The Best of Dimitri's Effect novel Chapter One

Dimitri

''Just buy her what she wants!'' I exclaim on the phone, eyes wandering around to find that a few people have turned to look at me which causes me to smile at them; muttering an apology under my breath before walking down the aisle, ''She's pregnant. What do you expect? Just buy her whatever she wants. Put your lazy ass aside,'' I add, quietly.

Aidan sighs deeply on the other line, ''Don't get me wrong, man. She can eat whatever she wants and I can buy her whatever she needs but I just got back from work, she wouldn't even let me change, for god's sake—she was literally dragging me out the front door before I accidentally got pissed off and now she's locking herself in our room.'' He replies.

''Just . . . just, knock on the door and say that if she steps out, you'll take her out to buy whatever she wants.'' I mutter, looking down the aisle for Brody's favourite cereals. ''You have got to understand that pregnant women tend to get pretty sensitive and you have to deal with that for the upcoming months. Just—''

He cuts me off, ''—shut up, you're nagging. I hate it when you're nagging,''

''Well, you asked for it!''

''Whatever, I'll just text or call you tomorrow on whatever happens later. You're right, I need to give in and just understand her more especially when she's going through a lot of changes with her body. Thanks, man.'' He continues to speak as I hear him walking, letting me nod my head and mutter 'thank God' under my breath for cutting off the conversation.

''Later,'' I hang up the call before turning around to see an old woman staring at me with her lips curved up into a smile, causing me to smile back at her as I awkwardly grab onto my son's favourite cereal.

''Have a nice day,'' I nod my head as I slowly turn around to walk away, furrowing my brows in confusion at the sudden sight of her before heading straight towards the cashier to pay. As soon as I hand him over the total amount, I grab onto the paper bag and walk ahead towards the exit, heading straight towards my car or more precisely, towards where my car was.

My eyes wander around the parking lot to find my spot is currently empty before finding a note with the same exact handwriting that I've been receiving for the past couple of months with my belongings missing, 'I like playing games. Do you?' I read, slowly crumbling it.

This whole idiotic mess has got to stop, it has been going on for months and I've never once gotten to the stage where I find clues because every time I end up losing something, there's always this note with different words but same handwriting which makes no sense. At the same time, why would someone even bother to stalk me around and end up stealing my stuff?

''Great . . . just great,'' I mutter under my breath.

I unlock my phone to go through my contacts but to my surprise, my phone shuts down, signalling for me to charge it immediately in order to continue using. Just like that, my grip around my phone starts to tighten with my anger slowly rising up but I breathe out, trying to control myself from throwing anything onto the ground.

Within seconds, I'm already walking down the busy streets of New York without being bothered by the people surrounding me, only letting me walk down with my grip tightly onto the paper bag in my hand—with one thing on my mind, head home with this cereal safe so that Brody can enjoy a nutritious breakfast in the morning.

''Crappy day at work, ran out of cereals, best friend called to talk about other best friend, got my car stolen, have to walk about fifteen blocks. Yeah, yeah, how bad can this day get?'' I mutter under my breath before looking up to find the streets with less people, making me walk faster so that I can reach home faster with another thing on my mind, 'my bed must've missed me.' which causes me to smile, knowing that this whole crap will be worth it at the end.

My eyebrows furrow at the sound of someone muttering curses under her breath which causes me to look around, searching for the source.

''He's going to call back, he's going to call back, he's just busy.'' I continue to walk down the road, seeing a beautiful figure standing near one of the apartments, seeing her holding tightly onto her phone as she run her fingers through her dark, long hair. Just as I take a few more steps ahead, I am left mesmerised by her exotic features.

Her dark brown eyes are staring down at her phone screen as her eyebrows furrow, with her hair in a beautiful mess as her long legs stretch down the stairs, waiting for the 'person' to return her calls while I take my time to appreciate the beauty she holds. For some reason, she seems to be exact woman that I've once described to Kenna, except that she has long hair and dark eyes but everything else fits.

''Where is he? Why did my calls went straight to voicemail?'' She sighs deeply, ''Come on, come on, I've been waiting for hours—where are you, damn it? Just pick up the phone,'' She continues to speak with her eyes almost tearing up as her fingers fidget as she brings one hand through her hair, seems to have a habit of it.

''Trouble in paradise?'' I ask, frozen at my spot as soon as her eyes meet mine.

Both of her eyes linger longer onto my face before they start to wander down my body, seeing me holding onto my paper bag with nothing else in my hand but my phone. ''Excuse me?'' She raises an eyebrow, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear as she stands up, leaning closer towards the door. ''This is my home,'' She adds.

