Victor

Victor was always late.

Not just embarrassingly late, but also without even a believable excuse.

At first, it was easy to forgive him. His rebellious brown curls fell over his face as he rushed into the restaurant, or the cinema, or wherever we had agreed to meet, and he would give me one of his mischievous smiles, making me blush immediately. How could I stay mad at those big green eyes that lit up when he caught sight of me?

Even if he was an hour late, or two... one day he didn't even show up and called me at least twenty times to try to apologize. But today... Today I wouldn't forgive him if he didn't give me an explanation. An explanation that wasn’t nonsense. 

"Angelica, it's me!"

Ah, Angelica, look, it was him. Speaking of the devil... The devil of tardiness.

He didn't insist too much, he knocked on the door with his knuckles a couple of times and patiently waited for me to open it. I imagined him on the other side, tucking a curl behind his ear, smoothing out the wrinkles in his shirt, or fanning his face with his hands, sweating. Because he had run up the stairs to my apartment, I was positive about that.

However, when I opened the door, I found something different than expected.

"Victor, what the hell...?!"

"I can explain," he interrupted. He rested one hand on the white frame of the door and gestured with the other, asking me to be silent. "I can explain," he repeated. But a greenish liquid dripped from his shirt sleeve, forcing me to step back immediately.

"You stink! What happened?!"

His brown curls were plastered against his forehead, soaked. Just like his white shirt, and jeans, and socks, and everything in general... I would have thought it was pouring rain outside, but the night was completely clear, and not even the most polluted rainwater could be dirty like that. The smell he emitted was nauseating.

"I fell," he said. He took advantage of my distraction to enter the apartment and close the door behind him.

"Where?!" I yelled, bringing a hand to my nose to cover it.

Here it came: his green eyes scrutinized my face, and he swallowed nervously. He was about to unleash the biggest absurd excuse out of all the absurd excuses humanity has ever invented.

"In a swamp," he sighed. He made a move to walk to the couch to sit down, but I gave him a warning look and he stopped halfway. "Right, sorry, sorry. Can you... lend me some clothes? From your brother or something."

"In a swamp?" I crossed my arms and clenched my jaw. Damn it, if this man wasn't six feet tall I would've given him the scolding of his life.

"Yes..." he mumbled.

"There are no swamps around here, Victor."

"I... I know," he admitted. He let out another sigh. More mentally exhausted than physically tired, he seemed— "I know it's hard to believe, but... This time it's true."

"Ah, this time!? What about the other hundreds of times before this one!?"

I turned around. I couldn't keep looking at him in the face; if I did, I would end up forgiving him. I walked towards the front door, ready to kick him out if necessary. He followed me in silence and only spoke when he stopped beside me.

"Angelica, I have to be honest with you now," he pleaded. I hesitated for a second, which made him smile. His smile persuaded me. I let go of the doorknob and let him explain.

"I have teleportation powers."

"Victor!"

"No, wait, wait, I'm serious!" he shouted. "But they're, like, super hard to control so instead of doing things as I want, I keep appearing in random places without warning, and I was on my way here and then I was about to stop by a flower shop to buy you some chrysanthemums because I know you don't like roses, you like chrysanthemums, and when I was about to enter I suddenly fell and... And I was in a swamp. So I fell... Into a swamp, because I wanted to buy you flowers." He smiled again.

"So you’re saying it’s my fault?"

"No!" he rushed to clarify. "I'm just trying to explain what happened," he added.

"Well," I said. I turned away from the door to go to the window. I needed fresh air; the swamp smell was unbearable. "Assuming that's true, and I'm not saying I believe you, how come I haven't found out before?"

"I always try to be on time for our dates," he replied.

"Whatever," I muttered to myself. "But it's dangerous. Today you say you fell into a swamp, and what about tomorrow? If you teleport in the middle of a road, you could..."

"Get hit by a car?"

I fell silent abruptly. He had used that excuse before. The one about being hit by a car, and I hadn't believed him either.

"That's why you had your arm in a cast two months ago? Were you really hit by a car?" I murmured.

"Oh, no, no," he shook his head. "That was the boat accident. I've never been hit by a car yet. Although there was that time with a tractor..."

"You were hit by a boat?!"

My scream startled him for a second, but he quickly regained his sly smile.

"No, I landed on the deck and rolled until I hit a metal railing," he explained.

There was a spark in his green eyes that I couldn't decipher. He nodded as if approving the truth of his own story like that, but I shook my head.

"Bullshit," I said. "I don't know what’s going on with you, Victor, but if you don't want to tell me, go tell your silly little tales to someone else."

The siren of a police car sounded in the distance. Victor tensed his expression a bit, but he never took his green eyes off me. Soon the sirens were practically in my living room, and the blue and red light hit our faces by the window.

"Angelica, I need to ask you a favor, okay?"

"What is it?" I snapped.

"You have to... You have to close your eyes tightly and count to five."

"Why?"

He glanced sideways at the street. Then he returned his gaze to me and smiled. Again that smile, I couldn't stand it.

"Do it for me. Please," he whispered.

So I closed my eyes. Like a fool.

"One," I counted aloud. I felt his frozen hand on my cheek. The smell of the swamp almost made me gag. "Two." His thumb slid down my face to softly touch my lips. I shivered, but continued— "Three."

And his hand fell. There were knocks on the door.

"PD, open the door!"

"Four," I whispered, trembling. I raised my arm a little, trying to find Victor standing in front of me, still not opening my eyes, but I couldn't find him.

"Police, open the door!" The knocks grew louder.

"Five." I opened my eyes.

Victor was gone.