Contempt

I hung up the phone and collapsed on the couch. I threw my phone onto the ground and put my hands on my face out of frustration.

“What’s up?” Charlotte asked, “More frustrating calls from work? Sometimes I want to punch our customers in the face. They complain about the most miniscule stuff.”

“No, no, it isn’t that. Not that at all. I’d rather be talking to an annoying customer right now.” I sat up and rubbed my eyes. “May just called me and said she wanted to see me and apologize.”

Charlotte turned around with a panicked expression on her face. “What?”

“Yeah, it’s about when she walked in on Kyo and me. Apparently she thinks she overreacted and needs to apologize to me. And not just any apology, she wants to go out to dinner and actually hang out.” I lifted my head up from my frustrations and looked at Charlotte with desperate eyes.

“You said no, right? Please tell me you said no, Audrey.”

I sheepishly grinned and stuttered, “Well, you see, the thing is,”

“Audrey!” Charlotte yelled, “Why on earth would you agree to this? You know how she is! You just keep egging her on. She is never going to leave, I hope you know that. She will never leave our lives and we will be here stuck complaining about her. I’ve been ignoring her, I haven’t contacted her in forever, and she always calls you. You know why? Because she knows you will answer. You always do!”

“So, what now, you’re saying I’m a bad person because I can’t kick people out of my life?” My eyes began to well up with tears and my face turned a light red

“I’m not saying you’re a bad person,” Charlotte tried to cut the tension, “All I am saying is that sometimes you can be a little bit of a pushover and let people take advantage of you.”

I sniffled my nose and wiped my eyes of any remaining tears. “I guess.” I sourly said. I didn’t want to admit I was wrong. I didn’t think I was doing anything bad… “I can’t go back on the plans now though. They are already made. I’m supposed to leave in an hour to go see her. Maybe now it’ll be different. She sounded genuinely sorry.”

“You always say that…” she mumbled, “Whatever,” she sighed, “I guess there’s no turning back now. Go ahead and get ready, alright? Be safe.”

“I will I promise. We will be in a public place the entire time, I’m positive I’ll be alright. We are just going to that little café near the town park.” And with that, I went off in to my room to get out of my pajamas and put a little bit of makeup on.

“God, I really can’t do this alone, I need some company to deal with this crazy stress.” Charlotte mumbled and pulled out her phone to call for some assistance in dealing with this absurd situation.

I threw on whatever clothes I found lying on the floor and put on a little bit of makeup. I wasn’t looking to impress anybody today, all I wanted was to look presentable. For all I cared, I could have gone out in my pajamas and no makeup; but whenever I try to leave the house without at least foundation on, there is this nagging voice in the back of my head that won’t stop. It’s probably my OCD, when I am set to a schedule I have to stick with it. It’s always interfered with my life, it’s surely made it harder for Charlotte to live with me. That’s part of the reason why I always nag her so much, she is so spontaneous. We’ve been living together for years now though, we’ve both at least partially gotten used to each other. She is my only friend, I don’t know what I would do if she didn’t take me in. Plus, we have a joint checking account and she owns half of our restaurant – that’s my only source of income. And her name is on the lease for our apartment; so, I guess we are stuck together forever. Even if we did get into a fight, I would have to stick it out to pay the bills.

I walked by the drawing Kyo had left and in my room and took a deep breath. I had them pinned to a small bulletin board that I had hanging above my nightstand. The only other thing on the bulletin board was a photo of Charlotte and me, and a business card some salesman had given me. For some odd reason I just didn’t have the heart to throw it away. I wasn’t even sure what he was selling, I just took his card and ignored his entire spiel.

“Okay Charlotte,” I said as I stepped out of my room, “I’m ready to go now. I’ll see you in an hour or so.”

She looked up, still holding her phone to her face. She smiled and nodded, beckoning for me to leave.

“Oh, sorry,” I whispered, frowning, “I didn’t realize you were on the phone.”

Still silent, she shook her head. She smiled at me and waved me goodbye.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

“What are you doing here?” Charlotte said with a snarl.

Kyo moved his weight from one foot to the other, still standing in the doorway. “Die picked me up from my place so I could get some sheet music. When you called, I was over and Die refused to take me home. Apparently my house is way out of the way from yours and he just wanted to come straight here.” He crossed his arms and his gaze met mine. They were both pretty short, so he didn’t need to look up very far. “So, are you going to let me in now, or what?”

“Come on Char,” Die said from behind her, “At least Audrey will keep him company.”

“Actually,” she began slowly, “she isn’t here right now. That’s why I care so much that you’re here.” She said glaring at Kyo.

Kyo let himself in and made himself comfortable on the couch. “What do you mean she isn’t here? She’s always hanging around the house. If she isn’t here, then she is out with you.”

“Maybe you guys will find this as ridiculous as I did, Audrey didn’t seem to understand why I had a problem with it.” Charlotte said as she made her way to the couch with Die. “Well, actually, maybe you guys won’t since you really don’t know us that well.” She said as she rested her head in her palm.

“Well? Can you spit it out?” Kyo asked with a snarl

“I don’t know why Audrey likes you so much.” Charlotte retorted.

