“Oh, come on!” Holly sputtered out. She hadn’t stopped laughing since I hustled her into the car. “That was funny!”
I didn’t answer. She didn’t really want me to.
“Don’t get mad!” she pressed.
“Who’s mad?” And I wasn’t just covering myself. I was a little annoyed, but I’d found a while ago that the best thing to do after a run in with an ass-hole was to simply let it go. It wasn’t like Holly had even given him the time of day. “Christ,” I said. “There’s just no place get food after midnight anymore!”
“If you don’t like it, why don’t we just go to Waffle House?”
I looked at her from the corner of my eye, but no, she wasn’t making a bad joke. “We can’t,” I reminded her. “Not without getting coffee poured in my lap.”
“What do you… Oh, right. That.”
“Yes. That.”
“But still… It’s been what, two months?”
“Just about, yeah.”
“And they’re still angry? Seriously, that’s unreasonable.”
I smirked. Holly’s one to talk about people being ‘unreasonable’. “Well,” I admitted, “they do have a right to be. After all, it was just the one waiter that pissed me off.”
“But for two months?”
“For some things,” I explained, “there is no forgiveness.”
Holly leaned back in her seat and crossed her arms. She probably figured I was being unreasonable, too.
“So,” I asked finally, “am I taking you home?”
She waited a moment before answering. “Nah. I’m not tired yet. Let’s go back to your place and do something.”
“Fair enough,” I said, pulling the car out of the parking-lot. She had stopped laughing and was now just smiling happily. I was actually wondering what kind of scene we’d walk into when we got there. Brent took to Fridays like a cat to water. Since it was the prime dating night, all it did was remind him that he had broken up with his girlfriend and he inevitably spent the night contemplating how pathetic he was. Generally, he was either crying, drunk, or trying to kill himself before it was over.
When we got to the apartment, I gently shut the car off and sat for a moment. I noticed Brent’s car, parked a few spaces from mine, and wondered if it wouldn’t be better to just head back to Café Yoko’s. Holly noticed my moment’s hesitation. “Wanting a few moments privacy before we go in?” she asked suggestively.
I looked over at her and considered it for a moment. Then I gave her a loose grin. “Actually, I was wondering just what kind of show Brent’ll have going on up there.”
Her laugh came out with a slight catch in it, then she stepped out of the car. “Well, only one way to find out, right? After all, he needs an audience.”
I pulled myself out of the car and followed. The door was locked, which was a little strange. We weren’t in the safest part of town but we hardly needed the door locked at all times. I looked back at Brent’s car to double check, but yes, it was his license plate. Hell, maybe Dan had dropped by and dragged Brent off on one of his “adventures”.
I pushed open the door, stepped in, and then paused. The apartment was deathly quiet and almost completely black. The TV in the main room was on, but its light only reached the sofa directly across from it, and if the sound was on at all it was too low to hear. For a moment, the place almost felt unearthly.
I shook the thought aside and flicked the light switch on.
“Ow, bright!” Holly complained, stepping in behind me.
I didn’t say anything, still a little unnerved by how abandoned the house had seemed. It’d been a while since I came home on a Friday evening to find it this quiet. The last time had been on one of Brent and Amy’s better nights. “Anyway,” I said, stepping into the kitchen, “you want a soda or something?”
“Sure,” Holly answered.
“Okay.” I went to the table to get a dirty glass to wash when I noticed that part of the it had been cleared off, and in the middle of the clean spot was a bottle of pain killers. Its top was off and it was lying haphazardly on its side.
It was empty. Beside it, written in jagged letters, was a note that said, “We’re out of Advil.”
I felt a part of myself freeze up. “Oh, shit.”
“What is it?” Holly asked following me into the kitchen. Then she noticed the note, too. “Oh my god….” she whispered. “He didn’t…”
“Shit,” I muttered again, almost knocking Holly down as I darted past her. “Shit, shit, shit! Brent!” As I ran down the hallway, I couldn’t get the image of him out of my mind. Lying on his bed, eyes wide and vapid, staring at nothing as his heart slowly began to freeze up. Why the hell didn’t I believe him this time? Why didn’t I come home sooner? I should have known not to leave him on his own. “Dammit Brent!” I snarled and burst through his door.
Brent sat up, still wrapped in sheets, squinting at me. “What?” he asked, sounding groggy and a little dazed.
I stared back at him in surprise. “The Advil?”
“Right,” he said, sounding genuinely pissed. “I bought the last bottle, so you can buy this one. Now can I get back to my migraine?”
“Uh, sure,” I answered, then stepped out and closed the door behind me.
Holly gave me an anxious look. “Is he all right?”
“Yeah,” I answered, feeling the shock wearing off. I stepped around her, back towards the kitchen. “The little shit even has to be dramatic about his shopping lists.”
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