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"IF YOU'RE gonna storm out, at least actually walk away." David's voice, though low, sounds through the empty corridor, the click of Leah's door following.
Not wanting to open my eyes from my small attempt of meditating, I snort, letting my faint smile be the only acknowledgment of his presence. I focus back on the warmth my eyelids enjoy when touching one another and the comforting darkness as they shield me from the florescent lights.
However, hearing his tip-taps getting closer yanks me out of my trance. I open my eyes, bidding the warmth goodbye, and raise my head off the wall, slightly wincing at the pain from the back of my neck.
"Was hanging around in case she decided to shoot you." I adjust the crossing of my arms before resting my head back again, this time leaving my eyes on him.
"Noah, my dear friend, if she's shooting anyone, it's you."
Ah well you little-
I blink and let myself linger in the darkness and the warmth tugs me deeper for a fleeting moment before I focus back on David. Bouncing myself off the wall, I walk to him.
I place a hand on his shoulder, frowning at the amount of energy that needed and then grin. "David," I lower my voice. "Don't give her your gun."
David returns my smile, placing a hand on my opposite shoulder. "Perhaps I will." He pauses. "In fact, I'll be overjoyed to be the one landing a bullet in your excuse of a brain, right here, right now, if you don't take care of this," and with that, his hand climbs to the back of my neck and presses on the wound, sending me sqautting beside him laughing, but in pain.
Not removing his hand, he pulls me till we reach a nurse who tends the wound and leaves me in one of the rooms with an ice bag on my neck.
David shakes his head, seating his hands in his pockets. "You know, I believe there's something we should do."
I raise my head to see him loosening his tie and immediately catch on, smiling from ear to ear. "Yes, it's very important that we do so now." I shrug throwing the ice bag on the bed. Rubbing my hands on my thighs to warm up, I stand.
"Shouldn't you keep that on?" David asks.I shrug.
"That? Nevermind about it," I say, placing an arm around his shoulder and walking out.
Once we reach the parking lot, David leads the way to his car, we both get in with nothing but the engines of the car and rumbling of the tires to break the silence.
We ride on through the purple sky, through the route we know so well. The Sun barely peaks over the horizon as she lets it swallow her further. Helplessly sinking into the murk, and not fighting back. She's deprived of hope, and all the willingness to obtain it. Retrieving her beams of glowing light, she lets the gloom and cold take over. From where she is, the journey back up is but only a dismissable fantasy. And only thus, it is.
"What?" I divert my eyes out the window when I feel David's lingering gaze.
He flounders before replying. "Nothing."
"You don't have to worry so much," I mumble."I'm not worried," David says.
I give him a look of disbelief. "Are you in love with me, then? 'Cuz it's either this or that, my friend."
"I'd throw you out of the car if I were driving fast enough."
"Yeah, or else you'll have to keep up the mother act till I leave the hospital. Bonus if I get a blow on my head."
"I don't have a 'mother act'," David says, acting offended, I snicker. "We're here." David slows down into a parking.
Taking a deep breath, I get off and walk to the front of the brown building. I wait for David to follow suit as my eyes scan the withering sign. B's Beer Garden.
Walking inside, the familiar stinge of sweat and beer is the first to greet us, a smell that attacks your lungs, almost convincing you stop breathing.
We should get used to it in a bit.
Jesus Christ.
Any moment now.
Our walk to our seats is silent. Though the bar is usually too loud to hear your own voice. The rough deep laughter of men, the clinks of glass and roars of a toast, all gone a few moments since our entrance. The people's eyes follow us along our path. With low throaty whispers exchanged.
"How can I help you two?" She pops her bubble gum.
"Two coffee, black, no sugar," I survey the place looking for Becky. It isn't often that she leaves her bar, usually her face is the first we see.
"Please," David adds smiling.
The girl eyes both David and I before snorting and returning to chewing her gum, her open mouth accentuating her disinterested attitude. "Want two cookies with that?" She rolls her eyes. "Closest coffee shop is a few blocks from here," She says, walking away.
"Where's Becky?" I lean forward, peeking at the further end of the bar.
Giving us a look of disbelief, the bartender takes her time to pop her bubble gum again. "B! Some dorks are asking for ya!" She walks away.
Becky comes out of the kitchen door, her eyes lighting up the moment she spots us.
David eyes the girl as she walks away. "You sure she's old enough to work here?"
"Don't act all cop-like in my bar! Or else you two gonna have to find some new tradition, alright?" She pauses. "But boy am I happy to see you two!" she growls before frowning at us. "Or maybe I shouldn't be. Y'all never come here to ask 'bout big ol'B. I sure hope I'm not the first thing that pops in your minds when life shits on ya."
"Never, only the coffee," I mumble.
She slaps me with her towel and David and I fall laughing. "You sayin' ya never think of me? Now I'm hurt." She keeps her expression for a moment before we all burst laughing. "Two, dark, sugarless, undrinkable coffee. Leave it to me, boys." She claps.
Becky wasn't as keen on serving us coffee the first time we asked her. Her reaction back then, would make her a completely different person when compared to now.
Cafés are always too bright, too cheery to acknowledge life's mishaps, only fit for taking a break from work, while bars, as some would say, offer a break from reality. It's where all who mourn over their lives and those who do not possess one meet, both offering silent solace to the other.
