Chapter Text
The small waves of the mixture between the continuous Hudson River and the Atlantic Ocean made New York send small pulses of chilly, windy breeze to everyone outside roaming the streets no matter the amount of layers anyone wore. It was January; the sun had already descended further westwards earlier than usual. There was no more sunlight, there was no more partial warmth to the nearly freezing cold since the day advanced its natural, daily, yearly cycle.
Cameron waddled through the streets of Brooklyn partially anxious and tired, he had finished a one-off performance which he had started at 7 and ended at 9. The venue was small, yet full of praise and adoration as the audience loved engaging with him as he sung and strummed his guitar and sung along to his songs. After he finished, he said his goodbyes and exited, dawning onto the streets.
He slung his guitar into his bag and sluggishly put on his coat. The ocean freeze from the nearby shore bit into his skin, making him tug his coat collar up to preserve the fledgling warmth he attempted to keep. He initially decided to walk all the way downtown to his house but rethought as he grew more and more cold. He stopped on Atlantic and hitched a taxi.
During the ride he sat windowside, half-awake. It was 10:57. He sat with his mouth partially open. Uyyyyhhh… Despite his haziness, the city lights still enamoured him despite being here the majority of his life, they kept him from not fully shutting his eyes.
Walking up to the small beige 2-story apartment, he opened the door and walked upstairs. He lived on the top floor whilst his roommate resided opposite. He walked into his bedroom and removed his outside clothes into a boring black t-shirt and plain shorts. He plopped onto the bed and quickly entered sleep, he slept slightly fetal and lightly snored.
I had talked to Cameron sometimes. Mostly when we’d both entered and left the building at the same time, us saying an awkward, stumbled and quick, “Hi”, and whenever I’d fix up the exterior (like the small front yard) and he was either walking back to the house or peering overhead. He seemed nice, however whenever we’d interact there’d always be a sense of surprise and awkwardness from me, him, or both.
At 11:18 I heard the door unlock, lock and footsteps upstairs. Cameron’s back. I noted. I was resting on my couch scrolling on my phone, I checked the time and felt that I had to go to sleep in a little while.
Grabbing strawberry yogurt from my fridge, I entered my bedroom. The lamp dimly lit it. Resting the yogurt and spoon I also grabbed on my dark wood nightstand, I tied my hair into a bun and grabbed a incense stick and lit it with a $3 lighter and let it rest in it’s holder. The room immediately had the smell of maple overwhelm it with the incense illuminating the dresser it laid ontop a little. It smells so good. I gotta buy more when I have the chance. The incense smell seeped through the entire floor after a while and stayed dormant for a few hours. I had laid and ate the yogurt when I finally covered most of my body entering my bed and relaxed. Checking the time. 11:25.
Friday, 9:46 A.M. The maple smell wafted itself away but there were still small remnants of it. The incense had long burned out and made the holder acquire more ash. Outside looked bleak; the sky was grey as the clouds obscured the sun. I woke up and threw out the incense in a small trash can adjacent to the dresser.
I entered my bathroom and felt the pearly tiled floor touch. The walls are striped a light blue and white.
Leaning on the white sink top, I peered into the mirror and grabbed a comb from the wooden cabinet underneath and undid my bun and combed through my hair. The small bathroom window from my shower let out a small breath of wind through the room. Walking to the shower, I almost tripped over the flooring but quickly jammed the window shut. I continued to comb through my hair. I grabbed a hairband and was ready to style my hair into a ponytail.
... Until I heard a sudden barrage of banging on my door.
At first, I thought it was from outside, but as I got closer I realized it was from inside the apartment. I opened the door to see my tall, mousy-haired roommate.
“Leila…” He stumbled on his words, “Look… God, okay… I don’t feel well.” The last of his words were garbled. He paused for a second. “I don’t have any meds for my cold anymore.” His words were more tangible and he grabbed his forehead and leaned against the doorframe.
“Any?” I doubted. He shuts his eyes, “Yes.”
I motioned him to the couch and he fell flat on his back. Closing the door I go back to him and sit on the edge of my puffy black couch. “When’s the last time you’ve bought medicine?”
“Months ago.” He looked at the ceiling. “More than two, definitely. Don’t remember.” Looking at me, he giggled and smiled despite his sickness significantly bringing down his energy.
Walking to the back of my floor, I went back to my bathroom and filed through for antihistamine medicine. I grabbed liquid Benadryl and came back to the front of my apartment. Cameron focused his gaze to the outside of the window, despite how bleak and monochrome the overcasting clouds made it look. Filling up the small cup, he noticed I came back and looked at the Benadryl then looked back outside.
“How’d you even get a cold?” I broke the tranquility. He jolted his head towards me.
