"Well, my shift is over; I’ll see you on Monday, Blake." I said as I grabbed out my umbrella and walked towards the back exit of the market.
"See ya, Jack." replied Blake as he waved to me for a good bye; I returned his farewell on my way out, ensuring to clock out in the process.
Blake and I work together at the local market during the school week and he's been a friend of mine since middle school. He is a fan of anime; though while I’m not a big anime person myself, I do have a couple of anime collectibles at my apartment.
My parents passed away when I was 10 but even though I didn't technically have parents after that, I was however raised by my parents' friends; they were nice enough people. For as much as they gave me all the love they wanted, I still couldn't forget about my real family.
When I turned 18, I told my foster parents that I'd like to move out and live on my own. They were surprised at first, but then they agreed to this. They gave me the best of luck, got me in contact with an apartment manager, and promised to stay in touch with me no matter what if I did the same. It was nerve-wracking at first to move away from my parents, but I got used to it.
I’ve since got a job that adequately pays bills even if I do live alone at my apartment, so I pay for food, electricity, wireless internet, basically the essentials to a young adult primarily by myself; save for a few loans from friends and family when my shifts won’t cover everything.
As for my life at high school, I always see people talking about whatever, or just chit chatting with their girlfriends. I never really thought about dating anyone, really. I always thought that love was just a thing in fairy tales.
At least that was what I thought till these three girls showed up at the school from out of nowhere. If I am correct, their names are Adagio, Aria, and Sonata. Sonata seems to have been the first girl I ever had a crush on; I mean I really wanted to go up to her and ask her out, but I didn't have the guts to do it.
She and her sisters made such amazing music, even if, for some unknown reason, made me want to punch someone in the jaw. I was starting to think these girls were putting everyone in the school under some sort of spell, but I didn't believe in magic and all; so I let it go.
As much as I wanted to talk to Sonata, it all changed during the battle of the bands. The Rainbooms defeated them with, -imagine my surprise to find out that it was magic- their own magic. When the crowd booed them off stage, they ran away and were never seen again.
The girl that I really wanted to talk to, but didn't have the guts to walk up to, had disappeared from my life. I’d been in a bit of a depression since then, up until Blake offered to watch anime with me while I recovered. Surprisingly enough, watching a couple of Blake-recommended titles actually worked. My depression disappeared and I was happy again; even if my mood had improved, I still thought about Sonata and wondered where she could be, what she was up to.
Wherever she is, I hope she's doing fine.
As I unhooked and opened my umbrella, I stared up at the dark and rainy skies. It was just past seven in the evening and the rain has been coming down since three but honestly, I’m glad that we’re getting rain. We’ve seriously needed the hydration ever since we had that drought.
“Right then; walk home in the rain, what could possibly go wrong?” I mumbled to myself as I lifted my umbrella over my head before I began my journey home to my residence.
I was still a few blocks from the apartment building as I listened to 'Singing in the Rain' on my iPhone 6 without any headphones -there's no one else out and about to hear me sing, anyway.
I liked old music. When my parents were still alive, they introduced me to classic rock and other music from their younger years. I'm not a big fan of today's music, but every once in a while, though not very often, there's a good one.
As I passed down an alleyway, I could just faintly hear the distinct sound of sniffling. I backtracked towards the alleyway and paused my music, making the sniffling more audible than before. The first thing I noticed was that the sniffling sounded feminine. Is it a homeless person or a woman that had been molested? Should I call the authorities?
My curiosity began to overwhelm me as I walked into the dark alleyway, searching for the origins. Given that it was night and the only light that was on was the nearest streetlight, I couldn't see much.
"Hello?" I called out, as I got deeper into the potentially foreboding alleyway.
No reply save for the sniffling that continued. I slowly crept into the narrow passage as I began to find myself thinking, is this is some sort of trick? And that the woman might attack me, much like the witch from Left 4 Dead.
Wrapping my arm around my umbrella to keep it from escaping me, I reached into my pocket and turned my iPhone screen on and activated the flashlight.
Swinging the beam back and forth, I began to search the area in depth until the bright light revealed a female body in tattered clothes covering her face from the sudden light.
She let out a yelp from the sight of it, which in turn made me jump and backpedal a couple of steps. Examining the girl more intently while we caught our emotions; I noticed she had blue skin, wore a stained yet tattered purple sweatshirt and long pants with holes on the knees. Raising my gaze upwards, I couldn't get the details on her hair or face but I was beginning to wonder if this girl was my Sonata.
I simply had to ask.
"Uhm, excuse me? Are you Sonata Dusk?" I asked as I moved the light away from her face.
