Breathe Easy the Doctors Are About to Arrive

"Hello?" I asked through the receiver of my cell phone after it had awoken me from my drunken slumber. I heard sobbing from the other end. "Hello?" I asked again, more awake now.

"Randi," the other person slurred. I opened my eyes at my name, and they seemed to be glued together by dried up eye residue, probably from crying more than sleep. I cleared my throat and it stung. "Hello?" the person on the other end begged desperately.

"Hi," I said unhappily. It was Max, I could tell. He was still drunk, too. I had no idea what time it was. I looked to the window of what I now realized was Stevie's hotel room and I saw that the sun seemed to have just now come up.

"You have to let me explain," he told me, choking on his own tears. Even then it sent a surge of pain through my body. I closed my eyes, swallowed, and brushed it off.

"I'm waiting," I finally told him. I was too tired to deal with this.

"She came onto me, I swear...and for a minute, I was thinking it was you, and before I could push her off, you came and saw..." he told me. A part of me wanted to just run to him and tell him I forgive him and just go back to my happy life, but he still could have not let that girl get so close to him.

"You shouldn't have let her get so close to you...." I trailed off, as I started to cry from just imagining it.

"Please baby, I was drunk, please...I miss you already, I'm sorry...maybe I deserve this..." he uttered. My body shook from crying as I kept picturing that girls hands all over him, all over what was mine, taking my place. He had never called me baby before, I could tell he was desperate and probably hurting just as much as I was. I thought for a few seconds, ignoring the words he kept repeating a thousand times. Deep inside me I knew he couldn't have done that on purpose. We were both drunk, I couldn't see them clearly at that moment. The girl probably did come onto him, I wouldn't doubt it.

"Max..." I stopped him. He exhaled, taking a single trembling breath, and stayed silent for the first time through out the entire phone call. “Don’t lie to me,” was all I could muster. I shook my head at myself. I couldn’t speak for myself anymore for some reason.

“I’m not,” he shot back.

“Don’t yell at me either,” I told him, hugging my legs tighter. “Max?” I asked him, sitting up.

“What?” he slurred.

“Call me when you’re sober,” I said painfully, and hung up on him. I sat up and put my arms on my knees. I let my face fall into my hands, and I cried. The droplets fell out of my eyes, in between my fingers, and onto the stained carpet beneath me. I realized that even if it was his fault that he cheated on me, as stupid and pathetic as it was, I would take him back anyway and love him just as much as I had before. I needed him too much to let him go for anything. I laid back down on the bed weakly and I put my arm across my eyes. My stomach felt like it was filled with acid, and I decided I wouldn’t drink for a very long time, all thoughts that I wouldn't live up to word aside. I secretly wished that the person next to me was Max and not Stevie. I also wished that I could just pretend like this never happened, but when I closed my eyes all I could see was that girls face on his.

I ended up falling asleep for a little bit, and I woke up on my own for once. I felt an odd homey sensation, probably because I was with Stevie. I sat up, stretched, and yawned. I seemed to have slept off the acidic feeling in my stomach and I was glad for that. I stood up and dragged my feet across the carpet to the bathroom, which was a little ways away. When I got to the bathroom I just simply walked in. I looked around at the walls, just taking it in, not caring about anything. I sat down on the closed toilet and thought about going back to Bryan's. I tried to focus on just going back there, but all that came to me was yet again, that girl, taking the only thing in my life that made me happy away from me. I grinded my teeth and clenched my fists. I was so tired of crying. I finally took my phone out of my pocket and looked through my missed calls. Max had called me a whopping 19 times since we last hung up. I was glad I turned my phone off so I could at least sleep. I stood up numbly, just walking out the bathroom door and then out of the hotel room. I walked down the carpeted hallway. I saw a few people I knew, but I simply glanced at them and ignored them. I glanced at my shadow on the wall beside me. My hair was a mess, sticking up in different directions like I had just gotten out of bed. Funny that my hair told the truth, I did just get out of bed.

