𝚂𝚄𝙿𝙴𝚁𝚄𝙽𝙺𝙽𝙾𝚆𝙽 ✩ ɢʀᴜɴɢᴇ

𝚡𝚡𝚟𝚒. 𝚏𝚘𝚕𝚕𝚘𝚠 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚞𝚗

"You might think I'm crazy, and I can't fucking sing."

All of Thursday night and early Friday morning had passed and Alex had not slept a wink. Sometime around sunrise she took a seat by the phone, waiting for the right time to call in sick to work. It was only after an hour of sitting there that she remembered she'd been given the day off.

At about ten a.m. Alex decided that she hated living in such a messy apartment and set to work cleaning it. As she did so, she sang bits of songs to herself, changing the lyrics to nearly all of them.

"I ain't got nothing but ten cents, eight days a week" was her response to finding a dime in the kitchen.

"I wonder why I'm such a piece of crap. Is it because I think the way I do?" That one didn't need a prompt.

"Oh, for I can't help falling," she sang from the floor when she tripped. Does omitting lyrics count as changing them?

The apartment's makeover was almost done when a sharp pain shot through Alex's brain. Grimacing and putting a hand to her temple, she let go of the broom she was holding, wincing at the resulting clatter of it hitting the floor. She stared at it for a moment before swooping down and picking it up to use as a pretend microphone. "Ooh! My head."

She spent the rest of the day alternating between watching TV and reading, occasionally leaving the couch to complete small tasks, including organizing (and reorganizing) her collection of special edition magazines (first by subject, then by date), making a large pot of coffee equivalent to about 10 mugs and drinking it all, watering the tiny cactus in her room, cleaning her vinyl records, and the like. Night fell and she was still in the living room--she hadn't left the apartment at all. In fact, the only thing she had noticed about the outdoors was that it was raining, which was odd because summer was only a few days away.

She was watching La Bamba and thinking about what a depressing movie it was when she heard it. A knock on her front door. She briefly wondered how long the effects of mind-altering substances could last--surely her mind was playing tricks on her and she was imagining the knocking. Who could be out there in the rain at that ungodly hour?

Just as she'd decided she was hearing things, the sound came again. Figuring it couldn't hurt to investigate, Alex stood up to get the door. She opened it after a moment of fumbling with the lock and was met with quite the surprise. "Charlie?" Her visitor looked soaked to the bone and was shivering. "What the hell are you doing--are you crazy?"

Charlie shook her head and sniffed. "Alex," she began in a trembling voice, "I'm so--"

Alex didn't let her finish. She reached out and pulled Charlie in by the shoulders, hugging her close without even thinking about how that would wet her own clothes. Charlie immediately hugged her back, hiding her face in Alex's shoulder as she shook with a silent sob. Alex noticed and tightened her hold, softly patting Charlie's back and nodding against Charlie's head so she would know Alex was in no rush to let go.

"I'm sorry" was the first thing Charlie said when she calmed down enough to speak. Her voice was thick and unstable. "I shouldn't have been such an asshole to you. Not yesterday, not in the weeks before, and not at the birthday party you threw for me. You didn't deserve any of that, and I...I..."

"Hey, you don't have to apologize. I was a fucking jerk to you for it," Alex said when Charlie couldn't continue. "I understand. I probably would've done the same if I was in your place."