Her trap

Katherine Samson

*One month later*

“What happened after that?” the ponytailed-haired girl with a scowling faced asked, stretching her legs leisurely on top of the veranda railings.

Per her request, Katherine contacted personnel in the condo and asked for a paint and fishing line. Good thing they’re kind enough to give her some. Feeling guilty of not paying them, she handed 20 dollars for tip.

Katherine doesn’t know what the girl’s playing at, or what she’ll do to them. But witnessing how she set some kind of booby trap on the door, with the nails hammered on both sides and the fishing line tied in between, supporting the dangling paint on top. She got a fair idea of what the girl’s really up to.

Katherine dragged two settees to the veranda, overlooking the neon twinkling lights of the city. The honking cars on the streets below rebounded around them, the high-rise buildings, the blurry image of trees, the cool moist air foreshadowing rainfall, and the dark thick clouds hovering above them, somehow put Katherine at ease.

Whether the night sky is bath with twinkling stars or covered with heavy clouds, she can’t help but feel nostalgic gazing at it. All her life, she’s accompanied with silence and loneliness, she regarded the stars as her companion. A friend.

That never fails to put a smile on her lips when she watch them sparkle and twinkle above. Now they led her to Michael…

An extraordinary force lets them meet, unknown familiarity draws them together, happiness keeps them under one roof. But now, desperate feelings chained them both on their necks.

Katherine starts to doubt if she’s still doing the right thing.

“Hey!” the girl beside her leans closer and snapped her fingers between Katherine’s eyes.

“You listening to me? I’m asking what happened after,” she said and narrowed her eyes.

Katherine gulped. She can feel the piercing gaze of this girl digging into her nerves, piercing through her skin. It’s like she can see right through her.

“Sorry, I-uh… What happened next is, I waited, just like I said. I don’t know how many hours it took. I heard them perform inside. Michael has a beautiful voice. It rung in my ears you know… like it’s pulsating his feelings deep into my ear,”

The girl crossed her arms and grunted.

“I’m not asking about how stupidly nice his voice may sound like, I’m asking what happened that placed you both in this funky mud like business of martyr unfaithful game. Mind telling me that? And please, I’ve had enough of those Michael is soo~ blah blah sh*t. So could you do me a favor and censor that, please?” she ticked off.

Katherine opened her mouth to say something but think better of it. A quiet girl like her is no match for this sharp tongued girl whose busy sipping her chocolate drink, feeling so homey queeny in her own house - correction, in her own veranda. She sighed and started to explain.

“Right after that, I saw him come out with a girl in his arms. A different girl this time, I wasn’t thinking straight back then. All I wanted, is for him to come back to me. I know I’m beginning to sound desperate but I - I got no choice. My mind just screams to go after him and stop them. So I did. I‘m sure we talk about something but I - uh can’t remember what. I just realized afterwards that I proposed for him to live with me, even if he brings girls to have sex with him every night.”

Katherine clenched her fist. Just remembering what happened the next morning sent shivers down her spine. She felt sick on her stomach. Seeing that girl acting all chummy-flirty with Michael in front of her… It’s terrible.

But it’s nothing compared to the days ahead. She was forced to watch him, making out with different girls. She holds no condition to complain. He did what she wants. He stayed with her again. Though not sure if that’s what she truly wants in the first place.

She keeps telling herself,

“I’m not in the position to get hurt now that you’re making out with somebody else, because you were not mine in the first place.”

Whispering those words like a mantra, she fairly convinced herself to try and make peace with it.

“I see.” the girl tightened her grip on her chocolate drink. They stayed silent for a few moments.

Katherine keeps eyeing the girl’s outstretched leg resting on top of the railings. She’s so unladylike, she thought. Probably the first girl she met that talks and acts like a rowdy jumper boy in a dark alley puffing smoke.

“You know, I’m okay if you called me ‘unladylike’ but if you ever think I’m like a jackass smoker on sidestreets I’m gonna stick that white smudgy face of yours in a damn hot smoking microwave, you hear me?” she threatened.

How the hell did she know that?! Katherine only thought about it. She did not speak it out, did she?

She tried to control her breathing, letting it out in a slow unhurried way through her nose. She’s starting to think this girl might not be normal. Maybe she’s abnormally dangerous … or psychotic.

“I’m maybe abnormal, but definitely not psychotic.” the girl remarked. And that statement alone confirms her suspicions.

She can hear my thoughts. What the hell? Superpowers?

Katherine scuttled on her feet and back away.

“Who-whoever you are. Don’t come near me.” she stuttered. She sticks out her index finger at her, trying to make a point.

“Yeah, sure.” the girl said and shrugged.

“Who - who are you really?” the girl rolled her eyes and put down her drink between her lap.

“I told you. My name is Alice. I’m here to help you with your love situational problem with Michael because I’m a matchmaker.” she mumbled.

“H-help? You mean, making yourself home in my own room, completely uninvited? Destroying my walls by pounding hammers and nails? Putting a nonsense trap of spilling paint on whoever comes in. Is that your definition of help?” she said impatiently, stretching both her arms in exasperation.

“Hey, it may be a trap, but it’s not nonsense.” the girl pointed out.

Katherine blows air upwards, swaying her eyelashes in the process. She thinks it’s enough to calm herself, to push down the irritation threatening to resurface in her chest, turns out it wasn’t.

“And how exactly is this gonna help me?” the girl took a moment to respond.

“Not exactly, I mean not directly. The paint is just there to piss him off. Consider it as a new decoration. I have a good taste for fashion by the way.” she said and winked.

Katherine shifted on her feet. Not sure if she’ll send the girl plummeting below or drive her out of her house this instant.