An Angel's Trap

 Chapter 1 An Angel’s Trap

In a room utterly devoid of light, thanks to the windows having been covered with thick, heavy, blackout curtains, Everest sleeps on a Japanese Futon on the floor. Shut out from the world, he is all alone, safely confined to the four walls of his room. In his dreams, however, he is not. He groans in his sleep as he tosses and turns, his mind currently tortured by the dazzling woman that appeared before him the other day. He sees her in his dreams, as a glowing angel, one that is meant to be worshiped. He relives the memory of tugging at the corner of his mouth and exposing his missing teeth to this angel, but instead of a simple gap in his grin, now a torrent of teeth comes spilling out of his mouth. The angelic version of Zoey grimaces in disgust at the sight. She raises her arm as Everest struggles to catch all the teeth in his hands. He looks up at her in fear, watching, unable to plead for mercy as she holds up a thumbs down and sends Everest plunging into darkness.

Everest jolts awake, body covered in sweat. Sitting up as he feels his heart pounding in his chest, he lets his body fall back onto his futon. He covers his face with his arm, one thought on his mind: What the hell does that girl want with me? Unable to come up with an answer, he pulls out his phone to check the time. 6:32 am. No reason for him to get up when it’s still so early. Unfortunately, as he soon finds, he is unable to go back to sleep. With a sigh, he sits back up and grabs a remote to turn on the lights. Directly across from him are the only large pieces of furniture that he owns: several massive bookcases, which take up the entire length of the wall. He walks over to them and pulls a book off of one of the shelves. It sat atop the lined up books, the one he bought from the bookstore the other day. He walks back, passing his futon, and takes a seat in a worn out beanbag chair. He shifts around in it, getting comfortable, before flipping open the book to where he left off last night. He stares at the pages for some time, rereading the same passage over and over, unable to focus on it as he is haunted with questions about Zoey. What does she want? Why is she so interested in him? Why did she spend so long texting him yesterday?
With a frustrated sigh Everest shuts the book and sets it aside, giving up on the idea of reading. He pulls out his phone again; 7:09 am. He opens his texts and stares at the last message Zoey sent last night.
“Goodnight, sleep well.”
He didn’t, thanks to her, but he knows better than to tell her that. Instead he pulls up his messages with someone else, a friend.
“I wonder if he’s still awake.”
He shoots the friend a text and waits, opting to fill the time by looking into where he could find another copy of the book he originally wanted to get. He knows he might be able to get it from Zoey if he waits long enough, but he’s still hesitant. He doesn’t know what strings such a deal could come attached with.
“There’s something about her…something I can’t place a finger on.”
His phone vibrates and he sees his friend is still awake after all. Everest sees he started a call so he quickly joins and tells him about what happened at the bookstore, about Zoey, and his misgivings about her. They go back and forth about it until his friend gives his opinion.
“Maybe she’s a fixer. She sees you for the gap toothed, messy haired project you are.”
“Don’t call me a project dude. Besides, girls like her, if they wanna fix a guy they go for bad boys, not some skinny weirdo like me.”
“Riiight, because only goth girls like awkward nerdy guys. Maybe she’s bored of bad boys and wants a project she can work on long term, y’know?”
“Ugh, don’t say stuff like that, Zed. She doesn’t seem like the type to me. Plus, she’s too put together. Too…”
“Too good for a guy like you?”
“Yeah! She really is. So, then why would she want something to do with me?”
“That’s not for you to decide. If she wants to talk to you, she wants to talk to you. All you can do is choose to respond or not.”
Everest is silent, contemplating Zed’s wisdom.
“You’re right.”

“I know I am. Can I go to sleep? It’s almost 4 am.”
“Yeah, sorry man go get some rest.”
“Oh, I will. Keep me updated, yeah? Not every day a pretty girl takes an interest in you of all people.”
Everest rolls his eyes. “Ok, I’m hanging up.” He ends the call, sets aside his phone, and picks back up the book. He opens it again and finally is able to make some progress. Feeling his mind is more at ease now, he makes quick progress, breezing through the next chapter. Before he knows it an hour has passed and he closes the book, satisfied and ready to start the day. After returning the book to the bookcase, he checks his phone and sees a good morning text from Zoey.
“I guess I could catch her up on what I read.”
He does exactly that while he goes about his day; showering, eating, etc. Before he knows it, it’s time to go to his part time job. He didn’t even realize how quickly the day has passed thanks to constantly texting her. Usually this sort of time skip only happens when he is reading. Is this what it’s like to get absorbed in talking to a girl? It’s not like he looks forward to her texts, but he would be lying if he said there wasn’t some quality to her replies that he enjoys. As he gets dressed for work he wonders what kind of work Zoey does. He considers asking her, until he sees the time, and realizing he’s late, quickly finishes getting ready, and dashes out the door.

