I. in Languid Contentment

PRESENT

Charlie was on one his drunken rampages, stumbling around cursing and breaking anything within reach. I had retreated to the bedroom and locked the door when I knew he had hit the bottle. It must have been sometime around ten when I awoke to the loud crash. I didn’t want to get into a situation with him, but I opened the door anyway, still half asleep and feeling the Xanax I had taken earlier pulling on my conscious. I saw the broken bottle of vodka shattered on the kitchen floor. He was slumped over next to the refrigerator with eyes half open or half shut, I don’t know. He mumbled something about…it being broken… or him being broken, I couldn’t tell. I grabbed the broom and started sweeping up the glass shards and noticed blood. Turning to him, I realized his hand was bleeding and I set down the broom. “Clean yourself up you fucking slob,” was the only thing I could muster up at the moment.

I grabbed my cigarettes and walked out of our apartment and down the stairs over to Johnny’s, lighting my cigarette on the way. Johnny was the type of guy who always left his door open, even at two in the morning. The man never slept. The sound of his guitar made me smile as I watched him hunched over, sitting on the edge of his couch, his long dark hair covering his face as his beautiful fingers strummed over the strings. I stood leaning against the doorway slowly inhaling the last few puffs of my cigarette and he finally noticed that I was standing there. “Hey beautiful…” he said and set his guitar down to give me a hug. “Is Charlie drunk again?” he asked.

“Yup,” I stated simply and sat down on Johnny’s black leather couch. “You really need to get out of there babe before you get hurt,” he said and grabbed my arms to check for any new bruises. “I don’t want to talk about it Johnny,” I said and pulled my arms away. “I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself. I just came over because I knew you’d give me something beautiful to listen to. If I hear another F-Bomb I might scream,” I told him as I grabbed the last cigarette out of the pack.

Johnny gave me a worried look, but shut up and started to play my favorite song: All Along the Watchtower; and my mind started to drift past the concrete jungle and back to a place I found a long time ago.