The white foam that first covered the surface of the water was long gone. Goose bumps began spreading across my entire body. I could feel the freshly shaven hairs on my legs begin to sprout as I sat with my knees to my chest in the small tub. My neighbor, Cami, was on the phone on the other side of the paper-thin wall, presumably with one of her many nasally-voiced girlfriends. Sometimes I could hear a big group of them at her apartment like they were a sorority or something. Her conversations were becoming quite routine and predictable as she only ever called people to discuss her whip lash relationship with the man that lived somewhere in our same building. If I counted correctly, which I did, this will be her seventh time ending things “for good”.
I kept my knees to my chest and slid my back to the bottom of the tub where my ears sank below the surface of the water. A shiver ran from my ribcage to my toes. Cami’s voice muffled as I focused on my heart beat. The more I concentrated, the slower the rhythm became. I wondered how low the number of oxygen-rich pulses could get before my body would begin shutting down. The black of my eyelids was more detailed than I remembered them being before. Yellows and pinks and greens trailed together as I moved my eyes back and forth. Pounding from the other side of my front door detonated my thoughts before I could even attempt to focus closer on the picture I’d been painting in my head. I sat up as if I were woken from a speech-in-my-underwear nightmare with an alarm clock set for high school. My lungs filled with a deep sweet breath that burned as blood resituated throughout my body.
The steam that had clung to the bathroom mirror dispersed probably the same time my hot water became shiver-inducing. I quickly snatched my thin black robe that covered about halfway down my thighs. I gave myself enough time to fasten the robe closed around my waist before I reached the door. Resonating water slithered down my body and cluttered the dark wooden floor with puddles after each step I took. I flung the door open as the third melody of pounding ceased. A tall man stood in my doorway with his hands behind his back, frozen in place besides his frantic eye. A section of rich brown hair seemed like it had fallen out of place and cloaked his mysteriously undetected right eye. His free eye looked me up and down several times, so I assumed the other followed suit. He was dressed somewhat well for an afternoon apartment raid. His khakis were surprisingly long enough for his lanky legs and his denim dress shirt was buttoned up so far I could barely see the top of the white t-shirt underneath. I couldn’t help but notice his sleeves were tight in just the right places to show off his embarrassingly thick muscles. I felt my face heat up the slightest bit, the way it does when it resembles the color of a ripe tomato. I didn’t quite recognize him, but I’m not sure I could say the same for him.
“Something I can do for you?”
I felt my right eyebrow climb higher and higher as my left brow dropped. He was then gaping. He just stood in my doorway, his scruffy jaw hanging low enough for me to see the back of his throat. I touched my forehead then the top of my head to make sure I hadn’t sprouted any number of horns, and when I didn’t find any my gaze narrowed.
“I’m sorry,” he blurted, snapping out of his trance. “I must have the wrong apartment.”
He finally took a hand from behind his back to shovel his hair away from his face. So, he had a right eye after all. His left hand dropped to his side and held a small tan box. Not the kind of box you’re thinking, this guy wasn’t planning on getting on one knee or anything. It was a thick square box with a lid. There was some sort of writing on the top, but his hand covered the majority of the ink.
Before I could conjure up a reply, he was scurrying towards the staircase at the end of the hall. I stood there with my door still wide open just staring into the hallway. I couldn’t get my eyebrows to relax or my hand to push the door forward, closing what had just happened. My cell phone rang and interrupted my confusion. I followed the trail of a repeating tune to my bedroom and fished through the waves of sheets and blankets until I found the handful of hard plastic and metal I was looking for.
