245 Lazy Day Pt. 3

[Alvelyn's Perspective]

The sound of the doorbell ringing woke me up from my trance, rebooting my brain with the sound. I got up from the couch, walking at my usual pace, not too fast nor too slow as I treated Elise's visit as anyone's visit. Yet...for some reason I couldn't really feel the usual sense of dispassion that I would expect from myself. Rather...there seemed to be a hint of...anticipation.

I walked over to the dark screen monitor by the door that greatly resembled a mirror with its reflective nature and confirmed with myself when I saw the green doorbell icon light up on the dark screen. With a gentle touch of my finger against the screen, up popped a live camera footage from the front entrance of the building, showing the scenery of the streets as well as Elise standing by. She stared at the camera and a smile appeared on her face as she noticed the live feed transmitting.

"Hey!" Elise said in a joyful tone.

"I've opened the door," I responded after pressing the icon on the touch screen to disengage the lock on the front entrance. "You know what floor I'm on, right?"

"Forty-eight, right?"

"Yeah."

"See you in a bit."

With that, Elise entered through the unlocked front door, allowing the door to shut behind her and lock itself once again when it closed fully. With her now in the ground floor of the building, I walked away from the screen that has now once again gone dark, simply waiting for Elise to ride the elevator up to my floor, which shouldn't take long with how fast the elevators in the building goes.

With about a minute or two to spare, I walked back to my room, making a last check on what was present. There were the two bean bag sofa sacks that I had returned to my room from yesterday after bringing it over to Alevian's. After making sure that everything in my room was in place and in order, I slowly walked out of my room, closing the door.

However, as I stood in the hallway, I glanced over in the direction of Alevian's room. He's yet to wake up... Is he really still sleeping?

With a somewhat curious feeling in my mind, I quietly walked over to the doorway of his room, staring at the closed door. I slowly reached my hand over to the door handle, gently turning it before I carefully pushed it open without making any noise. With the door opened ever so slightly, I peeked in the crevice, taking in the darkness of his room. From the direction of his bed, I could see him laying on his bed, eyes closed as he gently breathed. Slowly, I opened the door a bit wider to the point that I could step into the room.

I tiptoed over to his bedside, using the scarce amount of dim sunlight that penetrated the curtains and into the room to stare at his face. It was a werid feeling seeing myself sleep, although it is technically the male version of myself. As a girl, I could say with great confidence that his face was top notch, definitely in the above average spectrum, maybe even beyond that. The young face with defined features had some feminine qualities, but it still leaned in the more masculine side. Although the body is in its late teenage years, there were little to no facial hair growing on his smooth chin and cheeks, yet that did not make him appear less masculine. Rather, it provided his calm, dreamy slumbering face with a sense of...purity and holiness, a rather obscure innocence that will only show up on his face while he is in a peaceful slumber. It was an appearance that was...so pure...like the holy white floras that would remain that color even after being dipped in the murkiest of mud.

All in all, his face is a rather handsome one, a face that would probably lead to him having great success in socialization if we would have a rather normal character. Yet...because of our nature, the darkness in our character, even with our appearance, we are unable to socialize successfully, shunned by people and always alone. But...that's starting to change, although it is only little by little.

I carefully closed the door shut after confirming that he was in fact asleep, leaving him to his angelic and holy slumber. I was still unwilling to disturb him, not wanting to wake the peacefully sleeping prince from his slumber. So, I walked over to the doorway, waiting to welcome Elise in. In coincidence, when I arrived at the doorway, the doorbell ringed once again. This time, it was the one by our front door.

"Hey," Elise smiled when she saw me.

"Come in," I stepped aside, allowing her to enter through the doorway and closed the door behind her.

"Are your parents home?" Elise asked when she stepped into the house and looked around, taking in the surroundings.

"My aunt isn't home," I answered.

"You live with your aunt?" Elise looked over at me to confirm.

"Yeah," I said, nodding. "My aunt took me in ever since my father died."

