Chasing Matthew chapter 1 (Welcome, friend! Thanks for reading, I really appreciate it!)

My name is Matthew Williams. Some people call me Matt. I used to spend most of my time working at a restaurant in the country I love, Norway. It was located near the blue stone in Bergen.

You're about to read about a big chapter of happenings in my life. Weird shit. Let's start a little while before that happened so you won't get confused, shall we?

The sun shone warmly over one of the many cities in Norway, Bergen, comforting young and old to spend the day outside for once. Most of the time it rained, you see.

I checked the tie and apron on my waiter uniform before grabbing my notice book and pen from one of the apron pockets on the white apron I always wore at work. With a bright smile I went outside to see a few guests sitting in the restaurant's black chairs, properly waiting to order.

"Yes, what can I help you with?" I asked professionally while gliding over to the table.
"We want to order," said the woman, clutching the arm belonging to her husband. He looked like he wanted to leave as he stared stiffly at his Iphone 360. The woman just looked irritated, her cheeks red, puffy and a slight frown showed as she quickly glanced at her children that ran at the pavement not too far away.

"One beer, four glasses of water and three childrens' portion of pancakes. I know they love it."
"Coming right up," I said as I finished scribbling the order down and took my leave to the restaurant kitchen.

"You're effective today, Matthew!" one of my colleges cheerfully said as he patted my back with a rough sailor hand. He laughed, his read ginger beard shaking dangerously. I smiled, commenting
"Thanks. I feel great, like everything is alright in the world." I scratched the back of my head like I had said something too cheesy. "At least today, the sun is shining for once!" I tried to add.
"Yer right!" my college stepped to the side and let me pass through to the section where personnel clothing were stored into separate lockers. Naturally, I always had the keys to my locker in one the back pockets on my jeans.

I unlocked the locker I had been given the day I stared and fetched my casual clothes. I brought them to my chest before heading to the personnel's' changing room. I quickly changed, left the uniform neatly folded in my locker and made my way out of the restaurant.
I stopped by the nearest supermarket and bought some groceries for a awfully late dinner. Maybe it would be burnt wok? As I thought, my shoulder bumped bumped into someone's, making the stranger drop his carton of eggs.

The carton fell to the floor with betraying cracking sounds and made a undelicate splash of slime and goo on the previously clean supermarket floor.

Fuck, I thought. If I ever had failed at trying to look like Edvard Munch's Scream, I couldn't be failing now.
"I'm so sorry!" My hands shook with embarrassment as I looked at the man in front of me in the eyes. I quickly noted in hy head that his eye color was unusual, but didn't give it much thought. "I wasn't concentrating on where I was going!" I tried to brush half long yellow pieces of hair away from my eyes, but they didn't want to move, going back to where they were two seconds ago. My empathy gathering had failed.

As strange as it may be, the man smiled at my little panic with a (pleasant kind of?) smile. It was almost creepy how much he seemed to enjoy the awkward situation with his whole heart.
"Please," he said while bending down and scooped the egg carton up from the floor into his arms. "Let me handle that. It's just some eggs. I'll pay for those, clean up that little mess on the floor and go buy another carton. There is no reason to worry."

I cringed as I noticed how he allowed his black driving gloves to get covered in slime. Disgusting, nasty egg slime. And summer was just around the corner. It would dry as a second layer on those gloves if he didn't get it off first.

I sat on my couch in the living room. Every now and then I told myself to stop thinking about the embarrassment of the day, but a strange feeling tugged inside me deep in my gut. It was no pleasant feeling at all. I dismissed the thought, turned off the lights in the house, starting with the living room. This house wasn't as big and fabulous as one could think, but it was enough for only me. Ever since my stubborn and overprotective brother left, I have felt kind of lonely, I must say.

Once I had entered the kitchen to turn the lights off over the stove, a shadow outdoors caught my attention. It looked like a tall, big built human. I stared like possessed over the rim of my glasses, looking for any movement.

My eyes snapped to the bushes separating my and my neighbor's property. Turned out it was only my new cat. Over the time of her yet short stay, she had taken a liking to going out of the house whenever I left and coming back around this hour with whatever she had caught. Mice and birds were weekly laid proudly on the door mat, much to my disgust.

When I looked for the shadow again, it was gone. Maybe the arrival of my cat startled whatever creature it was.

I lured the cat into my bedroom and cuddled it until we both slept tightly.

Two weeks passed. I worked at the restaurant as always, went grocery shopping and got calls from my mother -did whatever I had done before, over and over again.

Even though, after so many days since that unlucky "collision" I couldn't completely shake off some of the uncomfortable vibes I received. Not even the face of that unusual man could I forget. He and his weird glove wearing. Or maybe he just owned a pair of cold hands. Poor guy.

I went out of the restaurant and eyed a nice looking bakery nearby. Bergensgata Bakery was the name of the building containing delicious Norwegian pastries in many sizes and forms.

There, I bought a horn of bread containing meat and cheese and ate it while sitting on one of the park benches around Lille Nygårsvatnet (The Smallest Nygaardswater. It's a small (fake?) lake in Bergen).

Seeing the curious pigeons bouncing around in a funny manner on their small claw feet, head bouncing back and forth like a owl, I gave a hearty laugh and tore off a piece of the horn turning it into smaller bits so they could eat it without choking.

Halfway, I felt two ice cold eyes boring holes into my back. The feeling crept over my skin. I turned my head to see if someone was staring at me, but I couldn't know for sure- too many people moved at the same time, and if someone was they could have easily averted their eyes before I found theirs.

I don't know if I truly wanted to find out if I had either a passionate admirer, a creepy stalker or just a disturbed and unsure mind. Truth was, I had all of them. But all of them, minus the latter, was just one person.

Ten minutes later:
I crumpled the paper bag which contained the horn and a coffee, searching for a trash can. They're not difficult to find- the city's nicely organized. I checked my watch: 14:25. I had enough time to walk back in a calm manner.

I had to cross the street to get back to the restaurant, no unusual activity at all, but what I experienced while doing it was not a usual thing in this area. Many people crossed at once, typical lunch-break-ended thing. It got crowded, people walked awfully slowly for the time of day- the sun shone high on the slow zombies.

As I walked, I felt a big hand rest on my waist from behind. My body stiffened, and I was afraid I was about to get robbed. I looked at the still far away other side of the road. Oh my god, it felt like it was an hour away, sweat beginning to appear on my forehead.

The hand started to move. It crawled its way under the hem of my shirt, the sensitivity of my skin telling me the hand was rough and that it was a right hand. So, my mind started. It's a he. And he's standing right behind me.

My heart rate went up when he started slowly stroking the side of my stomach and hip with skilled fingers. He's invading my personal space! I got to do something! I tried to pry away the hand, resulting in a loving final goodbye squeeze as we finally reached the other side of the street.

I let out a shaky breath I wasn't aware I'd been holding. Luckily he hadn't done anything to harm either me or my economy. I sort of felt lucky, but only sort of.

I hurried back to my workplace and got to working again. My body felt like it was burning where the unknown man had touched. I couldn't think about anything other than that, I didn't feel like thinking about casual stuff. I made a mental note: watch out for thieves, burglars and creeps.

Once home, I checked twice that the cat was inside, that the door was locked and every window sealed.

A/N: That's it for this chapter! Leave a review if you want more and tell me how I'm doing! I love reviews! 3)

-MobileWriter