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measuring heartbeats
04 | i open the wardrobe to find, a guy?

Five hours have passed and Tabitha hasn't tried speaking to me again. My butt went numb three hours ago, two hours and I was replaying my music and it's been one hour since I've seen a hint of life other than us on the empty back roads.

Sofia surprisedly hasn't messaged me since we left her place behind, her mothers probably taken her phone off her or something - it wouldn't surprise me.

My belly decides to rumble loudly at this moment, reminding me that I haven't eaten since breakfast. Glancing down at my black cased phone, I see that it's half past two. We've been on the road since nine, no wonder I'm starving.

"We'll pull over here and get something to eat, stretch our legs etc. We've still got three hours until we reach our destination."

I stay silent with my earbuds in as I lift my head to look out the window beside me to see that we're pulling into an abandoned looking servo station.

"Are you sure you haven't just pulled us up to our deaths?" I can't help but mumble sarcastically under my breath.

Tabitha doesn't hear me or chooses to ignore me, either way I open the door and step on out into the warmer air. I'm starting to regret wearing the black jeans, although I love them to death.

"You know you get that from me." Tabitha mentions as I walk behind her, sticking close just in case someone shady appears out of nowhere and decides to shove a knife through my back.

"Get what?" I ask forgetting all about my mental note of not talking to her.

"Ah! So she does speak." I glare at the back of her head, unamused. She turns her head, sending a cheeky smile my way before holding the door open for me as we enter.

"So not funny by the way," I tell her walking past. I probably should've thanked her for holding the door open for me but I can't be bothered, I'm tired and still pissed about this whole arrangement.

"Lighten up chicky, it's not the end of the world."

"Feels like it sometimes..."

Tabitha sighs but gives me a small sad smile as we walk up to the hot food counter.

"I was saying that you're like me in so many ways, especially the attitude and stubbornness bit." Tabitha tells me, ringing the little bell on the bench. I don't know if it's the sad music playing in my ears or what but I swear she says it almost sadly.

"Is this the part where you tell me you wish I was more like mum?" I ask about to roll my eyes and walk off. Tabitha laughs as she shakes her head.

"Oh god no, I don't need another annoying perfectionist on my hands." I almost smile at that.

"Can I help you ladies?"

We look up to see a young man appear in front of the counter.

"Can you point me to the closest bus station?" I ask him, half joking and yet still serious.

"Plan on running away?" the man asks with an amused smirk. "I finish in an hour," and with this, he winks.

"Oh stop being overdramatic young lady!" Tabitha cries before turning her attention back to the gentlemen with the piercing green eyes. "And you-" She points at the guy. "Eyes off my under eighteen year old girl."

I roll my eyes but the green eyed boy just smiles and nods his head before turning to wink once more my way as Tabitha walks over to grab a drink from the fridges.

"So pretty lady, what shall it be?" I take notice of the name tag pinned to his rolled up shirt.

Mateo.

"Is the sandwiches fresh or should I stir clear?"

"Depends on if you want to be sick the rest of the way on your journey or not." I raise an eyebrow.

"I think I'll just stick with a water... thanks?"

"You don't say that often, do you?" He comments, walking around the corner of the counter and coming to stand before me. I look up at him, tilting my head slightly.

"Say what?" I play it off causally as he watches me.

"Thanks."

I go blank for a second. How is it possible for him to already notice something that takes anyone else years? I wet my lips in thought as I try to come up with something to say.

"I guess not..."

Mateo nods his head understandably before gesturing for me to follow behind him and I do - all the six steps over to the fridge filled with cold waters.

"Well in that case," he grabs one out of the fridge, handing the bottle to me. "I feel like the luckiest guy in the world."

"And I still feel like you're a major creep who tried to get me in your car?" I tell him, enjoying the easy banter between the two of us.

"I was trying to be your knight in shining patrol covered clothes!" He fakes hurt at this as we return to the counter, Tabitha waiting patiently for us.

"Yeah, a knight in shining patrol covered clothes who lures innocent young girls to their death."

He grins at this as he rings up our purchases, excluding my bottle of water. I question him about it as Tabitha pays for her drink and a bag of chips.

"What can I say, giving me your full attention for the last five minutes payed for the drink." He hands the bottle to me personally, before tucking something else small into my hands.

His mischief emerald eyes sparkle in the light as they meet mine.

"Be careful around that boy Jupiter, he's trouble." Tabitha warns me as we go back out to the car. I turn to glance back at Mateo who is still watching me from his spot behind the dirty covered window.

