With a loud boom the car doors slammed shut in quick succession. Giselle threw a worried glance over at her coworker. The weight of a frustrating and tough life had been briefly placed on her shoulders when Laury cried her heart out publicly near the garage entrance. That sure left her uncomfortable. People stared, threw glances, offered frowns and supportive smiles. Yet there was no way she'd let go. She owed Laury that much. They were friends after all.

Now the woman next to her looked even messier, the make-up smeared around her eyes. When an image of a vampire groupie entered her thoughts, she had to suppress a giggle. Slowly the old Ford Fiesta purred down the roads into the Blackwater's suburbs. "I'll stay with you tonight, if you want, Laury", Giselle told her compassionately. "Really...", the coworker raised both eyebrows. While the road had her attention, her face was riddled with questions.

"Sure? You did the same, didn't you?", the brunette said. The response was a chuckle that changed into a soft laugh, "Don't you want to fix up with Ian and not agitate him even more?".

Giselle didn't know how to respond to that. Her gaze followed some parked cars on her side of the road, absent-mindedly trying to focus them as the car drove by and they quickly vanished. "If he can't handle me taking care of a friend, then it's his problem", she pouted back in defiance, "Just swing by the apartment and I'll grab some stuff". Laury looked thoughtful, but kept driving.

The car pulled up to the apartment building a couple of minutes later. They hadn't spoken a word. Neither of the two minded the silence.

Laury parked her blue car along the pedestrian walk and turned off the engine. Both looked at each other and the brunette pushed herself out of the car with her handbag in her clenched fist, "I'll be right back". She hurried up the stairs, went into the apartment in a rush, closed the door behind her, but found the place quiet and dark. Ian's shoes weren't there. The phone, that had been untouched in her bag throughout the evening, had a text.

Ian: "Something came up. I'll be really late"

Anger rose within her and she kicked her heel against the entrance door. Regret overwhelmed her together with a sharp, stinging pain, "Fuck, stupid stupid, why did I do that! Ouch".

Eventually the pain subsided and she took a backpack from a drawer and filled it with the essentials and a set of spare clothes. Her hand reached for the pajama on her bed. It stopped midway. Her teeth bit down on her lower lip and she took another one from her wardrobe. The silk one that showed off her curves. Her emotions still roared through her, but she couldn't put a finger on why this made her behave like this.

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The way down the stairwell had her muttering curses and gritting her teeth. Hitting the door hadn't been a good idea. The heel still hurt.

Together with the click of the car door opening, the Fiesta's engine jumped to life. The door slammed back into its lock and the seatbelt was quickly fixed around the passenger. "You don't have to destroy my car, you know?", Laury complained and pointed at the passenger door, clearly unhappy at the amount of force executed just to close a car door. "Sorry, didn't think", the brunette justified her actions, but was still too preoccupied to mean the apology.

She pulled her phone back out and sent a response to her husband.

Giselle: "I'm staying at Laury's. See you tomorrow"

This was the friendliest that she could manage while turmoil resided in her chest. Slow, deep breaths would calm her down, she knew that much. It'd just take a couple of minutes. Yet this didn't happen since she stared at Ian's message and read it again and again. Then at the previous message and the one before. Not once in the last years had something come up this frequently, inconsistently and without him bitching about it later. Suddenly doubt creeped into her mind and pushed the turmoil away.

"Thanks for staying with me tonight", the driver said softly. Giselle closed the messaging app reluctantly with gritted teeth, but composed herself and forced a smile, "Haven't visited in a while. It'll be good for the both of us, too!".

"Last time you visited, we got drunk and", Laury started, but both completed the statement together, "the neighbors called the cops". The memory made both laugh. "Fuck, that was a long time ago", the brunette noted. Her friend smiled as they started to reminisce about that night.

Their trip down memory lane lasted all the way downtown. The short walk from the parking space to the apartment block they spent laughing. They took turns in reminding each other of events. Every sentence began with "Remember when...". On their way upstairs, both did their best to stay quiet in consideration of the neighbors and the late hour. The giggling echoed through the floors all the way to the top anyway. Laury's key opened the one and a half room apartment and she asked Giselle inside. Little had changed, but before the brunette was able to identify any changes, her coworker said something she had forcefully erased from memory, "Remember when I opened the door that morning in a loose shirt and panties? Ian came to pick you up, I was still drunk and so were you. It was the only time he ever hit on me. He even suggested a threesome". Giselle fell silent and didn't join in on the laughter. A weight pulled her into a sea of sadness and submerged her completely.