Oh why oh why did we have to park five blocks away Jane thought as she stepped out into the brisk wintery air. She bundled up her heavy coat over her thin dress. She had wanted to dress much more warmly but on her father’s insistence she had gone with a thin garish dress that did not keep her warm at all. It didn’t even look that good either, at least not compared to the dresses of the other women Jane had seen at the bars. One thing she was glad of is that her dress was not as skin tight as Karren, Janice, and Felicia's dresses had been. A proper lady had to ride the line between pretty and skimpy. At least that's what Jane’s step mother had told her, and she would know having stolen her father’s heart and attention despite being only ten years older than Jane herself.
Jane shook the snails out of her mind and started the long walk towards the parking garage. The strange man in blue from the bar came again to her mind.
Who was he? Why was he looking so intently at me? And what about him has me so freaked out. Jane thought
Looking around her she saw a couple heading towards her, they were holding themselves close and speaking in whispered tones. In the dark Jane imagined they were talking about her and that they were staring and judging her. Jane moved over toward the road as much as possible without actually going into the road. The couple passed her by giving her a strange look as if she were the weird one. As they passed Jane caught a snippet of conversation about roses and tulips.
Jane sighed, chastising herself. They were just an ordinary couple doing ordinary couple things. Not that Jane would know much about ordinary couple things. The only relationship she had ever had was with a guy she had worked with once and that relationship had not ended well, at least not for her.
“No! I am not thinking about HIM again.” Jane whispered to herself
The snails in my head are annoying tonight. Jane thought
Jane looked down at the ground as she walked trying to keep her mind off of her past and away from misjudgeing those around her. She had misjudged people before and it had cost her. She had once had a friend in high school, her best friend in fact. But all because of some rumors Jane had listened to she had lost that friend, and now she would not even talk with Jane. Jane sighed and looked up to see where she was go– BAM! Face first into a pole.
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“Oww oww oww'' Jane said, clutching her nose and biting back some nastyier words.
Jane looked around to see if anybody had seen her blunder. Across the street was a gang of loiterers looking at her with smirks on their faces. Jane’s face burned hot and she hurried on down the block. Her hand came away from her nose with a hint of red on it.
Great. Jane thought and me without a napkin to wipe it up. Jane pulled her phone out to the camera app and checked her nose in its screen. It didn’t look bad or bleeding too much, it was probably only bleeding a little. Jane wiped her nose with her hand and after looking around, discreetly wiped it off on the side of the building next to her. Thankfully no one had seen her this time. Only three more blocks to go.
This is why Jane liked smaller towns better than cities. In small towns almost every business has its own parking lot and she wouldn't have been walking for 5 blocks just to get to her car. But the city was a walking place, she had to park so far away from where she needed to go even if it was just for a small errand. Of course this was also those three witches' fault.
“We have to park here, or else we won't be able to get to all the bars in one trip.” Karren had said when they were trying to find parking.
There had been a parking area much closer to some of the other bars they had gone to that night, but it was farther away from the other bars, and thus right in the middle. It just so happened that the last bar they went to that night had been the bar the furthest away from the parking garage.
Jane stopped at the next interaction, the busiest one, to wait for the traffic light to change to walk. She leaned against the pole and checked her nose in her phone again, all good, no more blood Jane thought. She bundled up as a breeze swept past her and heard a sound behind her. She turned around to see what the sound was and her heart stopped. There, just half a block away was the man from the club complete with blue suit and scruffy but immaculate face.
Jane wasn’t stuck frozen from his piercing blue eyes this time. She turned around and thanked everyone she could think of that the traffic signal had just changed to walk. She started walking as fast as she could without making it seem as though she was running. She didn’t know if this guy was after her for good or for ill but it was surely not a coincidence that he was going the same way as she was. It was unlikely the freaky handsome guy would be able to catch her; Jane was the fastest walker this side of the Mississippi.
She turned to look back. “Crape!” How is he so fast?! Jane thought. Turning back around she could finally see the sign for the parking garage. Throwing away all decorum she started running. She knew from the discovery channel that running usually provoked hunters but it also got her away from them faster. She rounded the corner and sped toward her green beetle, the only car she could afford, thankful that she had been able to park on the bottom floor.
She got to her car and reached into her purse for her keys. Her hand fumbled around searching. “Where is it!” she exclaimed and began to search more frantically, there was way too much stuff in her bag. Suddenly there was a presence behind her. She turned, swinging her purse towards where a person’s head usually was. It made contact, but she couldn’t tell if it had any impact on the mysterious figure who had been following her. She couldn’t tell anything. The only thing she could do was stare at the piercing dark blue eyes in front of her.