"Oh," Elise frowned and appeared to be regretting having initiated the topic.

"Don't worry about it," I said, smiling so as to lighten the guilt on her chest. "It's been so long that it doesn't have that much of an effect on me."

She remained silent even at my attempts at lightening her guilt, but...I suppose that nothing I can say right now can truly make the feeling of awkwardness in her any better. Therefore, I suppose the next best thing is to simply progress the conversation and hope that it would take her mind off of it.

"You want to go to my room?" I asked her with a lightened expression on my face, hoping to induce a positive atmosphere.

"Sure," Elise nodded in response. That bitter and awkward expression on her face seemed to have faded a bit, hinting me that my approach has taken its effect.

I started walking to the hallway where our rooms branched out from. There, I led her to the closed door way to my room, which is the closest one to the living room.

"So this is your room," Elise commented when she looked around, smiling after a bit. "It's a bit cuter than I had imagined it to be."

"How's that?" I asked her as I closed the door behind us.

"It's just that you don't seem to be the type of girl to have stuffed animals," she pointed out the few stuffed toy animals that I had placed on the shelves as decoration.

"What else am I supposed to put in there?" I chuckled as I pulled over the bean bag chairs. "I don't have that many books to put there."

"I think I can see your point," Elise commented, smiling as she nodded. Then, she took a seat in the bean bag chair next to me.

With ourselves situated, we then began making a small chat as we rested comfortably in the bean bag sofa. The topic of conversation were pretty basic, centering around what Elise had been doing during her Spring break. The conversation lasted a while, and when that topic seemed to have dried out, it seemed as if the smile on Elise's face changed, going from a cheerful and joyful one to a rather bitter and serious one.

"Now with all that out of the way," she took a deep breath and placed her hand on top of mine. "I just want to say, I'm glad that you're safe."

My eyes focused on her hand that was placed atop of mine, and slowly, I directed my gaze over at the girl next to me, staring into her crimson iris. On her face there was a gentle look of relief, and it seems as if she meant what she was saying.

"I called you the day you were supposed to be back from the trip," Elise said, "but it just keep saying that you are not in the service area...I at first thought that it might be because you lost your phone, but...you never contacted me. I thought that maybe you just didn't want to be friends with me anymore..."

"Elise..." I softly muttered her name, feeling a sense of warmth from this friendship.

"And when I saw the news report," Elise said, with some tears forming in her eyes. "I...I don't know... I felt so bad that I would actually doubt you, think that you are annoyed with me when you were going through all those horrifying things that I can't imagine..."

"It's fine," I smiled, gazing at her with a warm feeling in my heart.

I can sense that she was being honest about it all and was actually conveying her heart to me. She's one of the rare people in this world that I feel I could actually become friends with. Just like the others in the group, within her isn't the usual judgmental and hypocritical aspect of humanity. She's someone like us, and even though I do not know her story nor that of the others, she must also be someone who does not fit in entirely with the numerous bores of society. Me included, everyone in the group and Elise, we are all in some way or form outcasts, abnormalities in the norm.

"You should go and wash your face," I gently said to her.

"Right," Elise nodded, smiling as she got up from the bean bag chair.

"It's the room at the end of the hallway."

Elise then walked over to the door and opened it. However, just before she exited the room, she paused in her steps.

"What's wrong?" I asked, looking over with a frown.

"Um..." Elise slowly turned her body slightly and looked over her shoulder at me. "Is this your brother?"

"Yeah," I answered, thinking that she is probably referring to Alevian, who had probably woken up and had bumped into Elise.

"I knew it."

Elise smiled and then looked back at the boy outside of the doorway, introducing herself for a bit before Alevian returned to his room and Elise proceeded to the bathroom. About a minute later, Elise returned from the bathroom with a more refreshed aura around her. The fringes of her bangs also seemed to be somewhat wet from her washing her face.

"You sure do look a lot like your brother," Elise said to me.

"We're twins," I answered.

"Really?" Elise appeared quite surprised. "That's why he's so handsome."