Thin Walls

Chapter 4

I knocked furiously on the woman's door. Though it was evident she was busy with someone, I didn't care. I needed to talk to someone and Ruby was the first person I went to when I had problems. She was judgemental and honest, so I never needed to worry about whether she was speaking the truth. She said what she thought and I liked that.

An annoyed grunt came from the other side of the door and Ruby opened it. She looked very irritated. "Regina?" She sounded confused and I smiled innocently.

"I really want to talk to you."

"Sorry, I'm busy."

"Peter can wait," I said as I stepped inside her apartment. I confidently walked to the living room where I found Peter lying naked on the couch. I figured he'd at least be away in the bedroom, but I'd been wrong and I'd never felt such regret.

"What the hell are you doing, Regina?" Ruby asked and guided me towards the door.

"He's naked," I said, loudly, as Ruby pushed me on the corridor.

"Obviously," Ruby said. "I told you I don't have time. But I'll call you, okay? I'm really sorry, but Peter's been working late nights and.."

"I understand," I said. Ruby had interrupted me and Robin having sex several times, but I'd always stopped with him and paid attention to her. I just didn't value such time with Robin as much as she did with Peter and I wondered what it'd be like to genuinely enjoy it.

But now I had nowhere to go. Or rather, no one to go to. So I went to the park, because I was not ready to go home yet. My heart was still pounding loudly in my chest and Robin's words kept repeating in my head.

I didn't understand why he'd suddenly acted like this. It was so unnecessary. He clearly didn't understand the depth of the struggles I wanted to share with him, because it wasn't just the fact that I didn't enjoy our sex, I also needed to be able to express my feelings more, but clearly he wasn't okay with that.

Hopefully, he was realizing right now just how horrible he'd been to me, but I didn't want to help him with that. It was his lesson to learn, not mine.

I sat down on a bench near the lake and lit a cigarette. Fortunately, I'd left a pack in my coat. I only smoked when I was feeling anxious or upset and right now, I was feeling both.

A sigh of relaxation escaped my lips as I inhaled the nicotine. It really calmed me down and I rested my arm on the backrest of the bench. It was very calm in the park and I leaned my head back as I exhaled the smoke.

Robin was acting like a dick.

I brought the cigarette to my lips again and took another drag. I tapped against my cigarette, letting go of some ashes and closed my eyes.

Suddenly, I felt my cigarette disappearing from my hands and I immediately turned around. Emma's eyes were on me as she stepped on my cigarette.

"What the hell?" I asked, annoyed. The one joy I had in this very moment was being crushed underneath her boot.

"Did no one tell you smoking's bad for you?" she asked and sat down next to me on the bench. I was already grabbing a second cigarette, but she immediately took it away. I didn't even bother trying to grab another one from my pocket.

"It's not bothering anyone. No one's here."

"I'm here and it's bothering me," Emma remarked and smiled. I had to admit that I was glad to have someone here. She was better company than my cigarette. "And clearly, something's bothering you too. What is it?"

I sighed and scrunched my nose up. "Robin," I said. "He's being really annoying. I tried to talk to him about.. you know.. but he kept dismissing me and saying I had a filthy mind and whatnot."