Whimsical Willows
an excerpt

Chapter One

It had been a long day. A very long day. The cafe he worked at as a waiter had been busy even during the off hours today, and Sam West's feet felt like they would fall off if he took just one more step, but he was almost home. He had to make it around the block before he could take the steps up to his apartment and finally relax. In all of his 19 years, he felt like he'd never worked so hard.

To add to the frustration of the hard day, the feeling that he was being watched was more prevalent today than the day before. He'd felt this way for about a week now, that every move he made was meticulously watched and perhaps even written down by some unknown person. No, group. There was definitely more than one person keeping an eye on him. Was it the Government? Sam didn't think he'd done anything illegal for the Police to want to watch him. He didn't think he was an alien or a Russian spy, so the FBI shouldn't be on his tail.

He ran a hand through his sandy brown hair and turned his head once more to glance over his slim shoulder and make sure there was no one following him. What a strange feeling it was, to believe someone was watching him like this. Sam heaved a sigh and moved his hazel eyes forward again, this time watching the white rubber tips of his black sneakers hit the pavement under them as he walked. The white shoelaces bounced slightly with every step he took under the hem of the black jeans that covered his skinny legs up to his waist. The white, button down uniform shirt from the cafe he worked at was untucked and sloppily hung over his jeans waistline in a casual way, the short sleeves leaving his freckled, skinny arms to the weather, which was just warm enough to not need the tan, light jacket tied around his skinny waist. A black messenger bag embroidered with a white Jolly Roger hung over one shoulder to hit his opposite hip with every other step. He frowned at the ketchup stain on the shirt over his stomach, one hand lifting to make a blunt nailed finger scratch at it as if he could just peel it off and not have to wash the shirt for seventy-five cents later in the week.

Sam finally rounded the corner and looked up to see his beloved apartment building, with his beloved apartment, with his beloved couch inside it, looming just up ahead. The couch seemed to be calling to him, enticing him with its comfortable cushions and pillows, the blanket laying over the back of it adding its voice of warmth and snuggle-ness. Was that a word? Snuggle-ness? 'It is now', thought Sam, as he yawned and wriggled his toes one foot at a time when they weren't on the ground. A nap sounded wonderful. Now if only he had someone to rub his feet for him as he fell into a snooze! How heavenly would that be? Completely heavenly, Sam decided.

His thoughts kept his mind off of his aching feet enough to not notice he'd made it to the bottom of the steps that would take him up to the second floor and his nap. He huffed at the steps for a moment, looking longingly up at the top of them, before he made himself trudge up the steps slowly. His feet seemed to scream in agony with every new step he set them on. He could just hear them.

“Aaah!” his foot screamed as it was smashed down onto the hard step. Sam snickered at himself and drew his eyes down to his feet, imagining them with little mouths at the tip of the large toe, opening to let out the scream then grimacing with the pain they felt as his heel flexed upwards to take the next step. He took the last few steps quickly so their screams wouldn't last quite as long, then hurried down the open air hallway to his door, digging into his jeans pocket for his keys. They jingled as he took them out and flipped through them to find the silver key that would unlock his door and let him inside the apartment for his nap. He pushed the key into the lock and swung open the door with a happy sigh.

Dropping the messenger bag beside the little table just inside the door, he nearly slipped on the mail laying on the floor, one foot slipping out from under him with a yelp. Whether the yelp came from his foot or his mouth, he wasn't sure, but either way he caught his balance with a hand on the wall. Sam glared down at the magazine that had flipped open from the mishap as if it was the magazine's fault he had almost fallen on his bottom. When the magazine did nothing but sit there innocently, he sighed and bent over to pick it up, mumbling to himself that he aught to hang a basket off of the mail slot to catch the mail from now on. He made a mental note to buy one somewhere with the meager cash he had left over after paying bills this month. Not that mental notes were always kept. Sometimes he found they were tossed in the trash without his knowledge.

He went through the few envelopes he had picked up as he made his way towards his bedroom, heading through the kitchen slash dining room on his way. The bills were tossed carelessly onto the little table that was meant to be eaten at. It only held paperwork along with pens and pads of paper and the telephone that barely ever rung for him. The magazine was given a cursory glance before it was tossed onto the comfortable looking couch. It looked like a new one that he'd never gotten before, therefore it deserved a look through later. For now, he headed into his bedroom where he stopped to look around. It always felt like there would be tiny cameras all pointed at him these days, peeking out from behind that dying plant or perhaps from the corner of the ceiling over there.