Chapter 1
It was 1 am and just like any other typical early morning, Linda was rolling on her bed trying to find the perfect position so she could go back to sleep. But she knew she couldn't ... Because it was anxiety O' clock; when her mind reminded her of all her past failures and mistakes, even the trivial ones and she felt like her heart was going to explode and she had to open her mouth to breath so she wouldn't suffocate...
She was sweating even though the A.C. was on... Tears couldn't flow from her eyes even though she felt utterly miserable... She'd also been staring at a message "Are you up?" from time to time... It had the time "12:14 am" at its bottom right.
"What a funny guy," she thought. It was a message from her dear old friend, James. He was the most random person she'd ever met especially when it had to do with traveling... He was always on the move that she got tired of following him up on social media.
When was the last time they chatted with each other on social media? She thought... Maybe last week? Or the last two weeks? Time seemed so twisted in her mind she was almost beginning to lose the sense of it...
Prayer! Why didn't she think of it for the past 30 minutes that she had been awake?... One thing she did most times she was up at night and couldn't sleep was to pray... It worked sometimes but other times it felt like she wasn't believing the things that came out of her mouth.
An extra fifteen minutes passed that felt like an eternity. She was yearning for the early mornings to end but it didn't seem like it was in a hurry.
"Yes" she finally texted and waited a while to see a reply but none came...
She let out a huge sigh and lay on her back facing the ceiling. Some days the ceiling looked so interesting she'd get lost in calm thoughts while staring at it and then slowly drift into sleep... But that morning was no such ... Her eyes wandered from one part of the ceiling to the next at the fake night sky she made a long time ago... It still couldn't make her think of such calm thoughts...
A soft jingle her phone made brought her attention back to it.
"Are you at home? Wanna go out ?" was what she was staring at...
"Hmmm" was all she could say... It wasn't the first time James had asked her this stupid question at an ungodly hour... And she knew it wasn't going to be the last.
It took them time to reply to each other, especially on social media but she still enjoyed his company and was sure he felt the same. They never got angry at their delayed replies as if they thought they had all the time in the world to talk to each other ... Like "there's no need to rush since we'll always be here for each other" As if they could see the future. As if...
"Okay," she replied and immediately stood up to prepare... Prepare for what in particular? She had no idea... and shoved the thoughts telling her it was not wise to go out at that time to the bottom of her mind.
When she got the gateman of her building to open the gate for her she saw an old black Mercedes parked towards the right side of the gate. Their eyes met for a while and then he hurriedly dropped his phone and came out of his car to meet her. Usually, whenever she met people and saw how excited they were to see her she felt bad that she couldn't reciprocate such excitement ... But this time around she didn't care if he felt bad because of the "Hey" that came out of her mouth as she continued to walk towards the passengers' seat.
"Hi," He replied. He wasn't expecting more but still, it was a little bit disappointing. But he completely understood because wasn't it just six months ago that they saw each other in person? What's the big deal with that? But somehow he was comfortable with it... He didn't feel like talking much either. Seeing her was more than enough.
His eyes were swollen like hers whenever she comes back from a hectic day at school and feels like she did everything wrong that day. But she didn't wanna ask if it was an allergy or something else that caused his eyes to be swollen. Maybe later when she had felt much better herself.
When he ignited the car he held her hand with one hand and drove the car with the other (obviously the left hand) It wasn't the first time he'd done that but it felt different. To her, hand-holding and kissing were the biggest and the cutest things romantically... But it was far from being romantic... A simple hand-holding gesture felt like they were hanging on for their dear lives.
"Where were they going to?" Did pop into her mind a few times but she was too tired to ask (which is actually stupid. As an adult you shouldn't just up and follow someone without knowing where they're taking you to... Even as a kid you should know better...)
And she was distracted too by the scenery of the beautiful night. The empty roads, peach-black sky with a few clouds dancing around, the cool fresh air that enveloped her, and the quiet that drowned all the noise in her mind were all beautiful.
It would've been better if he had put some chill songs on. It'll be like icing on a cake, not really necessary but still important. But that thought came to her mind when he was driving into a building. Kinda late for that...
Only letting go of her hand for a few minutes to get out of the car he held it back again as he lead her into the building. A huge sign was on its top. It said "LA CINEMA"