“I went to perform near—”
“Perform? Gosh, maybe I’m very closed minded but I thought all the music above was some sort of— ”
He had a wildly confused, insulted expression but started to laugh. “Y’thought all the strumming and singing was just for fun? Sometimes, yes but…” He rested his head on his hand, “Give me the Benadryl.” He relieved.
I passed the cup to him and he drank and I rushed to the sink and filled the cup with water and fed him it.
He continued, “I performed near the Bridge, downtown Brooklyn. Had 2 layers of clothes on, I came back home last night and thought I’d be fine. Completely fucking wrong. Woke up to a mild headache, stuffed nose, fever, and sore throat.”
“You ever heard of Geese?” He asked.
I was stumped for a little bit. “Ehh…”
The insulted confusion he held on his face for a little bit minutes ago came back but it was slightly less tenser. “The band, Geese?” My brain was slowly processing this exchange. He began to sing,
“Like a saiiloorrr in a…” He cleared his throat, “Big green boatttt…” He sung partially hoarse.
It finally clicked.
“Oh! Sorry, your entrance was so unexpected, so half of my brain is trying to catch up. Now that I’m thinking of it, it’s really obvious.” The both of us collectively sighed.
“Anyways, It wasn’t with my band. I decided to do a random one-off show. No one had the cold in the audience, atleast I hope.” Chuckling, “Afterwards was the reason. I started walking in the cold and it fucked me up. I called a taxi then walked the rest of the way home but I was 2 blocks away but… And as I said before, I layered my clothes.”
He flipped sideways facing the window and groaned. “Hopefully it’ll go away in a day.” I replied. I reached and felt the abnormal warmth of his forehead, moving out the bangs, “It sounds basic, but going to sleep really helps make the shitty feeling go away quicker. Then again, I gave you Benadryl you’ll might be drowsy in a little bit.” Cameron looked at me in a sadly fatigued way.
He softened up, “You decorate better than me Leila. You’ve been upstairs before? My place looks terrible compared to yours.”
“I have but I don’t really remember what it looks like.” I answered.
He smiled again, “When this goes away I’ll show you and I’ll compare. Trust.”
I looked around the living area we were both situated in, his compliment made me very bashful in the moment, but also blush really little. I never really thought about how I decorated and arranged the furniture and such on my floor and how good it was, or how other people thought how good it was.
I let out an awkward, dorky, giggle seconds after his comment. “Is it really? Cameron, it can’t be that bad. It’s not like, hoarder-level bad. That’s the worst it can look.” I teased.
“Compared to your’s, it’s quite boring and a little sloppy. But I’m focused on alot of things. Look, you’ll see upstairs when I show you there.” He looked away embarrassingly.
I stood up from the couch and went to my room and grabbed my incense holder and searched for a nice scent to light for me and Cameron. I finally settled on Blackberry scented incense and I went back into the living room, set the incense and holder on the coffee table near the couch he rest on, and returned to the back of the house to search for a humidifier. I was able to easily track the water for it but it took around 5 minutes until I found it underneath my bed and took it to the front of the apartment and added the water, plugged in, and turned it on. I returned to my couch again but way more closer to Cameron. He now laid on one of my knit pillows.
I finally began to lit the incense, putting it in its holder. The smell quickly radiated the room.
“Y’some sorta spiritual person?” He inquired.
“I just like incense. I find spirituality interesting, but it’s not a big factor of my life. My mom commonly lit incense during my childhood, so that’s why. I always loved the smell and how you just had to light a stick. Kind’ve like a cigarette, but it just has such nice natural smell compared to… Tobacco and nicotine. Going back to the spiritual stuff, my parents didn’t really pass it down. That’s all.”
He inhaled the berry smell. "What scent?"
"Blackberry. I have a bunch of other scents. Incense cools me down but it also makes the place smell nice. Is the humidifier working for your nose?"
"Yes. Starting to." He looked at his fingers; crossed and moving as he stared into the wall infront of him.
"That's good."
The hum of the humidifier moisturizing the air became the only noise for a little while. He tossed and turned, and the drowsiness of the Benadryl finally kicked in. His eyes shut, he continued to move and switch his sleeping position for the next few minutes with every creak and squeak of the couch we both were on was a signal he had moved again.
Thinking back to the exchange which made me finally realize who he actually was, I thought: I really had a well-known singer next to me at this moment, whether now or in the past, and I never noticed. I knew now but it was too obvious yet I didn't process it.
I mentally slapped my head and laid back onto the head of the couch, during which I had felt Cameron's body and immediately checked to see if I had woke him up. Fortunately, he was still knocked out asleep. I moved his bangs to see his forehead's temperature again, it being slightly less warm. I pulled my face more closer towards his to observe it in more detail. He slept quietly, and had a calm, neutral and relaxed face.