"Yeah, yeah I will." I tell her with a straight face.

But the problem is, trouble tends to find me.

I pretend to undo the cap off my water, when really I'm unrolling the small crumbled rectangular piece of paper in front of me showing troubled boys number.

Even when I don't want it to - it comes in a cup of trouble, two spoons of fucked and three spoonfuls of oh shit plus a sprinkle of remorse drizzled all over it. A recipe for total disaster.

§

four hours later.

As I get out of the vehicle, I find myself looking up at the tall white building in front of us.

"I know it's not much..." Tabitha tells me coming around to stand beside me, also looking up at the building. "But it's something, and sometimes that's all you need."

I nod my head in understanding.

"Well what are you waiting for, let's go up before you make the sky's start to cry," she jokes already walking towards the automatic doors.

"I thought you said it was meant to be a 'paradise' bay?" I refer to the dark grey clouds above us as I grab my backpack from the front.

"Even Paradise Bay has it's fair share of rainy days, although it had been sunny before I left yesterday morning."

As we come into the main lobby area of the building, the smell of fresh flowers great us. An older man in a dark shirt sits behind the desk wearing a tired yet friendly looking smile.

"Good evening Miss Wright."

Tabitha smiles as she goes up to great him with a warm hug.

"Ah Thomas, isn't it just? Although my... niece will have to disagree with you on that."

The elderly man, Thomas, looks over at me and nearly falls out of his chair altogether as his eyes widen.

"She looks exactly like you Miss Wright."

I roll my eyes.

"I'd prefer Jupiter than Miss Wright's niece," I decide to speak up just putting it out there.

"Ah of course darling, well I'm Thomas the-" I turn to face Tabitha.

"Is it okay if I just meet you up there, I'm actually pretty tired," I lie holding the backpack closer to me.

Tabitha sighs but hands over the keys and points me in the direction of the stairs.

"- Just like you at that age Miss Wright."

"Yeah that's what scares me Thomas..."

I don't stick around to find out what more she has to say about me, instead I make my way up the three flights of stairs.

The hallways are empty when I finally make my way up, and it only looks to be four apartments to a level which isn't too bad.

"Okay number eleven, where are you hiding?" I say out loud as I flick the keys around in my hand looking at the door numbers.

It ends up being at the end of the hall on the right, with a grey door and white number eleven written on it in the center.

"Well I guess this is a hello not so home sweet home moment," I mumble to myself as I unlock the door - stepping inside the small apartment.

Actually small is an understatement. It's an open plan living area although the kitchen, lounge room and dining are squashed together over a single normal sized room.

I notice the loose magazines littered over the floor, empty cardboard boxes laying around and dirty dishes stacked up in the sink. Something tells me Tabitha isn't a clean freak like her sister.

I check the first door which I assume is Tabitha's as there's clothes everywhere except in the open wardrobe. Behind the next door is the bathroom although I really don't know how Tabitha moves around in there.

The third ends up being a spare room, which I guess will now be mine as the single bed is freshly made with a dark red blanket folded up at the end.

I move to place my bag down on the bed and make my way over to the wardrobe to check it out. The closer I move towards it, the clearer I hear something shuffling inside it.

"Hello?" I call out wearily. The noise stops and all is silent as I swing the wardrobe door open getting ready to attack whatever it is.

Instead of seeing a dog or rat that I am expecting, I'm met with a set of brown eyes looking up at me and a lazy smile on their face.

"So I was thinking we could order in tonight, if that's alright with you Jupiter?" Tabithas voice raises as she enters the apartment.

My eyes widen as I take in the crunched figure hiding in my wardrobe.

"Jupiter?" Tabitha calls out sounding close, I listen to her high heels click along the old floorboards.

Panicked I slam the door to the wardrobe shut, trapping the person inside. I then turn around to lean my back against it, trying to look casual as Tabitha comes into the room.

"Everything okay in here?" she asks sending a quick quizzical look behind me.

"Uh... yeah of course." I fake a cough as I hear the person on the other side start to chuckle quietly. "I mean, why wouldn't it be?"

Tabitha raises an arched eyebrow at me but let's it side with a shake of her head.

"Well I'll order in a pizza hey, are you okay with just plain cheese?"

"Sure." I say quickly probably too quickly but she doesn't seem to notice as she walks back out into the other area already on the phone.

No everything's far from okay in here, there's a fucking guy in my wardrobe?!