David and I have never been the type of people who'd rather drown their sorrows than face them, but we also acknowledge our need for drinks. There are alcohol addicts, but there are also coffee addicts, and that's how we found our middle ground. At first as a joke, but once for the sake of cheering one another we were mad enough to try it, and now it's a tradition for whenever we needed a break.
Two coffee, as bitter as the problems life bestows upon us.
A clink sounds and beer foam flies out of a big cup placed before me. I look up to see Becky crossing her arms watching me."What's this?" I ask.
She gives me a stern look. "One drink won't do shit, you're not a lightweight."
"I'll just drink the coffee."
"Coffee's brewing, and it's only his." Becky points at David. "Look, Noah, I'm a busy woman, but I watch the news. Especially if they be around someone I care about, and I know you need this drink."
Though it took over the news for so long, I didn't imagine Becky would know. In fact, I've been mostly detached from the media. My only exposure of it was when I asked the people for help, and then when the reporters made another human gate around our home.
I smile pulling the beer closer. "I now definitely need it, Becky, thank you."
"Anything for you two. And David? Stop being single or I'll snatch you." and with that, she walks away.
David drops his head on the bar and I burst into laughter.
"You and Becky? I support."
"Stop," he says, voice muffled."Just sayin'. You'd make a great couple."
"Noah, please,"
"I can already imagine your children! Their little faces!"
"No!" David cries pressing both hands over my mouth. "Just- no." He drops his head and fake cries.
I pull away one of his fingers off my mouth to speak. "David, please, we're two men, at a bar, alone, together, I'm a married man."
"NO!" David jumps away wiping his hands on his shirt before defensively holding them close to his face.
"If you had a girlfriend... or a boy-"
"I have a gun, Noah..."
"-None of this would've happened. How long has it been since you last-"
"Can we not talk about this?" David barely raises his eyes at me, dropping his head onto his hands.
"Seriously, isn't there anyone you like?" I ask, trying to filter the worry out of my words to keep our conversation light.
David, although always worrying about others' mental and physical health, would always shy away when it was time to talk about his own. Always with a smile on his face, as if our worry for his mental health would just be a burden on our own.
He falls silent and takes a deep breath, sucking in as much air that would help him muster the will to speak. "There is."
I almost jump in my seat, but I stay silent to let him continue. He stares at nothing in particular and when the wait is too burning to handle, I clasp the turn to speak.
"And??"
"I don't think she likes me," David mumbles, his eyes flying around the bar and landing on the beer in my hands.
"Did you even tell her?" It wouldn't make any sense. He's a successful, chivalrous, and kind gentleman, what more could a woman want? Why must it be complicated?
"I don't wanna ruin what little friendship we have."
"So you've been friendzoned," I remark, more to absorb it in than to announce it.
David nods taking my beer and chugging most of it down and staring at what's left of it.
"Who is she?"
David flinches and scratches the back of his neck. Holding eye contact for a moment, as if contemplating whether or not to tell me before he looks behind me, I follow his gaze to find Becky with the cup of coffee in hand glaring at David.
"If y'all need beer, just get beer. I don't even sell coffee." She walks in and pours the coffee down the sink. "You're still paying for that." She points at David and he nods. Placing another cup of beer before me, she leaves mumbling.
"So? Who is she?" I urge.
"Oh come on! How did you not get distracted just now?!" David jumps in his seat in exasperation.
"Is she someone I know?"David sighs wiping his face.
"Yes."
I frown waiting for more clarification, but he doesn't give me any. "I can't tell. You have a lot of female friends."
"Ah well-" he sips my -now his- beer.
"I was being sarcastic."
David chokes beating on his chest to cough the beer out of his lungs. I try to search my head for any clue of who the woman might be, only reaching a dead end. I frown.
David squints at me. "It's not Leah."
"I didn't say that."
"You thought that."
I shake my head smiling. "I didn't. But, fine, I get it, you don't wanna talk about it."
"You get that now?"
I snort dropping my gaze at my new cup of beer as its foam drizzles out of it. Taking a sip, I let the silence sizzle.
"Do you wanna talk?"
I look up to him and smile. I could never distract him away from that question. I drop my eyes back to my cup trying to absorb everything that has happened. "No, I'm fine. I'll get through this."
David shrugs, keeping his eyes on me. "You will, but talking helps."
You hypocrite.
Turning my cup left, then right, the golden liquid steers like a golden ocean in a storm in an uneasy, sleepless night.
"There is something I wanna talk to you about. A favor to ask." I say looking back at him.
"Sure," he says.
"I need you to give me all updates about the case, every suspect, every lead, even your skepticism. I need everything."
It is a risky favor and I won't blame him if he says no, it could cost him his job, but I need to be updated on everything. I need to know if there is something I can do to end this. I need something to stop the nagging questions in my head every night.
David stays silent, his still gaze almost burning me. He nods with a smile. "Of course."
Something lifts off my chest and my smile grows from ear to ear. "Thank you, man!" I breathe out patting his shoulder. I sip my drink. "But Leah shouldn't know. I don't want her reminded of what happened."
He purses his lips and nods. "You sure you don't wanna talk about anything, though?"
I stare at the small bubbles ascending in his half drunk beer and nod. "You're driving, need you sober." I pull his cup and chug it down before drinking my own.
I am never a man who drowns his sorrows.
But tonight, I long for the burn in my throat and the wrecking in the golden ocean.