I rubbed his hand and moved away from him but still gazed at his dreaming body. I thought back to the remarks of my apartment and his. I was curious, I did want him to show me his apartment for himself, but the desire of wanting to explore it by myself brewed as he kept on insisting how sloppy and poorly furbished his was.
How tempting. I recollected me going upstairs but I didn't exactly recall how it even looked somehow and why I even went there. The only things I noted of his floor before all of this was that: Music commonly played through the floors seeping into mines, and that Cameron had lived there. I barely asked if I could come upstairs and inside, but today has brought a lot of newfound information and discovery.
I slowly crept out of the couch and quietly moved towards the door, entered the doorway, and snuck upstairs. Reaching his doorknob, I opened the door quietly so the croak wouldn't somehow wake him up. Turning the lights on, his apartment was not really furnished. His kitchen was very plain and the living room area was sparsely decorated with photo frames, vinyls, and an array of books he forgot to put back onto some sort of shelf. The window blinds were shut. I walked towards the mini pile of books near the blinds.
As I squatted to observe the books I felt a cold glass come in contact with my skin, separating the blinds open, it revealed the balcony door. He had a singular steel chair on the deck. His vinyls were opposite the side of the pile and I made my way towards them. I searched and observed most of the vinyls on the 2nd shelf, which was near the floor, Songs of Leonard Cohen, Slanted and Enchanted...
I wanted to plop them into the record player but I felt it'd wake him up, but also for the fact that I don't know where he even put it for me to play them. I opened the balcony door and the wind brushed my hair to the side, but calmed down after I left it open to get up off the floor and sit and watch outside.
Closing the doors, I sat on the metallic chair and looked downwards towards the mildly busy street. Traffic wasn't terrible but the road was mostly free and rid of any cars, the nearby trees waved as the wind slowed and sped up infrequently and my hair followed suit. I sat and watched about 32 cars pass by our street during the nearly 30 minutes I sat there. After a few minutes flew by I shut my eyes and tried to clear my mind of any remaining thoughts for the time being. The wind poked my neck and any visible uncovered skin. Running and interlacing my fingers through my hair.
I forgot how good it is to just sit outside and just do little to nothing. Especially with streets with quiet pedestrians walking, running, skipping, traipsing, all across the concrete, and the lesser amount of cars passing by, with some cars having music blasting then fading out as they turn and steer towards the horizon, getting smaller and smaller as they go away from your sight of view. Opening my eyes, I checked the time on my phone: 11:58.
I pushed the chair away and opened the balcony door. I took one more glance at the apartment and slowly opened and closed the door, and descended down the stairway to return back to my floor and to warm back up. Walking in, I looked at the couch and Cameron had vanished. I had started to go back in the doorway and go outside until he appeared as he entered the room.
"I had to piss. I woke up and you were gone." He yawned.
He rested back onto the couch and laid back sitting up. I felt his forehead again, but when I had felt it he immediately stared at me and twitched his head a little at the instant feeling of my fingers.
"Your hands are cold."
"Yes." I put my hands back to his forehead to check his temperature again.
"Less warmer than before now."
"What about your throat, nose and headache?" I asked.
"Feel fine. I just still feel tired, but I still wanna be awake." He sunk into the couch.
"Do you want tea?"
"That'd be nice."
I grabbed a packet of herbal tea and turned on the water pot. As I sat waiting for the water the heat up so I can give him the tea to repair and help his immune system, he finally came clean.
"It looked absolutely terrible, didn't it Leila?"
My stomach quickly knotted itself and I begrudgingly turned my face back towards him. "Outside? Oh yes. Absolutely bleak." I tried to play it off. He saw straight through my fake naïvety. I snapped my head back at the kettle and focused my attention on it.
"I heard the footsteps from the stairwell."
I exhaled and faced towards him again. "It's not the best, but it's not the worst, Cameron."
The kettle stopped heating the water and I turned to pour the water into a mug and steeped the teabag before walking over to him with embarrassment blatantly shown on my face.
He began to sip but the heat burnt his tongue and he put it down to cool, "When I woke up to use the bathroom, I saw the door was almost closed and you left. When I started standing up and walking I heard doors slam shut upstairs."
I looked at the floor, "I was on the balcony."
"Did you go into my bedroom?"
"No, only the living room and balcony area..." The embarrassment had mostly worn off from my face.
He finally took a sip of the tea, "Then I can atleast show you my room and all the stupid little intricacies." He laid his head on the armrest.
He began to finished his cup and when he drank the last drops he handed it to me and I threw out the teabag and washed the mug and dried it. Turning back to the couch again, Cameron had quickly went back to sleep again and slept on his back. I went to my small storage area of the space between the bathroom and bedroom and found a thick grey blanket and draped the blanket over his lanky, scrunched body to warm him.