𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐒 by A.P.Mary

04:00 pm

"Fuck I think I left my apartment key in the room" I start looking for it in every pocket, but the key is nowhere to be seen. I go through every pocket I have, until I remember leaving it with my jacket in the room. He holds my back, reassuring me.

"Let's go get it, I'll drive you to the hotel and airport" I look at him, and I notice he's reluctant about something.

We leave that bench, and head back to the club, passing by the two bouncers without batting an eye. He must be that famous around here. I reach for his hand and I go through the crowd again, feeling how the air changes fro fresh to old, suffocating. I think underground discos should be illegal. We reach the hallway, where no one was to be seen, and I finally find the room again.

"You can go to the rest of the group, I think I'm going to the bathroom too" he nods, kissing my forehead before leaving me alone. I knock on the door but there is no response.

I hold the doorknob and pray for no one to be having sex in the room, and fortunately as I open it I can see no one's in. I instantly spot the key with the jacket and fly to the bathroom. I take a last glimpse of this place, and just when I remember how much I didn't want to come in makes me now laugh. I exit the room, looking for the last time at the number 19 on it. I walk back to the main room and search for the bathroom, needing to wash my face before going through with the morning.

I see the bathroom door, and I get in, but as soon as I see who's inside I instantly regret being here. She is makeupless, her puffy eyes signing that she has been either crying or doing drugs, again. She looks like a mess, and she is washing her face with cold water too. What a coincidence I might say. She sees me, and her eyes go wide. She doesn't seem well at all. I observe how her lips are parted, not by surprise, but from not feeling them. Part of the motive I urged her to stop doing drugs.

"Ver please, please let me have a word with you" her words are mushed up, and i barely hear every word she says over the bass from outside. Now that I observe it, we are back to where we started. Same bathroom, but different people. I almost don't recognize her anymore, and this is all because of a bunch of hours in London. "Look, I'm sorry I tried to take away your fling tonight, I was drunk and I-"

"You were the one that took Chris away too, right?" I stop her. She looks at me confused, but I don't care. I need answers that have been left out for years since we became friends. At this point I'm also wondering what we were all this time.

"Who?" she scrunches her nose, and I see her eyes half closing up. I feel an ache in my heart as she does. She was clean for two years now. I feel tears stinging my eyes as I try to speak, but I feel how a tight hand grips my throat, claws getting inside my chords and cutting all the sound left.

"Chris, the guy from our grade, the one that came to me and asked me out on a date?" I fight back the tears "The one I found you making out with in the kitchen?"I see how her face turns into an ashamed frown. She holds her head and stabilizes herself with one hand, and my heart breaks a little more.

"That Chris, he was not good for you baby, he was not serious with you" she holds her head on the sink, and I get closer to her. I open the faucet and turn the water to cold, splashing water on her face. I wash away white powder under her nose, holding her face with one hand. I start involuntarily to weep at this image of her, but I remember this shit wasn't about her.

"But with you he was?" She frowns, and I feel tears rimming my cheeks "You went on and started dating him, while he literally ghosted me and told me he was busy when we had to meet up for days" she's silent. "And also, let's say fuck Chris, but what was the reason you had to tell Owen you are better than me and to leave me for you?"