I went back to the Solar Flare.
I had to take my mind off the stuff that had just happened between me and Valerie. She… broke up with me… and we weren’t even officially dating. Why? Because she’d seen me cry? Is she the kind of person who’s only into it as long as it’s fun, and then moved on to another person once the current one starts to showcase those bothersome human emotions? Or maybe Priscilla had something to do with it. Suppose she met Val again somewhere, and said something stupid to her. I wouldn’t put it past her. Priscilla is only charming and kind if you remain on her good side.
But I guess none of that matters now. It’s over, before it even had a chance to begin. I’m not one to drown my sorrows, but I knew that I couldn’t be alone with my thoughts at a time like this. If I went home, I’d just torture myself mentally replaying the scene at Val’s place, and would probably start to blame myself for all kinds of things that I might have done wrong. No. I needed some kind of company. Something to pull me away from my dark thoughts. Even if that something took the shape of nightclub music, drunk people and arcade games.
I greeted Rick at the entrance, only to find that my usual table wasn’t currently available. I shrugged, bought myself some coins and went upstairs to the room with the snooker tables and the arcade machines. Snooker required a companion, something I currently lacked, thus I just walked up to one of the fighting game machines and started playing against the CPU at the lowest difficulty level. I didn’t care for winning or losing, all I wanted was the distraction. And punching things virtually. I wanted that too.
A few games and a beer later, someone approached me.
“Giulia?” That person asked. “Is that you?”
I stopped playing and turned to look, therefore giving the opponent character on the screen a perfect opportunity to thoroughly whip my character’s 16-bit pixelated ass.
“Oh, hi Richard!” I exclaimed, more surprised than pleased, to be fair. Richie was smiling, though.
“Shit, it’s really you!! How are you, girl? What happened to you? I mean, one day we were friends, the next you were gone! Where have you been all this time? It’s been what? Six months?”
“Maybe more,” I admitted, looking away to avoid his gaze. “Yeah, I’ve… kinda been really busy with work and the competitions so I haven’t been out much. Something like that?”
“It’s all right, Giu, you can tell me! We – Camille, Michael, Natalie – all of us, we’ve missed you. Our nights at the beach just aren’t the same without you there.”
“I’m sorry for that, dude. Really am.”
“Something happened between you and Pri, hasn’t it?”
I raised my eyebrows in shock. Yeah, he was spot on, but how? Priscilla and I had never told anyone about us. Yet, Richard evidently knew something he wasn’t letting on. Did he and the others figure out the truth about Pri and I?
“Why do you think that?” I asked him.
He sighed, with skewed lips. “Priscilla never talks about you, y’know? I mean, there was a point in time where you two were practically joined by the hip, but now that you’re gone, every time we talk about you with her she just ignores us, see? So the guys and I, we figured that there was some relation.”
My gaze fell to my feet, and my head hung a bit, ashamed.
“You’re right,” I told Richard, raising my head again to look him in the eyes. “And I wish I could tell you, but that wouldn’t be fair on Priscilla, so I can’t. Sorry.”
He sighed. “I just wish you guys would make up. We miss having you there with us.”
I didn’t answer him. I don’t think I could have. Priscilla might have betrayed me, but I knew better than to do the same thing to her. If I told Richard… Heck, if I told anyone, that would end horribly for Pri. I knew too well what it was like to be outed before you were ready to come out by yourself.
Thinking about Priscilla brought back to me what had just happened the day before, when I met her by chance on the street. And that got me thinking about Val again. Bother. Getting my mind off Valerie wasn’t going to be as simple as I thought.
“Here,” I said, handing Richard all my arcade coins. “I’m tired, so I’m just gonna go home for the night. It was nice to see you, Richie.”
Richard furrowed his brows, confused. I didn’t even wait for him to reply before I took off to the stairs. Truth be told, I wasn’t ready to go home. I racked my brain for other places where I could drown my thoughts in music and alcohol, but my mind was filled with memories of Valerie. It hurt so much that halfway down the stairs tears began rolling down my face again. I was hardly looking where I was going, with both of my eyes now filled with tears, and that’s probably why I failed to notice the tall brunette in front of me.