"Randi?" I heard a familiar loud voice that I hadn't heard in years. My eyes widened like big balls of white. I looked down off the balcony and spotted a good friend from back in the day, Erika. My lips turned up into a small smile and I walked faster toward the elevator. I got into it in a hurry and went all the way down to the lobby. The elevators were on my side today and they worked very fast. The elevator opened, and I was ready to run and jump onto Erika like my life depended on it. I loved Stevie, as my best friend since forever ago, but Erika was like an older sister to me. Not to mention she would definitely understand my situation, seeing as she had been in the exact same one before....with the exact same guy. I laughed in relief as I jumped at her and hugged her around the neck tightly. "Oh my god! My little munchkin!" she squealed, hugging me and ruffling my hair. I switched my arms to her torso and I held onto her like there was no tomorrow. I started crying out of no where, and she pulled me away at arms length. "What's wrong?!" she asked seriously, taking me by the hand and leading me to a table in the lobby. I wiped my eyes and sat down. I didn't mean to cry, I was done crying, Erika just had a way of draining my emotions, in a good way more than bad.

"It's Max," I mumbled, looking down at my lap and unfolding and refolding my hands. "First though...why are you here?" I asked her, wiping my eyes more and sniffling.

"I work here, silly...remember?" She asked me.

"Oh," I said, realization hit me and I spaced out for a second.

"But what about Max?" she asked.

"Well..." I trailed off uneasily. I didn't know if this was going to make her mad, or upset her, so it took me a while to force it out of my mouth. "Well..." I said again. She nodded, listening fluently like always. She crossed her long tan legs and smiled encouragingly at me.

"We're together...and he kind of cheated on me last night...just kind of...I mean he was drunk..and the girl came onto him...I mean..." I rambled on. I looked up at Erika's face anxiously. She frowned, lost in thought.

"Really?" she asked, as a belated reaction.

"You're with Max?" she asked, shock filling her voice.

"Yeah...?" I said, confused at her reaction. She just smiled back excitedly, then frowned again almost instantly. I almost saw some anger dancing across her facial expression.

"How'd he cheat on you?" she asked, crossing her legs the other way.

"We were at a bar, because Stevie came into town and I wanted her to meet him, and he got caught up with an old friend, and I got absolutely trashed, not paying any attention..." I trailed off, "and then I saw this 'old friend' all over him, and that's all I've been seeing in my head all night," I told her. She sighed and covered her forehead with her hand, rubbing it slightly.

"You know...Max never means to hurt someone this bad, it just happens," Erika told me, glancing at what I thought was her work area behind me. I nodded, messing with my fingers and my long nails. Erika was silent for a minute, studying my actions as she always would. "Want me to call him?" she finally asked me. She was desperately trying to get me to cheer up. I shrugged. Maybe Erika could fix this, who knew. I couldn't put my finger on why I couldn't just go back to Bryan's and talk it out with him. Erika nodded silently and took her cell phone out calmly. "I'm glad I'm on break now, cause this might be a while," she laughed. I smiled the same small smile I did when I saw her. She dialed Max's number and I took a deep breath. "Heyyyyy," I heard her say sweetly. I saw sadness in her eyes and I definitely heard sobbing from the phone. "Max?" Erika asked, biting her nail. She looked at me calmly. "Are you okay?" Erika asked him. "Well....I have her here," Erika told him, smiling toward me. "You want her to come home?" Erika said out loud. Hearing him cry was so horrible. It made me feel terrible to hear him cry, but at the same time I was confused as to why he was so hurt. "Okay, I'll tell her," Erika said, ending the conversation. "You need to call me some other time though, we haven't talked in forever," she added. She nodded and closed her phone. She chewed on her lip and tilted her head to the side. "I think you should go back hun," she told me softly. I nodded.

"Why would he cry that much?..." I asked Erika.

"He knows he hurt you really bad, and he knows a lot about you evidently..." Erika told me carefully, boring her eyes into mine. I knew she meant that he knew how guys mistreated me, it would only make sense. I sighed; I wanted to get back to Max as soon as possible. "You should probably go now," Erika encouraged me. "Everybody makes mistakes," she explained. I nodded. I knew that, and I knew it well.