Points of View

POV #1:

He leaned against the cushions in the bay window with the curtains half drawn around him. All was still in the house except for the gentle hum of the refrigerator in the next room. He had a rather large and thick hardback book with a red cover and old, worn binding in his lap and a concentrated expression on his face. He ran his hand through his short brown curls, and blew out a frustrated sigh. The book was so boring and difficult to comprehend. His brow scrunched up in utter concentration as he tried yet again to continue the paragraph that made little to no sense, the tiny font not helping anything at all. He glanced out the window, and was mesmerized by the ocean. It was your average cloudy day, but the sea rolled and tumbled with such mysterious grace and power. He wanted to go sailing, to be one with the ocean and ride upon the crests and down to the troughs.  Noticing that he was glancing wistfully outside at the water rather than at his textbook, he groaned again. At this rate, he’d get nothing done! In frustration, he grabbed one of the pillows and threw it into the room, sailing over a couch and landing somewhere behind it.

Instead of hearing the muffled thump that he was expecting from the cushion landing on the hardwood floor, he didn’t hear it land at all. Instead, he heard a muffled and slightly high pitched “ouch”, and a bit of rustling behind the couch.

His senses kicked into overgear. He didn’t make a single noise as he surveyed the room and pinpointed where the noise came from. Was it a burglar? Or a creeper? He silently got to his feet and started padding over to the noise. He held that monotonous and boring textbook in his hand like a weapon, ready to incapacitate the intruder by any means.

Hearing a bit more rustling, there was a sudden movement, a thump, and a flying of feet in the air. He rushed over to see the problem, and was shocked.

“What are you doing here?”

POV #2:

“Hey, are you home?” she called from the front porch of the boringly gray house, but neat and fresh in its paint job. She sulked, knowing that he probably forgot that he needed her to bring some documents for him. Really, the man so absentminded! It really irked her sometime. If she wasn’t completely… interested… in his studies… she would’ve given up on helping him a long time ago. She pushed against the door, and found that it opened easily. Well then, he forgot to lock the door once again. She let herself in, thinking that she would leave the documents on his study table, and be done with the matter. Even if she really wanted to see his face. I mean ask him about his new discoveries, she thought to herself, even more irked that she really allowed that thought to slip into her head.

She snuck into his study, and left the papers with a bright post-it note attached on the space in the middle of his desk. It was like the eye of the storm – papers strewn around it in no particular order, as if thrown randomly, but a random empty space in the middle for him to work in. It was so him that she almost laughed.

Suddenly, she heard a frustrated sigh coming from the next room. Oh, so he’s in his little reading alcove, she thought. She crept over there, and noticed him in the gap between the curtains. His little frustrated expression almost made her giggle, and then she realized the position she was in. she had just broken into his house, and now was staring at him without him noticing through curtains. She ducked behind the couch that was conveniently placed between them, and then cringed. Wow, apparently being a stalker was in her blood. Every reflex and reaction just made her position seem worse and worse. While she was pondering, she heard a frustrated groan, and seconds later was hit by a flying cushion. She squeaked out an “ouch” before clapping her hands to her mouth. She had to get out of there. Now.

She got to a crouching position, and was about to make a mad dash for the door when she stepped on the cushion that was on the floor and fell to the floor with a flailing of limbs and a definitely audible thump.

When she got her bearings back, she saw his face looking at her with surprise and confusion. “What are you doing here,” he asked. She grinned up at him sheepishly, embarrassed to be caught in such a state, and replied, “Just stopping by.”