The girl slowly removed her hands from her face to reveal her features, soaked in either rain or tears; I couldn’t be sure given the circumstances. She had purple teary eyes as she looked towards me with a cocked eyebrow.
"Yes…how do you know my name?" she inquired, rubbing the water out of her eyes.
My God…it really is Sonata! I must admit, I was close to doing a little happy dance.
"I knew you from Canterlot High." I replied, calming myself down again.
She looked towards the ground with gloom on her face. A tear rolled down her cheek and fell to the soaked concrete beneath us.
"Oh…then you must hate me; everyone else does." she said as she covered her face once more and began to sob anew.
I walked up to her and held the umbrella over the distraught girl. She paused her sobbing and looked up towards me curiously.
"No…I don't hate you. I just happened to be heading home to my apartment, up until I heard your crying. Sonata, you must be soaked to the bone out here; let me help you." I offered with a hand outstretched as I looked into Sonata's eyes and saw a frightened girl, lost and alone.
Speaking of alone, where are the other two? Isn’t Sonata usually with her sisters, Adagio and Aria? They couldn't have forgotten about Sonata; that's just cruel. As much as I wanted to ask her about that, I pushed that aside and returned to helping Sonata.
"I don't trust you…you're just gonna beat me up for what my sisters and I did, trying to taking over the world." she said as she looked dejectedly away from me, her arms protectively or defiantly over her chest.
"I can see how she might think that, but let’s just focus on her situation right now." I thought.
"Sonata, I would never do that. Please, I am asking you to come along with me; I can provide you food and shelter. Trust me." I explained as I turned off the light on my iPhone before returning it to my pocket to hold out my hand once again.
Even though I couldn't see her face anymore, I guess she was considering my offer to come with me or not. After a minute had passed, her hand appeared and carefully took ahold of my own.
"Good choice; up you get." I said as I helped her up from where she lied.
"Come on, let's get you safe. I’ll get you some warm blankets and a nice bowl of soup." I announced gently as she and I left the alleyway hand-in-hand under the cover of my umbrella.
As we walked down towards the apartment building, I looked back at Sonata and noticed she was looking quite calm, but nervous. I smiled at her as she looked up at me.
"Don't worry; I won't do anything bad to you. You can trust me." I gave her another warm smile.
She gave me a small smile in return before she looked away from me. I looked ahead as we were getting closer to our destination.
Upon reaching our destination, I closed up my umbrella once we got inside and together Sonata and I walked up the stairs towards the third floor. We took a left and saw the number 308 on my door.
"Here we are." I announced calmly as I reached into my right pocket and retrieved my keys.
I unlocked the door and opened it for Sonata to enter first. She slowly shuffled in as I followed in after her and turned on the light switch, revealing my humble abode. She looked around and was beginning to look more relaxed than before; I guess she was starting to get used to being helped.
"Go ahead, Sonata. Make yourself comfortable." I said as I locked the door and walked up to her to put my hand on her left shoulder.
Sonata turned and gave me a teary smile and hugged me tightly as she wrapped her arms around me.
"Thank you." she cried as she placed her head on my chest. I didn't know what to do in reply, but I felt like hugging her back would be the best course of action.
"Your welcome," I replied as I hugged her tightly. We remained in the position for about ten seconds, till I broke the hug now having soaked my own clothing.
"So…you hungry?" I asked as she stared up at me, wiping away her tears.
Our answer came from Sonata’s stomach as it let out a rather rumbling groan, making the girl look away from me, blushing.
"Yes. Can I have that soup that you offered before?" she asked as she gave me the puppy-dog eyes.
"Damn, she's so cute." I thought as my face began to flush red in response.
"Absolutely.” I recovered, “Take your shoes off here and wait in the living room while I go get it ready." I instructed as I pointed towards the aforementioned living room.
She gave me a smile as she took off her soggy shoes and walked over to the couch where I coincidently had left a blanket. She grabbed ahold of my TV remote and pressed the on button once she was adequately wrapped up.
She had been flipping around through the channels and for some reason stopped on the news channel. Why out of all of the channels would she choose that one? I always thought girls would watch Teen Moms on MTV or the channel that I like to call, 'Men are terrible and will hurt you because this is Lifetime'. I’m talking about the Lifetime channel here.
I continue to stare at her with curiosity; I have so many questions to ask about why she was in the alleyway alone, where are her sisters, and what has she been doing the past three weeks since the battle of the bands?
Turning back to my own work I figured I'll ask her after she finishes up eating; she must be starving if she's been out there in the wet and cold weather freezing to death.
I never imagined her coming to my place like this; I always imagined it after we go to prom or something.
"Well, whatever. I promised her soup, so I shall provide her with soup." I thought as I looked around the pantry for any remaining cans of instant soup.
