Bets and Wagers

Nine

I somehow managed to make it back home despite the fogginess of my mind and the blurriness of my vision.

It was late by the time I found myself trudging towards my apartment door, dragging my feet and wiping my eyes which were sore from the crying and the cold wind hitting them.

I was ready to drop into bed, curl up and forget the world until Monday morning, where I would have to force myself out the door to work for the man who had been part of this set-up.

How old were they all again?

Why would anyone beyond the age of ten think something like this was humorous?

Not that Loki looked like he found it funny, but he was also the God of Mischief and Lies so of course he could act like he didn't.

"This is all so confusing," I mumbled with a short sniff as I stepped up to my door.

Shifting my bag around on my hip, I pulled it open and started to rifle through, feeling my panic beginning to rise at the distinct lack of keys inside.

"No, no no no," I huffed, turning my bag upside down to drop everything onto the floor as if it wasn't obvious enough that they were definitely either inside the apartment I was now locked out of or laying abandoned on some random sidewalk between my building and the hall.

My lip quivered as more tears built up from nowhere, I was surprised that I still had some extra water hidden somewhere to cry again.

Ignoring the growing ache in my head, I dropped down to my knees and started picking up my items one by one, as if by some magic they would appear beneath one of the four other items inside.

My phone was buzzing as it lay on the floor and apparently had been going off for a while, I simply hadn't noticed as I had switched the sound off to not be rude to my company.

The irony of that hit me like a lead pipe and caused me to let out another sob.

If I had any left, the last of my resolve was gone.

Dropping my bag carelessly to one side, I shifted around to lean with my back against the door and let myself loose, no longer holding in the reservations I'd had while attempting to cry with muted dignity on my way home.

The powerful sobs I had been trying to hold in were let out, my breathing hitched and the small tears became a waterfall.

I was done and now being stuck outside the comfort of my own home until sometime in the morning had been the straw that broke the camel's back.

I couldn't remember the last time I had cried this hard but I had to admit, it felt good, cathartic even to let out my anger at Loki and my sadness over the situation in general.

Despite how pathetic it probably looked, if I pushed past the utter hopelessness I felt about the situation, it almost felt refreshing to be sat on the floor with my legs splayed out in front of me, letting my heart out.

At least it was, until my neighbour from across the way opened the door to find me in my utterly humiliating position, her hair dishevelled in a way that made me assume she had been sleeping and made me feel bad for waking her.

All the conflicting thoughts and emotions were making my head hurt even more.

"Oh my god," she frowned, "are you okay?"

It was obviously a rhetorical question and didn't need to be answered, but I still felt the need to whimper out a little; "Yeah."

Curse my need to not be a hinderance to people, especially people I didn't know.