Cigarettes

Chapter 3

I was unpacking the whole evening and when I was finally done I decided to take a hot bath.

I haven't heard from Luke since he left the apartment, so I figured I could safely relax under loads of sweet smelling bubbles.

I dived into the hot water and let out a sigh of relief, feeling my muscles untense. It was a really hard day, phisically.

I said goodbye to my mum, to my old home and met my new, kind of weird and stuck up but sympathetic, roomate who seems to be stinking up our new appartment with his cigarettes.

I smiled at the thought of living on my own and by my own rules, not having to explain why I'm out so late or why I'm having pizza for lunch at five in the afternoon, due to my sleeping in late.

Of course Luke and I had to make up some rules between ourselves, such as no burning the house down and stuff like that.

I wasn't sure if I liked the idea of living with a boy, let alone the boy I have only recently just met. I concluded Lisa wouldn't let me live with a serial killer so I let that thought slip away and drown in my bath.

After a while I already got bored of just laying in the water so I took my phone that I had put on the shelf before I stripped out of my clothes and looked at the time.
It was half past midnight and I was pretty tired so I decided to dress myself up and go to bed. I washed my hair, brushed it out and did my hygene listening to some songs on shuffle.

I exited the bathroom, a cloud of hot steam flying inside the hallway when I opened the bathroom door. A soft light of the TV was lightening up the living room, everything still being the exact way Luke had left it. I turned off the TV and went to my room, falling asleep in my new home.

-

A noise woke me up. Not really a noise, they were some bumps on the floor, it sounded like someone fell.
I stood up in the dark and looked at the time, 5:30. The sun hasn't come up yet since it was nearly winter, so I turned on the light in my room to see where to walk.

When I opened the door and walked into the hallway, I found Luke sitting on the armchair in a weird position, rocking back and forth just the slightest bit.

"Luke?" I questioned whispering as I took a few steps further from my bedroom and turned on the kitchen light.

"Why did you turn off the TV, I almost broke my foot!" he whined looking at me. I realized he was sitting in a weird position because he was holding on his leg which was obviously hurting from when he fell a few seconds ago.

"Oh, sorry. I thought you left it on by accident so I just turned it off." I explained going to the fridge and trying to find frozen peas or something to put on his hurting spot.

"No, I always leave it on when I go out so I can see something when I get back." he stood up and turned down the light just a bit so it was a few shades darker in the room.
"And what are you doing?" he asked taked a few steps to the kitchen bar, careful not to pressure his leg.

"Why don't you just turn on the light?" I asked going through the fridge. "And haven't you got any frozen peas, fries or anything? Some ice?" I asked, not being able to find anything.

"Because it hurts my eyes. And I actually don't use the fridge at all." he scratched the back of his head. "I always order in and when I don't I go out to eat."

"Why does the light hurt your eyes?" I questioned confused, bent down at the fridge as I looked at him. "But you don't even have ice?!" I asked even more confused, closing the fridge and taking a kitchen rag to pour cold water on it.

"What would I do with ice?" he ignored my first question and asked ironically, sitting on the bar stool next to the kitchen counter.

"Well, right now we'd use it to lessen your pain." I said handing him the kitchen rag. "Put it on the painful spot."

"Well," he said mocking my tone and taking the rag, "if you hadn't turned off the TV I wouldn't have hurt my leg, now would I?" he argued putting the rag on his leg and then letting out a sigh of relief.

"And why are you even still home, aren't you going to work or something?" he added up, looking at me and trying to point out my sleeping state.

"How do you know when I should be going to work?" I asked pouring some water in a cup.

"Well Elvis' opens at half past six the last time I checked, and now it's 5:36" he explained, his chin pointing me to the wall clock. "And I thought you're the only worker there this week, since your coworker called in sick so you have to work both shifts."

"How do you-" I started asking but I stopped myself. I've just woken up and whatever his reason of knowing all this was, I wasn't interested in hearing it before I've had my morning coffee.

"I don't work there anymore. Some jackass stole something during my shift so I got fired." I added, taking out the bag of coffee and pouring it into the cup of boiling water.

He looked at me with an unreadable expression on his face, his leg still being held up on the kitchen counter with a wet rag laying on it.
I put my coffee on the counter and took some milk to finish it up.

Luke then took his leg off the counter and stood up like his leg never even hurted. I wanted to ask if it feels better but he outran me.

"Yeah... About that." he started, scratching the back of his head once again. "I may or may not have stolen an album from your store." he said looking up at the ceiling as if God was about to help him after my reaction.

"What?" I asked, not because I didn't hear him, but because I didn't actually understand why he had stolen it.

It's not like he didn't have money because I clearly saw all the albums thrown all over the hallway, and the way he was just randomly choosing the albums at the store like he didn't even care about the price showed it off even more.

"Well, I overheard you talking to someone on the phone saying you hate your job and that your boss was being a dick so I figured I'd steal something and get you out of it." he said smirking proudly like he's just helped me with solving the highest level of algebra.

"What." I repeated, now not so calm. "You just costed me a job because I complained about my boss being an ass?!" I asked giving him a serious look. "Everyone's boss is an ass! And I need a job, how did you think I'm going to pay the bills?" I got hysteric and raised my voice just to the point when I wasn't yelling, afraid I'm going to wake up the neighbours.

He was looking at me with a slight shock on his face and then started shuffling through his pockets. When he finally found what he was looking for, he lit the cigarette up and took a smoke.

I stopped walking and looked at him. He watched me tensly and then shrugged like he hasn't done anything wrong.

"Jerk." I quietly cursed to myself hoping he wouldn't hear and walked back to my bedroom.

When I realized I've left my coffee in the kitchen, I walked back just to find him in the same position he was in when I stormed out.

"I can loan you some money until you find another way to pay the bills, if you want." he offered looking at me with a serious expression.

"Don't be silly, we've just met I can't let you pay my bills." I told him taking a sip of my coffee as I sat down in front of him. The coffee calmed me down a bit.

"Sure I can, we're roomates now. It's all good as long as you never call me a jerk again." he said with a serious look on his face. I blushed when I realised he had heard me.

"That won't be necessary, I've already saved up so I have enough to pay for a few months." I chuckled at his jerk remark.

"Suit yourself. But I was serious about the jerk part." he said with an expressionless face, taking a smoke and blowing it directly in my face. I coughed as I slightly choked on my coffee and kicked his leg under the counter.

"Ouch!" he flinched and held onto his hurting spot again.

"Shit, I'm sorry, I forgot." I started laughing as I jumped off the kitchen stool. "I told you I hate the smell and you just blew it directly in my face." I tried to find an excuse as I came over to him making sure I didin't hit him too hard.

"Aren't you something." he murmured more to himself, letting go of his leg, not even looking at me. I ignored his comment and decided it's time for me to get dressed and make myself a bit more presentable.