlord is a rather tall man, even taller than my partner, who is always dressed in black attire, whether it's a suit, or pyjamas. Don't ask how I know what colour his pyjamas are. Either way, he seems confused about my boyfriend's presence. "Who is this?"

"That's my coworker, with whom I'm moving in." I point to my boyfriend with my thumb. "He's here to help me transfer the rest of my stuff."

"Okay," my landlord smiles at him, and reaches his arm out, awaiting a handshake. My boyfriend does try to give him one, but he impatiently takes his hand away after waiting for two seconds, and turns to me. "So, you're moving away as fast as possible, right?"

"Yes."

"There's a thirty day notice period. You're aware of that, right? I've noticed that you've already carried out most of your stuff."

"You've noticed..? Well, yeah. It was a spontaneous decision." He mentioned that he sometimes checks on the front doors of the apartments whether they're closed, for the safety of his tenants. I didn't know he also checked inside, though... Well, I haven't spent that much time in my apartment recently after all, and I might've forgotten to lock my door a few times, so...

"Anyway, I've brought some papers for you to fill in. You'll still have to pay this month's rent, though. Oh! And: remember to tidy up a bit before you move out for good."

He puts a mountain of paper on the counter, and gives me a black pen. "I'll wait."

"Okay..."

I start writing on the top document, before feeling a warm breath right above me. I push my boyfriend away, and continue, asking my landlord questions about what I have to write every once in a while. He constantly tries to touch me, as my landlord is watching us, and I keep having to shove him away. "One minute," I whisper.

The two men start chatting with each other, and slowly devour the rest of Elizabeth's apple pie, as they wait for me to finish writing. My landlord's tone sounds rather friendly, meanwhile my partner's tone is mildly annoyed. I've always admired the former's ability to ignore critique.

Once I finish, I thank my landlord, and swiftly leave, dragging my boyfriend out by his hand.

✂