metulji - jan peteh

Meeting the band

I woke up to the sound of rain tapping on my window, causing me to stir. Nausea filled my stomach, and I could hardly contain everything I'd drank last night as I retched into my bin.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed my mum coming to stand in my doorway with a glass of water and some toast. She looked stressed, full of concern after the way I'd arrived back home last night. Recalling the way she'd looked over my head for Sanjay and Ocean when I got out of the Uber was painful. She'd seen my face and pulled me into a tight embrace; she didn't ask any questions, just let me cry into her chest.

'Oh, you poor thing.' she said now. It only took a quick look in the mirror and down at the pillow I was lay on for me to notice that I was covered in mascara and tears. My swollen eyes were bloodshot and red; one of them was even twitching out of anxiety.

'How are you feeling?' she asked.

'Everything hurts.' I whined weakly. It wasn't even a lie - my head, neck, back, stomach, legs, everything throbbed and ached.

She cleared her throat, before starting to speak in a serious tone. 'I wanted to talk to you before your dad comes in. He's out on a walk.' she stated, and then sighed, obviously building up to telling me off. I'd been expecting it - I was surprised I hadn't been hung the moment I walked through the door.

'What you did last night was very dangerous.' Mum said. I felt slightly angry at that - obviously, I understood that I should've probably come home the moment I realised I'd been left, but it wasn't my fault.

'I don't know how to get a taxi. Ocean was meant to do that.' I retorted. I knew I'd won in her eyes from the change of expression on her face - now pitying me. Despite this, she had to stand her ground - we continued to argue about the situation for a few minutes, before she delivered her final blow.

'What would you have done if that man wasn't who you thought he was?' she almost shouted. Tears brimmed in her eyes as she contemplated the worst possible outcomes of last night.

'Look, mum, I'm safe. Home, safe. I kept my guard up and would've known if something was off.'

'Lilia, you aren't the most responsible person I know. I trust you, but I don't trust anyone you interact with.'

'I'm sorry.' I crashed again. All I had done in the last 24 hours was ruin any chances I had at having a social life and drank until I went crazy. I wouldn't be proud of myself either.

Placing the toast and water on my bedside table, my mum left the room slowly as I began to break down all over again. Lost, I picked up my phone and began to scroll through my apps, checking what everyone else had been up to. Clearly much better things than I had.

Then there was a picture.

Some random account had come up on my suggested; the picture in the post was a romantic one of two people dancing on a dark street. I was jealous, of course, until I saw who was in the photo.

Jan?

Looking closer at the picture, I tried to figure out who else was in it. Had he taken other girls out dancing on the same street? That was low, even for a man. Just as I was about to phone him up and give him a piece of my mind, I realised - that just wasn't plausible, he wouldn't do that. He wasn't the type to.

Once I settled down, my mind coming into focus after the sudden storm in my head, everything made sense - those were MY nails in the picture.

Only, it didn't make that much sense - why was a random account posting a picture of me and Jan? We surely hadn't been that interesting that people decided to publish a photo of us online? It wasn't like we were well known - to anyone else, we would've just looked like a couple having fun on the street. I copied the link, typed out a message to Jan, and sent it, hoping he would know what to do.