"I thought he wasn't going to be home for a few more days?" Poppy mumbles after finishing a mouthful of her hamburger. I pick at my chicken salad from the organic café down the street from the University. Now that I'm mildly wealthy, I can afford to blow £12 on a salad.
"His last meeting got canceled, so he came back home early," I explain. We've managed to find a bit of time between classes to grab some lunch. We have a tutorial to get to in half an hour, though I don't feel at all ready for this next exam, and neither does Poppy. We should be discussing other things, and yet here we are.
"Bet it's nice to have him back," she smiles. "What did he say when you told him about the break-in?" she asks as she picks up her soda.
"I haven't told him, and I'm not going to," I reply quickly, causing Poppy’s eyes to widen and a bit of soda to drip out of her mouth.
"Amelia, are you serious? Three men tried to fucking break into your apartment with a sledgehammer in hand, and you don't think that that's something he would want to know?" Poppy reprimands me in a hushed and hurried tone.
"Yeah, I'm sure he would want to know. But if I tell him, he's just going to get mad I didn't tell him straight away, and then he'll make me move." It sounds stupid when I say it out loud, but to me, it's a valid reason for not telling him.
"Well, you can't seriously feel safe there?" she hisses in response. I haven't been back since it happened, so I don't truly know if I do feel safe there. It all seemed like nothing, to be honest. The landlord called me at like 2 am and told me that three men were in masks outside of my apartment trying to unlock my door and get in. Luckily, some of my neighbors were arriving home from a night out, and the men got spooked, so they ran off before they could get in.
"Look, I'm sure it's fine. I filed a police report; nothing was stolen. It's unlikely they're going to come back and try it again," I shrug and force myself to eat some more, despite having lost my appetite during this conversation. Poppy leans forward on her elbows and sits in silence for a moment or two before she speaks again.