“I do think I could devour about three stacks of pancakes from J2 right about now.”
“Sounds good to me, lemme just change outta these workout clothes real quick,” Ashley said kicking off her shoes. “You could prolly use a quick change yourself there honey,” Ashley added as she disappeared into a closet.
“Mos def,” Mia said nodding, taking a quick sniff of her pits. She then let out a half-fierce, half-fed-up war cry of a sigh urging herself to get up and face the day. She shuffled towards the same closet Ashley was currently changing in like a death row prisoner being lead down the Green Mile, Mia asked “Whad-a-you been doin today?”
“This an that really. This place is like a ghost town today, even had the gym to myself. Finally got to use that inner thigh machine thingy without a buncha horny creeps pervin out on me.”
“Aww, poor pervs,” Mia said with sweet sarcasm, “I bet they woulda loved that.”
Mia slapped a platonic good game on Ashley’s almost bare bottom while passing her on the way to the bathroom, needing to brush the fur off her teeth and freshen up.
***
Mia slid into the burnt orange leather cushioned chair, clanging down her plate on to the table almost toppling over the tilting tower of flap jacks, damn near out of breath. Already.
Ashley was right, there was almost no one around. It gave everything a kind of eerie glaze, especially sitting in a silent cafeteria that was regularly so alive and cacophonous. Normally, there would be a line wrapped around so long it made you rethink if you were actually hungry or not. Today however, they were through the door and seated in under three minutes. Still, she felt like she just ran a marathon.
Mia watched Ashley sashay towards her with serving tray in hand, hips swinging side to side like she was on a runway in Milan, not a chow hall in Texas. This was her normal walk though so it didn’t really seem too out of place on her. Anyone else might look a bit foolish or snobbish walking like that, but like everything else Ashley did she made it hers. What was hers you could bet that everyone else wanted it to be theirs as well, male and female alike, just for completely separate, yet understandable reasons.
Mia watched her friend already regretting what she knew she was going to have to do, soon, much sooner than she once thought.
Put your brave face back on Mia, still one last button to push.
Placing her tray down on the table, a bit more delicately than Mia had just done, Ashley started talking as if they were already in mid-discussion before her butt hit the leather.
“So I think a 16 hour gag order on just what the hell happened yesterday is long enough don’t you?” Ashley said picking up her fork from the tray with her left hand, continuing “I thought you guys were… I don’t know, like perfect. I mean yeah ok he’s a little nerdy but that’s kind of in right now anyway, so whatevs.” Ashley took a swig of water with her right hand before diving into her egg whites, she was all ears and perky eyebrows waiting on Mia to open up and dish the dirt.
Without much warning, Mia felt what seemed to be an elephant’s foot weighing down on her chest for just a flash, like it had been trying to squeeze her heart through her ribcage for a second and then gave up.
It was similar to what she felt when she turned her back on Austin, fighting the urge to run back to him and tell him everything, but this wasn’t an emotional hurt. This was an actual physical pain that had briefly lit up in her sternum and left just as quick.
Mia shook her head telling herself it was only a moment of stress from reliving what happened at the dunes. What she wanted to say to Ashley was that it was none of her business. Mia never pried or went digging for reasons for whatever Ashley did every other week when her and Brian broke up.
Mia then realized solemnly that was exactly what she would have to say to Ashley, or something like it. It had been hard enough to treat Austin the way she had, not even saying bye to his family. God they must think I’m such a bitch. Now was the time to do the same to Ashley, push the damn button Mia.
To think she would have to do it again to her best friend, her only friend now, not even 24 hours later made the elephant reappear and lean that much harder onto her chest. This time though it wasn’t only for a moment, it lingered on her chest waiting for a command from it’s mute trainer to stop.
Pushing through Mia said, “Honestly, Ashley,” this is goin to suck, “It’s none-”
The elephant somehow managed to get both feet on her small chest and felt like it was doing a handstand on it’s front legs. Mia’s vision went from taking in the backdrop of the empty dining hall behind Ashley, shrinking to just Ashley’s confused face, edges softening then blurring then doubling.
“Ashley,” she tried to say but only got out the first syllable as she was sure her chest was about to finally cave in under the pressure of the elephant’s feet. Compressing her insides and stealing the air from her lungs leaving nothing behind to come out of her mouth to voice the rest of her friend’s name.
If this wasn’t bad enough the tunnel vision switched it’s focus from Ashley’s now frightened face to the polished concrete floor. Mia was the one confused now as she heard Ashley screaming for help. Apparently not the best day for an emergency.
The gray and brown swirls of the stained concrete floor looked like it was coming up at her, like gravity just said screw it and the ground was finally getting it’s pay back for the last million years of being trampled on.
What little strength left inside Mia, of which there was almost none and dwindling fast, went to fighting off the ground. Her willpower alone wasn’t enough to force it back down to keep it from coming up and slapping her in the face.
In the next moment, a moment too late, she became aware of the fact that she hadn’t been warring against the ground rising up against her. Instead, Mia was simply falling towards it. Her chair went cantering off out from beneath her legs as the angle came too much for it to withstand on the freshly waxed floor.
