The Darkness under the Light

Sudden Discovery

*Ida's POV cont.*

Waking up from the bathroom floor in the position I fell asleep in, my body felt like it was made of broken glass. I dragged myself up by the counter top and stared at myself in the mirror, I looked god awful. My shoulder length dirty blonde hair seemed dull and thin, my once bright emerald eyes had no life to them and were over powered by dark circles. I've always been thinner than average, yet my cheeks seemed to have become even more gaunt over night. My lips were pale, chapped and cracking, the rest of my face was irritated and covered with dried tears and old sweat. Frankly, I looked close to death. I turn around and begin to warm up the water for a shower, needing to go out today required at least some effort to not scare anyone who looked at me. Before getting in, though, I needed to call out of class today, and heart breakingly, ask Lily for a ride to town. Checking my phone, I had a couple messages, mostly from an old study group gossiping about their recent classes, a few people from yesterday who witnessed me fainting asking how I was doing, and surprisingly a message from Jack saying we need to meet up to discuss something, probably a test or something. I'll get back to them all later, though, first things first is to call my professor. Dialing the number, it goes straight to voicemail as he's probably in a presentation this morning.

"Hello, this is Ida Nolin from class 2-B. I won't be coming in today as I am going to a clinic for a check up. I will let you know if I need other days off as well as soon as possible, thank you." Jeez, I don't even sound like myself, my voice is so raspy. But next is Lily, as I'm pinching the bridge of my nose, I dial her number as well.

"Hey Ida! Good morning, what's goin on?" she asks with the most chipper attitude.

"Good Morning Lily, I'm actually calling to ask for a ride today." My throat begins to ache holding back emotion from coming through my speech. My pride is shattered, I hate asking others for help.

"Oh shoot! I'm busy today, I'm actually going to a 3 day concert with my sister right now. I'm so sorry Ida! I owe you one after this." she says with a sad whine. I still don't understand why she is so endearing towards me, we barely grew from acquaintances a couple months ago just by me walking past her place every day.

"Awe, it's quite alright Lily, thank you for even offering this whole time. Don't feel bad about it, I'll be alright." I lied, I don't know what I'm going to do now, I can't walk to town in this heat. Glancing at my phone screens weather app, it's already spiking to ninety-five degrees.

"Ah actually, hold on a second! I might have a ride for you, somebody owes me a favor too! Hold on a second." she exclaims with pure joy. I hear her tapping on her phone, guessing she isn't the one driving right now. A few moments pass and she asks if I'm still there.

"Yeah, what's going on?" I ask quizzicaly.

"My neighbor had me house sit the past week when he was visiting home, he hasn't paid me yet so he can pay me with this favor. Lemme give you his number, I already asked and he said he didn't mind." she says, I could tell she felt very pleased with herself and she already went and asked her neighbor, so I felt required to say yes. I go for a piece of paper to write it down, but I only have the note mister window guy wrote me. Eh whatever, it's garbage anyway so I'll use it.

While jotting down the number, a heavy weight is placed on my shoulders. It matches Mitchell's number that's already on this note.

"Got it? His name is Mitch, really nice, responsible guy, wouldn't hurt a fly." she coos with pride having figured out a way to help me.

"Yep, got it, thank you Lily. Be safe on your trip." I say with a gritted smile, trying to sound thankful.

"Of course! I'll see you in a few days!" she yells happily and the call ends.

Well, I guess I don't have a choice now. He already knows he's giving me a ride, so I'll go ahead and text him when to come get me. Heh, and I guess I won't have to tell him my address either as he already knows.

"Mitchell, this is Ida. I'm going to take a shower but I'll be ready in thirty minutes if you could come by then. Thank you." Press send, breathe. God this is humiliating. Oh? He already sent me a reply, that was fast.

"Of course no problem, I'll be there for you soon."

Alright, short and simple. I guess he isn't making our first encounter out to be weirder than it was. I gotta start getting cleaned up then.

After a hot shower and applying some make up, I don't look half bad anymore. It took loads of concealer to hide my dark circles but it works, and my hair being up in a tight bun hides it's new, terrible characteristics. I put on some plain jeans with a comfortable breezy tshirt, and after putting my things into my purse, someone knocks on my door. I peer into the peephole and there's a man, I can't really remember what Mitchell looks like since I was so out of it, so I call out asking who it is.

"Hey, it's Mitchell. Take your time if you're not ready, I can wait." he replies with a sweet tone.

I open the door to let him inside as I needed a minute to put on my shoes, and I don't know why but I really focused on how he looks when I laid my eyes on him. He's tall, with dark shorter hair cut into a stylish fade, the most god-like chiseled face I've ever seen with such gorgeous soft brown eyes. His body alone was a ten out of ten with muscles showing through his simple yet complimenting clothes, so a face like this was just eye candy on top. I suddenly felt very nervous, but I am not looking for a relationship so it doesn't matter how he looks. It didn't make it any easier to tear away my gaze from him, though.

"Hey Ida, how are you feeling today? I was sad when I hadn't gotten a call from you today until Lily texted me." he asks as I wave for him to come in. Usually I'm quite bashful to show others my room because it is quite cheap and shabby compared to the others available on this campus, but he's already seen the inside, so it was pointless to make him wait outside.

"Oh, yeah. I'm sorry, I didn't know if you actually wanted me to call or if it was just a formality for you to say that." I say with feelings of conflict. Did I actually feel bad? Or was it just my body reacting to his good looks now that I've really seen him.

"Of course I meant it, I was really worried about you. I don't mean to sound mean, of course, but you looked terrible." he says with a slight chuckle. "You look better today, though." he says, while lifting a hand to my forehead, moving a piece of loose hair that managed to wriggle it's way out of my bun. Instantly, my stomach did a flip at his touch. His warm hand felt wonderful on my skin, and when he moved his hand away I noticed how terribly cold I was.

"Uuh..um.. oh I just need to put my shoes on and we can head out. I need to head to town to pick up a few things really quick, I'll try to be fast to get out of your hair." I say, snapping back to the reality of what I need to get. Blood, from a butcher. How do I even play that off? Do I say I'm making blood sausage? How do you even make that?

"It's quite alright, actually I was wondering if you wanted to grab some lunch while we're out? I feel like I've just been eating pizza and ramen recently, so some real food would be great, especially with good company along." he asks me coyly. I did want to say yes, but the thought of real food reminded me of last night's burger event. The taste of rot still very present in my memory.

"I already ate just a bit ago, plus I'm picking up some things for dinner tonight and some medicine. I don't want to over eat so soon after feeling so ill. So maybe another day?" I turn him down nicely. His voice makes my resolve melt into nothing, usually I'm so head strong, but he makes me feel at ease. But at that I was ready to go so I walked toward the door. Mitchell followed me outside and waited for me to lock my front door, then lead me to his car. Him opening the passenger door for me was the first time in my life I've had that happen. Usually I would've made a, 'I can hold my own doors', joke but today, I will relish the action.

"Ready to go?" he asks, getting into his own seat and buckling in.

"I think so." I reply. Here we go.