The Man Who Lived Upstairs

2

"Rosa!"

"Are you even listening?"

She kept nodding her head, bubbly eyes lit by the blue light screaming from her tiny Iphone Pro. I couldn't bear to keep my head straight inside a house of "Do this" and "Do that", which is why I had imitated Rosa's urgent situation to meet me, while pulling her out of class and meeting at the cafe coffee day downtown.

"Yes, I am", she shut her phone the moment I snapped my fingers in front of her.

"I am"

I had ordered two americanos and chicken sandwiches, and they tasted cold and burnt as usual.

But hungry Rosa had them like golden biscuits from the John's supermarket.

She could eat a buffalo and say, "This chicken is awesome"

"I saw something peculiar. You heard me"

"Not really"

Dark brows and thick freckles on each cheek, she wore a nerdy glass and a pony tail, her eyes almost running from the receptionist to the people around us, like anytime a bomb explosion could kill us.

Always stuck in the world of detectives, she used her reality time to work in med school and impress her parents.

Yes, she was a geek. But a good sort of geek.

Smartness and sexiness packed in one; that was Rosa. My Rosa.

"Loser...I told..na"

And I reiterated every single word.

Rosa's eyes kept going wide and wide until it no longer could expand.

"Windows fluttering? That's strange...and Isa not seeing it? More strange"

I slapped my forehead. "How could Isa see? She was sitting with her back to the curtain!"

"Strangest-t-t-t-", Rosa stopped when a shadow blocked our entire prescence.

I didn't need to look up to acknowledge the latecomer.

Freaking Albert.

Nobody knew who named him after the legendery Albert Einstein, on the contrary, he had to be some Tom or d**k, since he possessed no brains. Not the ones I had, and not even closest to Rosa's.

For instance, if you asked him where milk came from, he would say the supermarket and not a cow.

And that is not even a joke in his case.

It's a fact.

Spoon fed all his life and educated abroad, he should have looked like the hot kids in the Netflix Boys, six feet, tall with biceps and thick calves. Instead, he was lean, taut and had one missing inscisor.

He looked like such a baby, despite the twenty seven years he lived.

"Sit Albert"

He was struggling to choose where to sit, with her or me, when I pulled the chair to the common side and pushed his arm down.

He cleared his throat but sat down nevertheless.

Rosa smiled, "Someone is late as usual, but who cares"

"Yeah nobody", I huffed, "Albert, I wanna tell you something"

Before he spurted his doubtful questions about the matter, I was telling him everything.

And he was listening to me, inch by inch.

"Who knows? Maybe your mom opened the windows"

I sighed, "They are closed to this moment, Albert"

"So what is it you concluded? There is some black magic behind the curtains?"

Thankfully he didn't see Rosa mouthing, "He's dumb!"

"No...I don't know to be precise"

"We knew that long back"

I gritted. He resided into silence.

"What if its someone?"

Rosa's words created an immense silence around. It felt half the people in the cafe had heard what we had just said. The silence zoomed in until the waitress toppled some coffee on the floor.

Albert went into a streak of a hiccup as Rose's eyes dwelled on mine.

"Why cannot it be?"

I shrugged, "That's impossible"

Albert agreed. "Someone living there?"

She raised her shoulders and hit on the table with her long uncut nails.

"Why cannot it be?"

"Stop repeating that and explain", I pulled my head forward and surged into an adrenaline rush.

Rosa pulled her specs closer and smirked.

"Imagine someone living in your house without you knowing? A perfect shadow that would blend into the surroundings when someone makes it to the top. You always told me you barely went up right? Why couldn't someone live there, for a while?'

"Live there?", Albert chuckled, "Is that supposed to be your fictional story because I do think it is"

Rosa shook her head and laughed.

"It would have been better than this then"

Albert choked on his coffee, emptying a bit of its contents through his nose.

I denied the concept outright.

"You cannot just presume things...Rosa. I for sure know there is nobody living in my house. Besides how will he survive there? No food and no water?"

"Doesn't your house have a kitchen?"

"There has been no missing food for a while now"

"But you did tell me once, there did happen to be lost meat and fruits"

I shook my head, "It was the cat"

She shrugged, "Your wish. I just noted down some facts"

A strange feeling started to walk into my nerves. Living alone and being accompanied by a strong presence was less creepier than having an entire family under a roof with someone living beside us. Just not in our proximity.

Interesting....but chivalrous.

Rosa was munching the last bits of her sandwich while I didn't touch mine at all.

An instant tug of the gut was pulling out my stomach contents.

My heart rose.

What if Rosa was right?

As impossible as it sounded, what if a man did exist in my house?

Amidst the shadows, the eternal separating thoughts of men and their busy minds, what if someone lay watching us?

Like...God for instance?

"I don't believe a word she said", Albert kicked Rosa at the legs when she stuck out a tongue.

"We should learn to differentiate between reality and fiction for once. If something goes wrong in our head, like Rosa's, we might misunderstand and think stuff that has never happened could take place and -

"I have to go home"

The two of them stopped mid sentence their arguments and stared.

I nodded, "I have to. I wanna see if there is a ...................possibility"

Albert was star struck. Mouth agape and consistent sighs escaping his vocal cord, he slapped his head multiple times before looking me in the eye.

"Rosa is dumb! A human cannot go unnnoticed for that long! It should be a cat, or some other insect"

"A cat?"

Albert nodded, "Yes"

"A cat behind the curtains, doing what?", Rosa raised her brows, clearly disapproved by interuppting her great findings.

"Hiding! It is scared of us"

"How big was the shadow you said?", Rosa turned to me

I couldn't remember.

All I saw was the curtains flying and a black shadow. Big or small, I didn't know.

I took Isa and ran before my mind collapsed.

"BIGGER THAN HER ASS", Albert smirked and nodded, "I knew it! It was a cat all the while"

"Did you just measure my ass-

"Shut up. I am leaving"

I stood up, gathered my stuff and paid the bill.

"I will call you guys later"

"Leave a message on whether it was a cat or-

The door closed behind him, his words and Rosa's annoyance.

Talking to both of them should have made me feel at ease.

Instead the shivers just spread.

What if Rosa was right for once?