Trigger warning: panic attacks / anxiety
Once again, a big thank you to my girlfriend, who helps me with incredible patience to translate and edit my chapters 🥺❤️ and for you guys patience, feedback and every single comment. 🙏🏻💖
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Agnetha was in a great mood for the next few minutes. She had even been able to get something out of the conversations with Björn. Maybe his topics weren't so uninteresting after all. Or maybe she just hadn't been listening. But there was one thing she was determined to do. She would end up dancing with Frida. She had been looking forward to it all evening.
"I am behind you," she heard a familiar voice in her ear. She turned her head, but there was no one there.
"I'll always find you" this time the voice came from the other side. Agnetha rolled her eyes with a grin and turned her head in the other direction.
"I am the tiger" With these words, Frida leaned over the back of the bench, grabbed Agnetha from behind and held her in a firm grip, giggling.
"Come here tiger."
Agnetha gesticulated wildly around the bench and held out her arms to Frida. She noticed how everything around her began to spin. Only when Frida let herself sink into her arms and leant her head against her shoulder did everything fall back into place.
"My tiger."
Had she just said that out loud?
She felt Frida smile against her shoulder and expected her to sit up again at any moment. But she remained in her arms as a matter of course and only moved again when Benny leant towards her.
"We should probably leave soon if we want to visit your father tomorrow, shouldn't we?"
"No, not just yet."
"When then?"
Frida reluctantly unfolded from her comfortable position.
"We haven't been dancing yet."
She pointed at Agnetha and herself.
"Then maybe do that. So that we don't come back too late."
Frida turned to Agnetha and looked at her with a tipsy, challenging look.
"You want to visit your father tomorrow? Why didn't you tell me?"
"Maybe so you wouldn't also tell me that we should leave soon."
Agnetha gave her a resigned look, which involuntarily turned into a smile.
No, she wouldn't say that. Even though she was usually the first who wanted to be in bed early. But today, sleep was not her first priority.
"Let's go, then."
Frida stood up and held out her hand to her.
Agnetha let her guide her through the increasingly dense crowd. She tried to concentrate only on the feeling of her hand in hers and to block out the unwanted proximity to the countless dancing, sweating people.
'They're not here for us,' she repeated in her head, trying to recall Frida's soothing voice.
They had almost reached the dance floor when she felt a bump in her side, followed by strange hands wrapped around her body, half holding on to her.
"Oh sorry."
The man who had fallen into her patted her side and looked at her apologetically. Agnetha wanted to say something back, wanted to move on and shake off his hands, but she froze.
