“She was at your place all day,” he says. “I couldn’t reach her, she said she wanted to go to uni, but I couldn’t reach her. I accessed your apartment, no worries, already replaced the door, but I had a very bad feeling. Found her on the bathroom floor, barely breathing.”
“I don’t care about fucking the fucking door,” I say. “Shit. Did you tell her dad?”
“I haven’t,” he says. “I felt it wouldn’t be the appropriate measure and only add to the tensions.”
“How bad is it?”
“On what scale?”
“One to ten,” I say.
“Eleven.”
“Fuck,” I breathe out as my stomach clenches.
“Where is she right now?”
“At your place. I took all the drugs. She wanted to sleep and ordered me to get you.”
“And you left?” I ask incredulously, because leaving her alone after she almost overdid it is kind of reckless.
“She wanted me to get you,” he says. “You are important to her. I took the drugs.”
“I bet you didn’t take everything. Did you know about her bathroom storage? The alcohol in the nightstand? That survival kit in her bag?”
“No,” he says, and I roll my eyes.
I call El.
“Hey,” I say when she answers. “We’re on our way. Are you home?”
“Yeah,” she says in a distant tone.
“Good,” I say. “We’ll be there in thirty. I got you something.”
“See ya,” she says, and we hang up.
“Here,” Alex says and hands me a set of keys. “The new door. El has one; these are the others.”
I take the four keys, remove one from the band, and give him one. “You’re free to enter whenever in doubt. Only when in doubt.”
He nods.
I have a heavy rock in my stomach, and every red light makes me more nervous by the minute.
When we’re finally home, I grab my bag and run up the stairs instead of taking the elevator. I need to move my body.
I don’t even register the new lock and door, because all I want to see is El.
I enter my studio, don’t see her immediately, and rush into the bedroom.
There she’s lying curled up in the bed, staring into nothingness.
I slip off my shoes and crawl into bed with her.
“Hey,” I say softly when I lie down on my side in front of her.
She looks at me. I can see there is a storm raging in her. I don’t dare ask what happened.
