Read on Inkitt.

Chapter 5

Leave it to Bethany to show up looking like she was ready to walk the red carpet at a music award show.

Tiny shorts that shimmered when she moved. A tank top that barely covered her ample bust secured only by a thin string tied at the back. I swear if she sneezed the thing would fly through the air like Indiana Jones’ whip.

Hair, expertly styled waves of platinum that you could argue had no product in it other than bleach and perfection. Topped only with false lashes and pristine lipstick. The girl was more than a knockout. Her looks could topple cities. Move over Cleopatra, this was Bethany’s era to hail all the emperors and seize the Roman armies.

I may not have been wearing the baggy sweats Alijah had suggested, but next to Bethany, anything resembled a potato sack. It wasn’t her fault. She may have been unworldly beautiful, but she only ever used it as a weapon to snare a partner for the night. Never complained about breaking a nail or squealed about getting dirty. Being catty was not in her nature. She believed women should support other women not judge and demean. Bethany was a true good soul who just happened to put social media filters to shame.

“I brought wine,” Bethany sang as she walked past me and into the kitchen.

Closing the front door behind her, I looked down at the cotton pajama set I was wearing from Old Navy. I felt so out of place, even in my own home.

“I thought it was a Netflix and chill kinda night,” I said wandering into the living room tugging at my cropped top hoping it would magically stretch into a flowing evening gown with a plunging neckline.

“It is. Where’s your popcorn bowl.” A soundtrack of cabinets opening and closing followed by dishes and utensils being shoved every which way played through the wall. “Never mind, found it.” Bethany stuck her head out into the living room. “I had an early drink date with a potential,” she said with a shrug before returning to her task. “I’ll change in a sec.”

Watching Bethany through the connecting doorway, I had not-so-secretly hoped I would look like her when I grew up. She had just celebrated her thirty-third birthday a few months prior. Surprisingly in a very low-key fashion. Not that I looked haggard at twenty-nine. At the rate my job was pounding me into the ground, I was on my way to forty, completely skipping my thirtieth next year.

It was her attitude that was infectious. There were very few times I saw Bethany harbor true negative feelings. With the exception of the loss of her family when we were in high school, she was the Positivity Princess with a degree in compartmentalizing. She had this brilliant ability that allowed most things to just bounce right off her and evaporate. I was still waiting for some of that magic to rub off onto me.

Grabbing the remote from the coffee table, my reflection in the sliding glass doors caught my attention. I didn’t know what my obsession was with my appearance lately. Maybe it was the big three-oh just wound the corner. It wasn’t like I had a head full of gray hair and face full of wrinkles. When it was time for me to enter into my golden years I would welcome those things. All signs of having lived many years well. To me, signs of aging were like a badge of honor. “Look, I didn’t get hit by a bus or succumb to some horrible disease. Yay!”

As it was, I looked like your average twenty-something trying not to get dragged out to sea by life’s savage undercurrents. Maybe that was it. I was just an average everything. Alijah had this amazing job that took him around the world doing who the hell knew what. But he was living and seemed to really enjoy it.

Bethany worked for a small consulting firm that had her talking to people all day. She actually looked forward to her job and stepped into the weekends with a flourish for life.

Me, on the other hand. The advertisement agency was fine. My team was fine. Grabbing drinks with co-workers once in a while was fine. Going out with Bethany was fine. I was beginning to think something was wrong with being fine.

Bethany and I were such physical opposites, which was fine.

Ugh.

Not that I thought I was unfortunate looking. It took a long time to get past criticisms scrubbed from my brain. But they had left a stain. One I never let anyone know was still there. Maybe one person knew. But he was the one who had helped me see how toxic words had been and had done everything he could to replace them with actual truth. I suppose thinking I looked fine was an improvement.

Sliding the door open, I walked out onto the balcony. The moonlight threw its silver glow over the grassy patch below. The property owners tried to pass the area off as a park. What they called a park was really just a small patch of grass surrounded by enough trees to slightly obscure the view of guest parking and dumpsters. Not that I was really complaining. It was a patch of nature in the middle of cold, hard city.

Leaning against the railing, I let the cool night air wash over my skin as I forced myself to focus on one of my senses. Drowning out all noise, the consistent traffic, the occasional bus, footsteps on the sidewalk, the murmur of those still out before it got too late and too cold. All of it fading away from my awareness.

The small patch of nature did nothing to entice my sense of smell as the city claimed that as well. Concrete, asphalt, smog, and people. Tuning it all out. I took a deep breath and filled my lungs with the illusion of untainted air.

A moment before closing my eyes, movement caught my attention. The focus I had gained slipped away as the sounds and smells of the city trickled back to life. Instead of trying to regain the control, I concentrated on what caught my eye. Something just beyond the line of sparse trees but before the sidewalk. Leaning forward, my eyesight cleared slightly. Allowing me to focus on a shape in the shadows. Too big to be a stray animal. Too small to be a bear. Not that a bear was anywhere within 500 miles of here, but still. Better safe than sorry.

Pulling at my focus again, letting the smells of the city once again fall away, trying to pinpoint what my eyes were seeing. Maybe it was a group of raccoons huddled together halfway up a tree? That happens outside of cartoons right?

The universe decided that it was time to help by sending a small breeze my way. Pine. Not pine like the bathroom cleaning product, but true mountain forest pine, fresh cut Christmas trees. Sure, there were trees down there. But not enough to conjure the smell of a forest or a packed Christmas tree lot.

The shadow glided from its spot behind one tree to the next. And then the next. His face, because it was definitely a he, remained in the shadows. It wasn’t until he was at the edge of the trees before hitting the street as he angled his face enough for his eyes to catch the moonlight. I couldn’t help the gasp as his eyes reflected the light like an animal caught in the dark by headlights.

“What are you doing out here?” Bethany asked from the still open door. “Aren’t you cold?”

“Yes,” I replied quietly. I was cold. Eight floors of apartments and I had no doubt that this figure, or really talented pack of raccoons, had been looking straight at me. That chilled me to the bone.

Not wanting to lose the man in the shadows, I remained still.

Joining me at the railing, Bethany leaned to match my angle. “What are we looking at?” she whispered dramatically.

The shadow recoiled, slinking farther into darkness. Scanning the area, I couldn’t see anything that would cause that type of reaction. Actually, other than me and Bethany, there was nothing else out here.

I couldn’t stop a shudder from skittering across my body.

“Are you alright, Noa?” Bethany’s hand on my shoulder made me jump. “Oh my god, what happened?”

“Do you see anything out there?” I asked finally taking my eyes from the park to watch her face.

Taking the time to really scan the area, Bethany shook her head. “No, I don’t see anything.”

I really needed to get a hold on my imagination. More importantly, I needed to get off this balcony.