***

It’s not until his lunch break that he dares open his messages to respond to Zoey. While working he noticed she had messaged him several times, but he didn’t dare click and read any of them until now. Did he have down time during work where he could’ve responded? Sure, but he decided against it. He has his boundaries.

He cracks open the lid on a yogurt smoothie and lets his eyes peer down at the texts, catching up on what was said while he takes a sip of the sweet drink. At first Zoey was just musing about how much she’s enjoying her novel after Everest finished telling her about his. Then, she sent a simple “Is everything ok?” text when she hadn’t heard from him in some time. From there things got gradually more and more unhinged as time went on:

Heyyy, I read another chapter and it was SO GOOD!

If you even care.

5 minutes pass

Where are you? You were responding so quickly just a minute ago.

5 more minutes

Whatever, keep ignoring me.

Half an hour later

Did I do something wrong? Whatever it was, you can tell me.

An hour goes by

Please text me back. I miss you and this book is getting so good! I really can’t wait to tell you about it, so please.

Two hours later

I finished the book. It was amazing. Respond whenever, if you still want the book. I’m still willing to give it to you. Just so I can tell someone about it. Not because I want to give you it specifically.

Jesus. Everest raises his eyebrows as he catches up on the flood of messages she sent. Someone’s crazy, he thinks to himself as he texts her back, simply explaining he has been at work. She texts back immediately.

“Oh my god there you are! Why didn’t you tell me you were at work?”

“Sorry, I was running late, I didn’t have time.”

He digs into his lunch bag and pulls out a burrito. He tears into it and remarks to himself that it’s fortunate he packed a one handed lunch today. He savors the bite, not even having time to scroll on his phone before Zoey responds again.

“Jeez, I still wish you told me! You didn’t have any time during work to check your phone?”

To check his phone? Sure. To respond to texts?

“I saw you texted me, but I didn’t read the messages until now. I wasn’t sure if I would have time to read what you sent and didn’t want to leave you on read.”

He presses send and goes back to eating his burrito, now grabbing it with both hands after having closed the texts and set his phone down. He gets a couple bites in, closing his eyes to truly focus on and enjoy the flavor, but he is interrupted by the vibration of his phone on the table.

His phone lights up and he takes advantage of being able to read the preview before clicking on the message. It reads: “Aww, that’s thoughtful of you. Next time just say you’re at work and…”

The preview ends there. Picking his phone back up, Everest reads the rest of the text.

“…that you’ll read the messages later. Or you could…”

Not a bad idea. What’s her other idea? Everest is able to get through half the burrito before she finally sends another text, a worrying amount of time that he picks up on. What could this other idea be that would make her so hesitant? Apprehension filling his nerves, he opens their messages once more.

“Orrr you could send me your schedule <3”

His eyes go wide. She’s insane! They’ve known each other only a couple days and she wants to know his schedule? What would she possibly do with the information? He ruminates on all the possibilities before reaching the best one: It could keep her calm. Plus, it’s not that unusual for a girl to know her man’s schedule, right? Ignoring the fact he’s not her man, he fixates on the feeling of being one, wrapped up in her grasp: literally and figuratively. Suddenly he shakes his head, ripping himself out of the fantasy.

“What the hell am I doing?”

He questions himself, but he still sets aside the half eaten burrito to send her his schedule. After sending it, having first made sure to omit where he works and the names of his coworkers, he goes back to finishing his lunch. He ponders whether she’s the jealous type of crazy for a while. By the time he’s done with this train of thought she gets back to him.

“Ok, I added your schedule to my calendar. Please let me know if anything changes so I can update it.”

She added it to her calendar? That’s next level! Before Everest can worry about what he’s getting himself into Zoey sends another message.

“Are you on your lunch break right now? How much time do you have left?”

“Not much. I just finished eating.”

“Ok. I see you work until the weekend. Do you want to meet for lunch on Saturday? I can give you the book then. Unless you can squeeze me in sometime before then?”

Everest gives it some thought. He does really want to read that book, but he shouldn’t abandon the book he started reading in its stead. He does really want it though. He swings his head side to side as he mulls it over.

“Ah screw it. I’ll just binge it all tonight.”

Having come to a decision, he gives Zoey an answer.

“If you want, I can meet you later tonight after work and I’ll get it then.”

She responds instantly: “Ok, let’s grab dinner while we’re at it. I know just the place!”

“Ok, text me the details. I gotta get back to work.”

“Will do, it’s a date!”

That last text sticks in his mind for the rest of his shift. He’s going on a date?