Starlight

Jack woke up because of the steps. Again. It was a common thing in the past week and he should get used to it, but it is still weird hearing someone walking in his apartment and not knowing this someone. Alex. Sometimes he can hear him only for few seconds, other times it’s minutes, but this morning it feels like placing a note on his coffee table takes more time than usually.

One time Alex wrote him and asked not to come out of his room if he hears him and Jack has followed his orders, but this morning he feels that something is wrong with Alex or something else. It never takes him that much time. Jack reaches over to his phone to see what time it is. 8:43 and it feels like Alex has been there for at least fifteen minutes. With a groan he swings his legs out of his warm and comfortable bed. On the way to the doors he grabs some shirt, because his apartment is not one of the warmest places in late fall. The moment he places his hand on the door knob he hears voice. A voice that makes him feel warm inside, despite the coolness of his apartment.

“Don’t, please just…stay in your room,” he sounds sad, almost desperate.

“But…is something wrong?” Jack asks behind closed doors.

Silence, some shuffling, loud sigh and then he’s talking again in this sweet voice. Jack could listen to this voice for the rest of his life, he’s okay to not see Alex as long as he can hear his beautiful voice.

“I wrote everything in the note…you’ll read it when…when I’m gone.”

“Why do I need to wait? Why can’t you just give it to me?”

“I…I can’t…you can’t see me, it’s too soon. You’re not ready and I’m not allowed to…”

About a week ago Alex wrote that it’s complicated to explain everything about him. It’s hard to explain to Jack why he can’t say too much, why Jack can’t see him and how he’s allowed to get in his apartment. But he also said that it won’t take long for them to meet. It might take four weeks if not less. He wrote something about earthquakes, storms and tsunami, but even after the whole week Jack haven’t figured out how meeting Alex can be associated with all that.

“Why do we need to wait till this said time to meet you if we can meet now? I mean, you’re in my apartment and I can just open these doors and we can meet.”

“No. We can’t. I told you – you’re not ready.”

“How can you know that! The only thing in my way are these doors!”

“Jack, please…don’t…”

Alex felt a wave of fear. Jack was right. The only thing standing in his way was these doors. He can just open them and see Alex and that’s not how this is supposed to happen. He’s not ready to see Alex like that. After few week yes, but now – no. Then he’ll be just like the rest of the people and Jack won’t see his real self for another few weeks, if not more. If Jack comes out now, he might not be able to be there for Jack anymore. They might take away everything from him. He’ll have his mission failed and Jack will be alone.

“Please, it’s not about me, but you. You can’t…please…”

“Fine,” Jack sits down on the floor, back pressed against his doors, “Then at least talk to me. Tell me something about yourself. You can tell me something, you don’t have to write these notes all the time, you know.”

Jack waited for answer, but nothing. Just silence. Not even steps like before, just silence.

“Alex?”

Still nothing. Jack waited for what felt like forever, but in reality was only three minutes, before calling Alex’s name again and slowly opening the doors. Nothing. He kind of hoped that Alex might be there, but his living room was empty, so was his kitchen and bathroom. Nothing has changed, besides the pile of the little notes. One new unfolded note was put on his coffee table next to the other notes.

I apologize for constantly waking you up in the mornings, but it might change in the next few weeks. Maybe you’ve noticed that I spend more and more time at your place. That’s because it’s harder to get back [another thing to explain later]. For the next few weeks I might not answer as much as I used to, because of these difficulties, but that doesn’t mean I’ll leave you. We’ll meet, but till then – take care of yourself. As I once wrote to you, there will be something happening and you might feel it as well. I just want you to be safe. I don’t know which parts of the world will suffer the most and I really hope it’s not the part where you are, but… Just take care of yourself.
I feel like after every note I write to you, you just get more and more questions. It’s weird for me, because all those things are more than normal for me, but thinking about it, about how you probably feel about this, makes me understand that all this, my life and my society is very complicated for you. Your life is different from mine and as I wrote before, I will tell you everything when we’ll meet.

Notes

It's short and late and I feel bad about that. The worst part is that I don't even have an excuse for that. I'm just lazy and obsessed with Once Upon A Time. There's nothing else in my life right now, just that... oh! and food, there's always time for that ;D
But to keep you here I can say that there's going to happen something in the next chapter and I have five [I think five] free days, so you might get an update pretty soon ^^