Her left shoulder landed hard on the concrete first, whipsawing her head straight into the ground a split-second later with a dull thud. The thin skin covering her skull and a billion tiny capillaries just above her temple split open like a rotten tomato.
For only the length of a second or two, Mia watched as a sea rolled out before her eyes covering the brown, dark gray swirls in a swath of deep red. After that she didn’t feel the need to worry about the tunnel vision, or the fussy elephant, or the ocean of blood, or hurting Ashley’s feelings. In fact she didn’t feel the need to feel much of anything at all.
J'accuse!
Austin was fuming on the futon in the tiny living room of his apartment. Nothing was turned on except a floor lamp in the corner, and the cheap brass ceiling fan with fake wood blades circulating cold air. The slight wobble and hum of the imbalanced fan on it’s lowest setting, along with the shadows spinning on the ceiling put Austin in an almost hypnotic state. His head tilted back, leaning on the top ridge of the futon, in it’s couch mode, looking up focused on nothing, but the ire stewing in his mind.
Austin still couldn’t believe Brian would steal from him.
Sure Brian is capable of stealing, probably has in the past, no doubt, but from me?
He felt guilty just thinking about accusing him at first, but the longer he sat there and stared at the twirling blades the more certain he became.
Besides Mia, Brian was the only other person he had given a key to. Mia may have twisted his heart up in barbwire and drug it behind her as she walked off the night before, but she was no thief, of that he was sure. Which left only one person, besides himself, who could have gotten in with out leaving traces of a smash and grab. Plus, the fact that nothing in the apartment was missing except the cash. The flat screen wasn’t huge but it was new.
Hell all the gaming shit I’ve collected over the last few years alone could fetch a grand or more.
Everything else was in its place just as it should be. Not to mention that the drawers had been left open like wh
oever did it was in a hurry. Like when Brian said he forgot his smokes and made a beeline up to their pad and returned a few minutes later saying he had to drop a deuce before they left too.
In his mind, Austin was almost positive he could see a cigarette dangling from his mouth as he bounded up the concrete steps to their door two at a time.
Maybe the only one he had the one on him.
Austin’s heartache coupled with this new transgression had him in a mood he didn’t believe he ever felt before. So melancholy, yet so fantastically irate. Over his lifetime he had been quite familiar with both emotions, just separately, at different times. Both of them boiling in his heart and mind at the same time was too much. It was difficult to hold on to a singular thought long enough to make sense of it, he just kept going back and forth between Mia and Brian. Growing more depressed and more raged each time he bounced from one to the other in his mind.
Austin knew he would have to choose his words carefully, obviously a shit ton more careful than the ones he chose to speak to Mia with yesterday. He just hoped he was able to cool down a tad before seeing Brian, knowing if he saw him now in the state in he was in he was bound to say something he might regret later.
So obviously fate did it’s thing.
Austin could hear the tell-tale thuds coming from below and behind him, rising in height, seismic effects, and decibels as Brian stomped his way up the steps leading to their apartment. When the thuds were replaced by a faint jangling of keys in Brian’s hand, then the sound of scratching against the steel deadbolt Austin knew he should probably go to his room. Delay, put it off until he knew he was of saner mind, never mind the fact Brian was twice his side and a temper quick to light.
The madness Austin was awash in after simmering on the futon, for how ever long it had been now Austin lost track a while back, and said screw that. Austin popped up off the couch quick, the way he wished he had done his junior year when Bobby Tulane whispered in his ear from the seat behind him that he gave his mom a dirty sanchez and she loved it.
Right now his body was ready and amped to take to her defense instead of sitting there not taking his eyes off his test acting like he didn’t hear it. Ol’ Bobby Tulane should be thankful he got that version of Austin back in high school and not the Austin who was standing in the middle of his apartment, muscles tensed and hands shaking slightly, eyes on the verge of welling up purely from the adrenaline that was coursing through his veins.
Brian, completely unaware of what was waiting for him standing on the stained and ratty carpet just inside the door he just unlocked, opened it. The door only got halfway open before Brian saw Austin standing there doing his best to imitate a madman. All he needed was a knife in hand, down at his side, blood dripping off of the tip onto the carpet and he would be any poster for every serial killer movie ever.
“Uhhhh…” It was hard for Brian to stifle a laugh, but he was able to do it before asking “Dude, you okay?” He thought for just a second as his words were traveling through the air to Austin’s ears that he might be better off just closing the door, to come back later and leave Austin to whatever the hell stage this was of his grieving.
“Brian,” is all Austin said.
“Yes Austin?” Brian replied suppressing another chuckle, but enunciating each syllable precisely to show the ludicrousness of the situation as if he was about to be chided by a boss instead of a friend.
“We need to talk.”
“Yeah, I’d say thats obvious. What’s up man? You’re all jittery and shit like some tweaker. You didn’t find my-”
“Tell me something… Did you do it?” Austin asked before Brian was able to incriminate himself for something else.
“Did I do what?”
“Did you really do it?”
“Do what? Dude, I don’t even know what the fuck you’re talkin about right now bro?” Brian stepped inside finally, one hand closing the door while the other was raised in a questioning gesture of Austin’s inquest.
