Chapter 19

It's about nine in the morning and I'm blissfully sleeping, trying to sleep through the hangover when the fire alarm from hell starts to resonate through the apartment.

My first thought? This is a joke and I'm not getting out of bed.

I just think that there's no reason for me to actually go out. It might be just a drill. I know there's a poster in the hall with all the dates where they do the fire tests. I didn't pay enough attention because I'm useless.

It's probably that. It's not an actual fire.

At least that's what I repeat to myself.

Until the doorman announces on the intercom that everyone needs to evacuate and now I'm on my feet in seconds.

I grab the first pair of pants I can find and a hoodie and I'm looking for my phone and I'm thinking if this is an actual fire, what should I save that's irreplaceable and I don't know where Mom put our baby pictures and ohmygod, grandma. Grandma.

Will the elevator work? Probably not? And grandma is on the sixteenth floor!

I slip my feet in my running shoes, realizing that I didn't put socks on. And I don't have my wallet, and I'm just freaking out and running outside. The elevator doesn't work, so I run down the three set of stairs to get to my grandmother's apartment.

I don't see smoke, but this is a big complex apartment.

Once I get to my grandmother's door, I just do the code to go in because I'm in a hurry.

Once I'm few steps in I can see her sitting on her couch in front of the television in her living room.

"Naree? Darling what are you doing here?" she asks, looking confused.

As far as I know, she hasn't started to be deaf, so I don't know what's confusing her right now .

"Didn't you hear? There's a fire! We gotta go!" I try to press her, making hand movement for her to get up.

Like, I don't want to be rude, but there's a motherfucking fire.

Grab yo pearls and get out grandma!

"Oh, that? It's fine, there's no smoke. And my show is on," she replies, gesturing to the TV.

With out loud the alarm is blasting, I highly doubt she can hear anything anyway. Why is she stubborn? "No smoke? Your show? No, no, let's go."

"It'll be fine, it's probably nothing," she repeats.

"Please, grandma, didn't you hear the message at the intercom? We have to evacuate. It's not a drill."

I can't believe I'm here having to convince my grandmother than we shouldn't be trapped in a burning building this morning.

The alarm is still blaring, like she can't possibly be ignoring this.

My hangover headache keeps getting worst with every new blast of sirens.

"Darling, it's fine, there's no smoke."

"Just because we don't see smoke here doesn't mean there isn't any," I whine.

I seriously don't want to think about the fact that the time we're wasting here could mean we'll be trap in a burning building.

"Fiiine. But you'll see, we'll be doing this for nothing," she replies, annoyed.

"In the event that we do, I'd much rather it be for nothing that to be trapped in a burning building," I tell her, my voice impatient.

We still need to go down sixteen flights of stairs. We've got all the time in the world to DIE.

"Well, come on," she tells me, grabbing her purse from the hook by the front door.

She was already all dressed up, so there was no running frantically to find pants on her end.

I really should have grabbed socks. Shoes without socks is so uncomfortable for me.

We head to the stairs again. We go down a lot more slowly, but that's fine, because I'm feeling a little woozy from going round and round down the stairs.

I really picked the worst day to have a hungover.

Other people are also going down the stairs, but not as many as I would have assumed. Most people are probably out.

Finally, we get to the emergency exit and we're outside.

There are four firetruck's parked in front of our building.

There's heading in by the front door.

I look up but I'm still not seeing any smoke, or anything threatening, so maybe grandma was right.

We cross the street to sit on the concrete fences with a view on the front door.

Grandma asks the other residents sitting there too if they know what's going on, but everyone seems as clueless as us.

I take my phone to see if there's anything on the news or whatever and now that I have my phone in my hands, I might as well text Tenth Knot.

I should probably text my parents instead, but I don't want to worry them, and it seems like the building is not about to burst into flames for now.

So, Tenth Knot it is.

"Texting your boyfriend?" my grandma asks beside me, chuckling.

I sort of jump on the spot. "What?"

She nods to the phone in my hands. "You're texting your boyfriend?"

I snort. "No, definitely not."

"Alright, sure."

"I swear, it's just a friend of mine."

"Oh yes, that smile is definitely meant for a friend."

"It is! For a funny sleep deprived friend."

Grandma just ignores my whining, like my explanation isn't even worth her time.

"Maybe I should get a dog," she says contemplatively, looking at our neighbors, coming out with pets out of the apartment building. "It could be nice. A little poodle. A maybe a cat. A cat would be less work. Your grandfather hated the idea of keeping a pet inside. He thought cats and dogs should be outside. Hated small dogs too."

"Grandpa hated a lot of stuff," I agree.

She smiles at the memory. "Which made it all the more special when he loved something."

"He was so funny when he was grumpy," I added, smiling a little too.

"He was. But he was really just a big old sweetheart. The grumpiness was just a façade."

"I miss him," I found myself admitting.

"Me too."

I take a deep breath. I need to be a better granddaughter. "I'm sorry I haven't been there much. I just... it's hard coming by. I feel like I always say the wrong thing. And I feel bad because we weren't living close to you guys for so many years, and it somehow feels like... we missed out on so much stuff together. I just don't know how to process it exactly. And I feel like I don't deserve to be sad too."

"Oh, honey, it's okay," she tells me, wrapping an arm around my shoulders, tucking me beside her. "Airplanes tickets aren't cheap. And we all had busy lives. That doesn't mean you shouldn't be allowed to be as sad as you need to be."

"I kinda thought I'd be stronger than this, you know? Like, I'm usually better with my emotions."

She snorts. "Honey, you were the biggest cry-baby I'd ever met."

"When I was younger!" I reply defensively, "I got better when I got older. I stopped crying all together."

"Once a cry baby, always a cry baby. You kept the cry baby soul."

I pouted. "Harsh grandma, real harsh."

"My darling cry baby," she croons, pinching my cheek. "Alright, well we're not going back in any time soon, so let's go."

"Where?"

"For breakfast. Let's see if we can't get a table at Evviva."

"I'm not leaving here without socks and a bra."

"It's fine, no one will know. Come on, entertain your grandmother," she says with a smile.

Honestly, I'm kinda starving. I assume eating might help with the hangover too.

"Alright, let's go eat," I agree and take her reaching hand, getting up too.

Once we're sitting in the tram on our way to breakfast, I check my phone.

Tenth Knot wrote me a last message.

I almost chuckle as I read the text, but press my lips together so grandma doesn't say anything again.

It's kinda useless though, because I totally catch grandma side-eying me with a smirk again.

________________

Hello my Pretzels!

IT'S BEEN TOO LONG! :')

I know. I know! My schedule has been crazy, and my time very limited. What I reaaaally didn't want to happen, happened.

Hopefully I can get back to a more consistent uploading schedule. Right now, I'll try to do at least one chapter a week, and then get back to my double upload soon-ish.

I apologize. I really missed these characters!

Hopefully you had fun ready this. The picture of the firetruck is an actual picture I took the last time I was in Toronto because essentially the same thing happened. I woke up to the sound of firetruck sirens and then the fire alarm blasting and I had to go down twenty something flights of stairs, and then when we were allowed to go back in the elevator still didn't work so I had to go back up those twenty-something flights of stairs again. Fuuuuuun times. XD

Anyway! Enough rambling. Have you guys missed Naree and the boys? I can't wait to upload more of this story! :D

See you all soon! <3