Premonitions | ✓

four

 "Love Is Strange" -Mickey Baker

It didn't take long for Lars to travel to the small home of Anna's. 

      She had told him exactly which house it was that day at the lake, hoping the Viking would show up at her door, which didn't happen.

      Since he had grown up in the town of Cutten since the age of four, the little house just on the outskirts of town was not hard to find. He drove his Harley to get there quicker, knowing that when Anna was distraught, she did things she later regretted. 

     Nothing jail worthy but she has hurt herself in the past.

     One time, the small woman had trashed her dorm room for an unknown reason. Her roommate called Lars from Anna's phone saying she had gone crazy and that he had to come calm her down. By that time, the two were as thick as thieves, and Lars that he loved her so coming to calm Anna down was no inconvenience at all.

     When Anna's roommate, a tall woman with sharp features, went down to the lobby to collect him, she was rambling about how Anna had come back from class where she was yelling at someone over the phone, sobbing hysterically. Her roommate wasn't close to Anna and didn't want to deal with her.

     Lars remembers the roommate unlocking the door to their shared room, where Anna was found huddled in the corner, a comforter completely covering her curvy form as some sort of cloak of invisibility. Still, Anna's side of the room was trashed. 

     She had ripped up textbooks, schoolwork, and any photo that was taped to the wall. The mattress of her twin bed was flipped, the sheets on the other side of the room along with the pillows and ten Eeyore stuffed animals she collected, were thrown about the room.

     Lars thanked the lean and Amazonian woman just as she left with an eye roll, calling Anna dramatic, the door slamming shut behind her. Lars sighed to himself before quietly approaching Anna. 

     She sat in the corner of her side of the room, under a dark brown comforter, sniffling. He knew then from how hard she was breathing that she was going to be sick for a week because of how upset she got.

     "Hey, Muffin... Can I come in too?" Lars played as if she hadn't just had a mental breakdown.

     That was the first time he had ever seen the small woman so erratic, but for some reason, he was calm, knew exactly what to do, and what Anna needed. He sat in front of her huddled figure for a few moments before he heard her catch her breath from under the thick blanket, lifting it slightly until her face was seen.

     Anna looked like a toddler with the blanket atop her head as it engulfed her body. A tear slid down her cheek as she avoided eye contact, "What got you so upset? Your roommate said you were on the phone with someone yelling and crying...?"

     Lars watched her as she shook her head slowly, still not looking up at him or speaking. He wasn't frustrated with her, if anything, he was worried. The Swed had never seen her in such a state. Whenever they hung out —which was almost every day since they met— Anna was joyful and carefree. It was as if she never had a care in the world, Lars envied her because of it. 

     But, now he's seen her upset and wants to know why. Not to be invasive but to help.

     "You want to watch a movie on your laptop while I clean up?" Lars knew not to push. They had been friends for over a year by then, and she still hadn't discussed family with him. Lars figured that whatever she kept to herself, she wanted to keep it that way.

     He helped her set up the laptop with a movie. When he saw her start-up, Tarzan, he knew then how truly upset she was. He watched as she continued to sit in her corner, the brown comforter around her curvy figure, and the laptop's fan buzzing on the carpeted floor in front of her.