Hiraeth

05 | APOLOGIES

"I don't care."

"Yeah, that much is obvious, trust me. And it makes it easier for me to inform you that I don't care, either." He says, stopping the music altogether.

"HEY!"

"Shut up for five minutes and I'll let you play whatever you want."

"But—"

"Five minutes, Sandra. It's not that hard."

"Fine." She pouts, crossing her arms to her chest.

Sighing, Xantheus finally dials Alan, and the ring echoes through the car from the Bluetooth connected to his phone. A raspy and hoarse voice of Alan saying hello is heard from the other side, to which Xantheus simply calls his name out loud, just to make sure he is in his senses, listening to him.

At the mention of Alan's name, however, Sandra's body immediately jolts upwards. "Alan? What the fuck are you calling him for?"

Xan cries in despair between the constant questions from both sides. Somewhere between Alan's 'Who's voice was that?' and Sandra's 'I can't believe you called that jackass,' he yells, asking both of them to shut up. Omega grunts again, and he sighs in defeat.

"Five minutes, Sandra. I asked you to shut up for five minutes. Are you incapable of doing something so simple?"

This answers both of their questions— or well, at least Alan's. To be fair, there was no appropriate response to Sandra's questions apart from the classic 'shut the fuck up' anyways. When Xantheus was sure that the two of them had nothing more to say, he started again, "Al, I'm reaching home in five minutes. I need you to come down to help me."

"Help you with what? And why the hell is Sandra in your car?"

"I need you to help me get Sandra and Omega upstairs. They're crashing at ours tonight."

"And may I ask why?" Al replies, clearly annoyed.

"Because they're too drunk."

"Yeah so drop them at their fucking place." He says as if it's the most obvious thing in the world. And it's not like it isn't. Xan had obviously thought of that himself, only, it didn't work.

"Well, Omega is asleep, and Sandra won't tell me where they live."

"Then make her."

"I tried! Besides, what's the problem? It's just one night." Xan shrugs as if Alan can watch him do that from the call.

"Where will they fucking sleep, Xan? Have you thought about that?"

"Omega is my girlfriend. We could share the bed."

"And Sandra?"

"Uhm, you could sh—"

"Absolutely not. I will make sure to shove oatmeal in your mouth for breakfast tomorrow morning if you even dare to suggest something like that." Okay, so THAT is a hard no, Xantheus thinks.

"Okay, then maybe the girls could share my bed, and you and I could—"

"No."

"Xan?" Sandra says, "Can I say something, please?"

A sharp no is heard in unison from both Xantheus and Alan.

"Okay, first of all," Sandra begins, "Tell that dunderhead that I did not ask for permission from him. I asked you. Second of all, we live five minutes away from the bar. You can drop us there. I don't need favours from him." She says, gesturing toward Xan's phone.