''It's cold. Why aren't you getting inside?'' I ask, causing her to get caught off guard as she clears her throat—letting me take a moment to eye down her outfit, seeing her standing in a pair of summer jeans, dark blouse and casual brown fashionable boots; not exactly the perfect outfit for this kind of weather which makes me wonder if she's from around here, at all especially at the sight of a luggage near her.

Her lips are slightly apart, ''Who are you? I can get inside whenever I want, excuse you. How about you try minding your own business and walk along?'' She looks away, showing a few signs of being uncomfortable while I stay still at my spot; finding her interesting.

''My name's Dimitri—''

''I didn't ask for your name,'' She cuts me off.

I scoff, realising that I'm actually finding this conversation between two strangers, somewhat intriguing. ''You just asked me who I am . . . so I told you my name and I can't seem to be minding my own business when you're being too loud talking to your phone,'' I point down at the phone in her hand, ''You're disturbing others. Besides, it's cold outside and it's only going to get colder especially in that outfit of yours, why don't you get inside or at least change into something much more . . . warm?'' My lips curve up into a smile at the end.

Just as she's about to say something, she immediately changes her mind by going through something in her bag. ''Oh! I completely forgot my keys, must've left it in my car. Thanks for your concern, Derrick but I don't need it anymore. So, if you would just leave and—''

I immediately cut her off by chuckling, ''—wait, wait, a minute. Did you just call me Derrick?'' My question seems to have caused her to raise an eyebrow.

''Isn't that your name?''

The way her dark brown eyes stare back into mine, it leaves me hanging to think that this stranger in front of me is someone I barely even know. For instance, I don't even know her name and that's telling me something but it's odd how she can make me feel all sorts of things just when she looks at me like that or by how she talks back, it's awfully intriguing. For some reason, it leaves me wanting more and more in this conversation, even if I just get to hear her voice but it's somewhat pleasing.

I let out a soft chuckle, ''First of all, Derrick is nowhere near my name. Second, are you sure you don't know me? You've never seen my face anywhere? Somewhere? Because that's likely impossible, especially if you live in New York, in that apartment, even if that's your apartment.'' I raise an eyebrow, seeing her roll her eyes at me in annoyance; somehow showing how she's slightly defeated.

''Look, Derrick, I don't know you. You don't know me and that means we can just move on like how we were doing a few minutes before you started talking to me,'' She replies.

''My name's not Derrick, for god's sake. I'm not Derrick,'' I pinch the bridge of my nose, feeling myself pissed off by this girl who seems to have made me feel a lot of things just by the past few minutes which is somewhat worth questioning.

Just as she's about to say something, someone else seems to have caught her attention as her eyes wander off to a figure behind me, causing me to follow her gaze—landing on an man who has a girl clinging onto his arm, they seem to be around the same age which causes me to turn back towards the woman in front of me, seeing her eyes water with her fists clenched.

''Hey, this girl is completely mesmerised by—'' I say before quickly cut off by her to pull me behind the building, causing me to frown at the sight of her hand on cupped on my mouth as she shakes her head, trying to peek at the two people behind us previously.

As soon as she removes her hand, ''I like what you have in mind, love but I think I deserve to know your name first before we get started.'' My lips curve up into a flirtatious smirk.

''Shut up, Derrick.'' She whispers.

I roll my eyes in annoyance, ''For the third time, for god's sake, woman. My name is not Derrick and never will be Derrick. It's not even hard to pronounce my name, it's—''

''That son of a bitch!'' She exclaims, causing my eyes to widen in surprise before remaining silent. ''That motherfucker, that asshole, that lying freak! He—he's cheating on me. No wonder he didn't answer my calls or reply to my damn text messages because he was with that ugly brunette! She's not even near as pretty as me,'' She says angrily before running out, straight towards the man—I assume is her boyfriend.

I step out from behind the building to watch the whole drama happen.

The man seems to have caught her running towards them which causes him to immediately let her second girlfriend to step inside the house before closing the door, letting his first girlfriend A.K.A the stranger I know, to push him to her heart's content while I watch her running her fingers through her hair, roughly.

''Wow, wow, Sophia. Calm down, baby.'' The guy says, grabbing onto both of her arms while she tries to extract her claws as she reaches out for his face.

So . . . the beautiful girl's name is Sophia which makes me to look down at her figure, seeing her standing tall, probably around five foot seven or five foot eight but honestly, if I ever lay eyes on her just like how I did earlier, I would've guessed that she's kind, sweet and probably even honest. I mean, the honest part is correct but kind and sweet is probably not even true because she's much more on the feisty side.