“Hey!” she shouted. I had just collided against someone. That person’s drink flew from her hand, falling onto the marble floor and spilling on our clothes once it did. “Watch where you– Oh, fuck, not again.”
I rubbed my eyes with both hands and looked up at the woman before me.
“Priscilla? What are you doing here?”
“Do I need a reason to come here, Giu? It’s not like I owe you any kind of explanation about what I do with my life. If I remember right, you broke up with me. Also, you owe me a drink now.”
I took a deep breath and tried not to sound as miserable as I felt, just then. “Order whatever you want,” I said, “I’ll tell Rick that it’s on me.”
Priscilla raised her eyebrows. “You’re being awfully nice today, aren’t you? What happened? Punk chick broke up with you?”
“I…”
I couldn’t finish the sentence. Val and I weren’t even dating, and yet, Pri’s unkind words summed it up rather well. I’m sure she realized it too, from the look in my face.
She scoffed. “Wait…? No way, really?” We remained in silence for a while, me looking depressingly at the floor, while Priscilla just faced me with a smile of disbelief. “Whoa,” she said, “now I kinda feel bad for saying all of that yesterday.”
I looked into her eyes again. “Bit too late for that now, Pri,” I said.
Her baffled smile faded. “Well,” she said, “she’d have found out about it eventually. Or was it your plan to lead her on for years like you’ve done to me?”
I felt the tears starting to form in front of my eyes again. “I don’t wanna have this discussion again, Pri. Just… I’ll just go, okay? I’ll pay you back for your drink later.”
Priscilla shrugged, then moved out of the way. I walked through the dance floor in a brisk walk, making my way to the exit.
I had just began to walk down the block when I heard someone shout my name from somewhere behind me. I knew that voice.
“Giulia, hey!! Wait up!” Beatrice half-staggered half-walked up to me. “Wow, I didn’t think I’d find you here today. I thought you and Priscilla still weren’t talking to each other.”
I turned to look at Beatrice once she’d caught up to me, and held her arms to help her regain her balance. She was trashed. “We… aren’t really,” I told her, “what does one thing have to do with the other?”
“So you didn’t come here for Priscilla’s birthday?”
I mentally facepalmed. Yeah, of course it was today. That would explain why Richard, Beatrice and Priscilla were all at the same place that night.
“I… forgot about that,” I told her, honestly. “Is everyone here? Camille and the others?”
Bea shook her head. “Not everyone. Just me, Richie and Natalie. I’m not sure if the others are coming. Say, where are you going?”
“I’m not sure yet,” I told her.
“Can you take me home? I’m sleepy.”
“You’re drunk, Bea.”
“Which makes me sleepy, yeah. Is your bike parked around here somewhere? Or did you leave it at home?”
I sighed, knowing that I couldn’t just leave Beatrice alone in that state. If Camille had been there, I could have counted on her to keep an eye on Bea, but Richard and Natalie were just… well, they weren’t the kind of people who can take care of others at parties. Most of the time you could find at least one of them in a dark corner making out with some random stranger.
“Come,” I told Beatrice. “I’m not sober enough to drive, but you can crash at my place for the night.”
Beatrice hesitated.
“You were drinking?” she asked me, surprised.
I shrugged. “Isn’t it normal to drink in a pub?”
“Well, yeah,” she said, sounding disconcerted. “Was… was Val Sunset there with you? You weren’t drinking alone, were you?”
I pushed Beatrice slightly on her back, prompting her to walk. “Let’s go, slowpoke,” I said. “And I’m doing you a favor letting you stay over, so no more questions for now.”
Beatrice said nothing. She simply walked by my side, eventually looking at my face with a slight expression of bewilderment. I tried to ignore that.
It seems that my plans for the night had gone haywire, with Beatrice having to spend the night. Maybe I should just take a pill and sleep my problems away, for now. There ought to still be a benzo or two somewhere in the medicine cabinet.
We walked the rest of the way in silence. I opened the door of my apartment and motioned Beatrice to walk in first. I took a step inside the apartment, locked the door, and turned to look at Beatrice.
That’s when Beatrice pinned me against the closed door.
Comments (4)
See all