I heard my name…
"Noa?" accompanied with a knock. I started to walk towards the front door, then I stopped, realizing the knock wasn't on my door. It was on the door to my former room on campus.
Unexplainably, the smell of coffee engulfed the entire house, along with a silent trace of sandalwood.
Levi.
I didn't need those powers to know whose perfume that was. He was standing there, his left hand in his pocket and his right fist knocking lightly on the door.
No one was answering, because Harmony was still on her way back.
I smiled, seeing him try to look through the peephole, even though he fully knew he wouldn't see anything.
He stopped knocking and frowned, and looked around the corridor, clearly uncomfortable with the number of ladies strolling on it. Then, I saw him reach for his phone, and just like that, mine rang.
"Are you kidding me?" he said as I picked up, "I choose a day you don't have classes to come see you and you're missing? Where did you run off to?"
"Jeez, granddad," I replied, "you mind putting a tracker on me from now on?"
He chuckled, "where are you missy? Where's Harmony? Did you guys even sleep in this room?"
"Yeah, we did, Harmony just left me though, she's on her way back. Could take her a few minutes," I replied.
"And… you?"
I went silent for a second, then giggled.
"I moved."
"hm?"
"I moved, dumbass," I snorted, "I'm off the campus."
"Ohhhhh, you've got tea to spill!" he exclaimed, then added, "send me your location so I can see your new place and pick you up."
"Pick me up?"
He's treating you to lunch.
"I'm treating you to lunch."
"Good. I actually need some help arranging my stuff, you'll come in handy,"
I scoff.
"Shut up," he said as he turned away from the door and walked down the dorm corridor.
Twenty minutes later, my doorbell rang.
I opened the door and there he was. He was about to say something to me, probably something snide, then he looked beyond me and into the living room and it was as though a cat got his tongue, and he stood there for the next few seconds, looking around like he had stepped into a different dimension.
"Oookay… what the hell?" he said finally, stepping inside. "Where am I? Your boyfriend's house? Or did you get married to a billionaire or…?"
I smirked, shutting the door behind him. "Nope. I robbed a bank."
"Ha ha," he mocked, his eyes darting around the apartment, walking right into the master bedroom and into the open walk-in closet, as though he owned the place, where I had been sorting my clothes and accessories.
I took a peek into his mind and saw his genuine shock. He was perplexed and perfectly impressed, almost like a father being proud of a kid who rode their bikes for the first time without training wheels. He had always known me as someone who was smart,for sure, but definitely not rich.
"We'll fix this room when we're back, cool?" he said.
"Yes, mum," I replied.
He snickered, "get dressed. I'll be in the kitchen," he said walking out of the room.
I shook my head and walked into the closet, wondering what would fit perfectly, and for the past couple of days, knowing the best decision for me has been easy-peasy.
We went to a quiet Asian bistro just outside campus where we ordered some sushi and miso soup. We were regulars here as it was the place we went when we needed to escape the noise of college life.
Levi was the same as always. Being insufferably quirky, laughing at his own jokes and making outrageous observations about people passing by, most of the things that I, by the way, knew weren't true.
But I was laughing, really laughing. And for a moment,I felt like the old me, reckless and unknowing.
Levi was being goofy, but he wasn't stupid.
His eyes lingered on me a little too long and his questions were a little too pointed.
"So…is everything good with you?" he asked, sipping his sparkling water.
"Yeah, why?"
"I don't know." He leaned back, watching me. "You just seem… different…"
Anxious if I were to be blunt.
"... anxious, if I were to be blunt," he finished.
"Why would you think that?" I asked smoothly.
He shrugged, "I don't know," then filled his mouth with a sushi roll, "just felt like it."
Regular people might not be able to hear thoughts like I could, or see beyond the physical, but they could definitely feel when something was off.
And Levi?
Apparently, Levi would always be good at reading me.