Die nudged her to get to the point

“Well, remember that story we told you at the restaurant before? The one about how she got so many bad scars?”

The two band mates nodded their heads in unison

“Well, she was able to trick Audrey into going out again. I was a little rough on her and ended up yelling at her – which I now feel bad about. But, either way, Audrey is out with May and I know she is going to get herself into trouble. She is going to come home with an awful injury or not come home at all.” She sighed

Kyo abruptly stood up and Charlotte and Die remained motionless out of shock. “I will be damned,” Kyo slowly growled, “If I let this shit go on behind my back.”

“Calm down Kyo, I’m sure everything will turn out alright.” Die tried to console. His eyes still showed traces of worry, he was an awful liar. “There’s nothing we can do for now anyway. It isn’t like we know where they are… right?” He asked.

“Well, now that I think back,” Charlotte knitted her eyebrows in deep thought, “She did mention where she was going. It was to the small coffee shop near a big park. It’s a nice and cute place to have lunch actually, not a bad spot.”

“That’s not the point,” Kyo narrowed his eyes, “Where is it exactly?”

“You’re going to go there? And what then? Are you going to stalk Audrey?” Charlotte ridiculed his plans and rolled her eyes, “What if you do go there – you make your way the 10 minute walk and find the café – and Audrey and May aren’t even there? They will probably notice you. Audrey could spot you from 30 miles away.”

A pleased smug look rolled over his face for a second before returning to the rest of the sentence. “I have nothing better to do all day – I don’t want to be holed up with you two lunatics. I might as well go out and try to solve this. If Audrey can’t do it herself, I can help. She is going to get herself killed.” He snarled before facing the door. “What is the exact address of the café they are at?”

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Kyo poked his head around the café and ordered himself a small table. He got some green tea and observed his surroundings.

Charlotte was right, it was a nice area to have a coffee shop. There was a big lush field right across the street, followed by a small playground and some trees. A few groups of people had set up a soccer net and were playing a match. A fresh breeze blew the steam from Kyo’s tea directly on his face.

He turned his head back to surveillance the rest of the restaurant’s customers – the entire reason he made this dumb journey down here. He observed a few tables in front of him – there were grandparents out having lunch, young couples on dates, lonely girls here by themselves and some fathers and daughters here. It seemed like there was every type of person here but what Kyo wanted.

He sighed and put his hands around his cup of tea. He blew the steam away and took a few sips. At this point, it was starting to sound like Charlotte was right. But, now that he was sitting outside and getting some fresh air, his face brightened up. It was nice to be in his own space and be out of the house.

Silently, he hummed a tune and tapped his foot on the pavement.

While moving his head back and forth slowly, he caught Audrey in the corner of his eye.

He suddenly got up and slammed his tea down, spilling it on his hand and the table. He brought back his arm fast due to the tea-spill burn. Going through his wallet rapidly, he put the estimated amount for the tea on the table and took off running. Many people sitting around him were shocked by the sudden movements, but the charming ambiance of the café returned within moments of Kyo’s already forgotten take off.

His feet were pounding on the pavement as he made his way to where Audrey and May were. He turned corners, ran through traffic and pushed his way to the end of crowded city areas. His eyes were constantly scanning the masses of people before him, hoping to catch the small glimpse that he saw – hoping to see it just one more small time.

After running for an hour, his efforts were in vain. He thought he saw them and was on their track, but was chasing after nobody. He stood in front of the café he originally started his search. Panting, he rested his hands on his knees and tried to catch his breath.

He looked around and realized he had been running in circles the entire time. Wiping the sweat from his brow, he headed to the apartment to tell a story of defeat to Charlotte. He never thought he would live to see this day, but it had come all too soon.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

“Charlotte, no!” I yelled, pulling myself away from her. “I don’t need help!”

Almost simultaneous with my screaming, Kyo came in through the door. He was frozen in time, taken back by the catastrophe that was happening. “What the hell is going on here?” he angrily said

“Audrey finally came home, and she wants to tell me that she doesn’t need any medical attention.” Charlotte scoffed

“Well, can I see the damage?” Kyo quickly replied. He made his way from the door to the kitchen where Charlotte had me tangled up in her body. I was trying to get away to take care of this myself, but nobody was letting me.

Charlotte lifted up one of her arms and revealed a large red bloodstain on my shirt. It was right above my hip bone, but still below my ribs. She then lifted up my shirt to reveal the gash that caused all of the bloodshed. It was still open and very irritated. Small streams of blood still came out of it. The current position I was in didn’t help any, the wound was being stretched and curved.

Kyo’s eyes grew wide and very, very angry. “You mean I went out for an hour looking for you and this shit still happens?”

“You did what?” I yelled back. I lunged myself towards him, but Charlotte held me back.

“I didn’t want you to get injured again so I went out and tried to find you.” He retorted.

“So you think I can’t handle myself?” I screamed to him. It was one of the first times I was ever in a fight, so my voice cracked a little bit.

“Well, judging by this, you obviously can’t!” He got close and stuck his face into mine.

I could see every single drop of sweat still on his face and the pulsating veins in his neck.

I never once thought I could have made this much of an impact on somebody.