“Brian, don’t lie to me right now.”
“I can’t lie until I at least know what you’re talkin about, Austin,” Brian said, again over emphasizing the name, almost spitting it back at him.
“I keep going back and forth, not knowing if I can still trust you or not. It’s like everything is turned upside down now, and I just don’t know what to think.”
Austin knew in this weird out of body way that he wasn’t making much sense, but sense left last night with Mia back at the LD. It was almost like he was watching it play out in front of him instead of actually responsible for controlling his actions on this side of the coming argument.
At first, Brian had no clue whatsoever what Austin had been asking him about. He almost felt bad for him in a way, seeing what the break up was doing to the poor guy. That all changed instantaneously when Austin mentioned the word trust. Brian could feel the guilt that he had been swallowing, since he started reporting things back to that damn Doctor, rise up in his throat, burning like the bile that it was.
Brian knew it was a shit thing to do, especially to one of the only people in the world Brian had ever trusted himself. For Brian now to be the one in this relationship to break the trust first was this haunting sort of role reversal. He was gradually finding out that it sucked no matter which side of the coin you landed on.
Brian wanted to start laying out the excuses, trying them on for size as he said them aloud for the first time; the money was too good to pass up; I’d never had a friend that I actually cared about before, not a dude anyway; like you wouldn’t have done the same thing. He squelched the desire to do so, knowing full well that no, Austin would never had done the same thing, ever.
It turned out that he didn’t need to give excuses just yet.
Before either of them were able to say another word, a muffled version of Darth Vader’s theme music rang out from Austin’s room. Brian wasn’t sure which person Austin had set that ringtone for, but it made him raise his pointer finger up signaling a pause in the conversation. He passed Brian on stiff, angry legs before slamming the door to his room behind him.
Brian just stood there waiting like a good little boy as if he had just been admonished by his mother instead of a boss. Or like the mother he wished he would have had, maybe like that blonde ball buster on Modern Family, who was fun, and loving, but also didn’t take any shit from anybody especially her kids.
Brian tried hard not to eavesdrop on Austin in the next room, already feeling guilty enough. Even if he wanted to though, Austin wasn’t talking loud enough to make out what he was saying, not from where he was standing anyway. The same spot since Austin slammed his door.
After what felt like thirty minutes to Brian, although he was pretty sure it had been less than two, Austin finally came out of his room. He was already in a much calmer mood, his gait seemed smoother and the quivering, furious hands were all but gone.
“I have to go somewhere,” Austin said casually like what just happened, hadn’t.
Brian stepped aside to give Austin room for the door. Both visibly relieved, Brian more so than Austin, that they weren’t about to resume the conversation, both of them dreading where it might lead.
Before Austin reached for the door knob leading to the land of the free from this discussion, he turned to Brian and said in a quiet, placid tone “I want you and your things gone before I get back.”
Then, just as calmly and smooth, Austin left Brian standing in the living room staring up at a swirl of shadows spinning on the ceiling, wondering just what the hell he was going to do now.
Door to Door Service
Austin was relieved for the break in the argument going nowhere anyway. The Darth Vader theme music gave him a good enough reason to call a halt to it and start over.
The Darth music was just his generic ringtone for people not already listed in his contacts. At any other time, if he hadn’t been in such a desperate need for a distraction, he most likely would have ignored this call from a string of
unfamiliar numbers. This time however he was glad for the distraction and glad for answering the call.
It was Dr. Greer from the K Prize Foundation calling, apparently using a different office line since he knew he had at least one other number saved in his phone for when Izzy called to confirm appointments.
“Hello?” Austin said.
“Hello, Mr Kyle?”
“Yes.”
“This is Dr. Greer, do you have time to talk?”
“Plenty… actually.” Austin said thinking he probably would have taken a call from a political surveyor right about now, more than happy to answer each and every question to the end.
“That’s good, thank you. I don’t exactly know where to begin so I’ll just start with the fact that I think we may actually be making headway on the research here at the K Prize, and it’s all thanks to you,” Dr. Greer said trying to sound as upbeat and perky as her brain would allow.
“Really? Me? So you actually found something in my blood?”
“Oh we didn’t just find something Mr. Kyle, we found everything.”
“I’m sorry I guess I don’t understand, what did you find?”
“Well actually I think it would be better, and easier to explain in person. That way I can show you first hand. If you have time that is?”
“Uh, yeah… okay, sure. When did you have in mind?” Austin asked wishing it was right now.
“If you’re not busy, now would be great.”
“Really? Now? On a holiday?” Austin said more out of astonishment than from being appalled. Yesterday was technically the holiday, today was only a day to celebrate deals and discounts. Dr. Greer though, saw it as a hurdle. A hurdle she was already willing to jump over at the sound of the gun.
“You know I actually have some more paperwork for you to fill out as well. We can count it as an official meeting, so I can make it worth your time. Let’s say five hundred bucks, and you get to see just what all we’ve been up to here at the K Prize.”
The Heart of It All (HeartSick Series Book 1) Page 26
