Save Me - Joel Hokka | Blind Channel

Chapter 3: A little note on a coaster

As I woke up, my problem of how to deal with this whole situation had been solved but I wasn't exactly happy about the way it had been solved. Because as I opened my ideas, I didn't only feel bad due to the light shining into my eyes and the pulsing of my head – apparently, I had drunken too much the night before – but also because I soon noticed that I was the only one laying in my bed. Joel wasn't laying next to me and all of his clothes had disappeared, too

With a sigh, I left my bed and slowly made my way to the cupboard where I stored everything related to pain killers and pills in general. My head was killing me because it was hurting so much – Why do I keep promising myself to not drink too much and then I end up drinking one beer, shot or cocktail after another? – so I definitely needed some pain killers and a lot of water to drink. Additionally, I had kind of hoped to see Joel in my kitchen because the fact that he left in the middle of the night made me wonder if I had done something wrong.

Was the sex that bad? Or did I do something wrong when I tried to comfort him? Did he feel pushed to say something although he didn't want to?, I asked myself as I opened the drawer. Luckily, there were some pain killers left so I picked one and while holding it in my hand, I turned around to get myself a glass of water. Unfortunately, I was still tired and obviously suffering from that hangover which caused me to stumble over my own feet.

"Fuck!", I cursed as I heard the sound of glass hitting the floor and shattering into thousands of pieces. It luckily wasn't filled with water yet and I was wearing slippers so I didn't hurt myself but still, that was exactly what I didn't need right now. With a sigh, I grabbed another glass, filled it with water and took the painkiller before I started to throw away at least the bigger pieces of glass. I'd clean up the rest after the pill had done its job and my headache got a lot better. „I'll never drink that much again!", I cursed although I knew very well that I could never keep the promise I made myself.

An hour later, I finally felt a lot better. The pieces of glass were either thrown into trash cans or vacuumed so I could walk through my room without paying attention to not stepping into sherds. My head still ached a bit but as long as I didn't move it rapidly or jumped, everything was fine. Since the weather was extremely good outside – at least compared to the usual Finnish weather –, I decided that the fresh air would probably help me to get rid of the last bit of a hangover.

I got dressed in a baggy shirt and a pair of dark jeans before I quickly grabbed my sun glasses and left my room. "Ugh", I sighed as I entered the staircase of the apartment building I was living in. That's one of the downsides of living in the highest floor: During summer, it was always hot in there and the air wasn't nice to breath in at all. Thus, I ran down the stairs as fast as my hangover allowed me to and as I opened the door outside, I breathed in deeply – just to be reminded of how badly exhaust gases of a car smell.

Luckily, there weren't too many cars; most people chose their bike instead of a car because of the sunny weather. If I would have trusted my body, I would have chosen my bike, too, but due to the headache that still wasn't fully gone and the feeling of unease that didn't leave me, I thought that walking was the best idea. A few minutes later, I was walking through the nearby forest, admiring the birds' singing.

"Marlene!", I suddenly heard someone calling my name. I quickly turned around just to see my best friend Teija approaching me. "Teija! Hei!", I hugged her as she reached me. "What are you doing here? You're not that often in Helsinki", I wondered loudly. Other than me, she didn't live in Helsinki but in Espoo, a city not too far away. Yet we didn't see each other that often. In fact, we only met once in a few months because we both were busy with work and Teija also had her own little family with her wife Maila and their cat Male.

"Yeah, I needed to see something different than always the same houses and streets and I thought coming to Helsinki was a good idea", Teija answered the question I had asked a few seconds ago. "But you could have told me! Then we could have agreed to meet – I mean, we coincidentally met now anyway – but next time tell me before, okay? You know that I'd use every chance I get to see you." "Yeah, it was a spontaneous decision. And since I knew you were in a bar last night, I thought I'd let you recover from that hangover. I know you, there's no night out that isn't followed by a hangover", she chuckled.