Never Again

Chapter 60: Hotel

'Keira!' was the first thing Abby yelled when she accepted the call. 'Why are you up this early?'

Another voice filled the room after that. 'Yeah, go back to sleep idiot,' Tom grinned and he waved at the camera as a way to say hi.

Keira shook her head and chuckled. 'It's nice to speak to you again as well,' she said. She picked up the laptop and walked back to her bed. She puffed up her pillows and sat down with the laptop on her lap. She had missed her friends.

Abby rubbed her eyes, clearly looking tired. 'How are you doing? Are they also trying to kill you by making you work too much?' she asked while trying to suppress a yawn.

'Luckily not, although the busy part of the weekend will start now of course. If we don't deliver today I have to work all night I guess to figure out where it went wrong,' Keira explained.

'Man, I wish my job was that exciting', Tom replied and he looked rather jealous. 'I mean, I like my job, but it doesn't feel like I'm doing something important. You know?'

'You can come help me build some airplanes,' Abby said jokingly. 'Airplanes are more interesting than cars anyway,' she added with a devilish smile.

This resulted in a lot of protest from Keira and Tom of course and Abby started laughing. This was something they often did. One of them would mention how cars were better than airplanes and vice versa, they never could settle who was right though. When they were done arguing Abby got the others up to date with her work at Boeing and what else she had been up to in life. Apparently she had gotten a new neighbour and if Keira had to believe her he looked a lot like Rupert Grind.

'You know that gingers don't have a soul, right?' Tom interrupted Abby explaining why exactly he had caught her eye.

'Excuse me?' Keira raised her eyebrows and looked at her friend who was now smiling.

'Oh Tom,' Abby began and shook her head, although it was clear that she was trying to stifle a laugh.

Keira looked at her screen and the corner of her mouth lifted when she noticed Abby rolling her eyes. 'You know this joke is really getting old,' she sighed.

'You're not a real ginger anyway, it's closer to brown,' Tom shrug his shoulders. 'And it keeps being funny if you still take the bait every time,' he said and the twinkle in his eyes showed he was enjoying teasing his friend very much.

'At least it wasn't a threat this time,' Abby said with a grin on her face while she cocked her head to one side. She took a sip of the tea she had been holding in her hands the entire time. She pulled a face when she noticed it had gone cold already.

A threat. Keira could feel her stomach drop. David. She had already forgotten why she had wanted to speak to her friends in the first place. She was painfully brought back to the present, she could forget all she wanted about it, but that wouldn't get rid off the problem.

'Keir, are you alright? It looks like you've seen a ghost,' Abby's eyes looked worried and a frown was visible on her forehead when she had spotted her friend's eyes widening.

'Yes,' Keira responded automatically. That's what she had gotten used to, so it had slipped out before she had really thought about it. With hesitation she looked down at her hands, her fingers nervously gripping the worn blanket. 'No,' she said and her voice barely filled the room.

'What? I couldn't hear you,' Abby's appeared closer to the camera, she clearly had tried getting closer to her computer to try and hear what Keira was going to say.

'I said no,' Keira responded and her eyes were fixed on the blanket she was still holding tightly. The faded red colour made it look more pinkish, it reminded her of her youth, when her parents always bought her pink things. The innocent kid she had been back then had disappeared a long time ago, she now knew that the world was one dark place.