Girl | Henry Winter

Chapter Two - Glass Shards

That morning, Margot got up almost shockingly late for herself. She had always been a bit of an insomniac, relying from about fourteen on her mothers sleeping pills to even catch a couple hours.

But now she was twenty, and had to buy and supply her own sleeping pills - meaning she didn't have to worry about her mother noticing some were gone. Meaning she took a lot more than was probably meant.

The day before, once Margot and James left Francis, they had gone to a nice restaurant on the outskirts of town. She had ordered only a small side salad, which she didn't eat, while he got a steak frites that she ogled from across the table for the whole meal.

She was never much of an eater, as she would put it. James used to joke she was anorexic, but to Margot it was never that funny.

She thinks it stemmed from Bonnies death, as her hungry seemed to just dissipate along with her sister after the suicide. It also didn't help that she got continuously complimented as the weight fell off her, and when she finally regained that appetite she didn't really want it much anyway.

So after she survived the shockingly long meal, watching her boyfriend devour all she had ever wanted but never touched - they headed back for movie night. He was in a sweet mood, letting her pick a black and white French classic to probably make up for the fight they had.

She watched it happily, while every time she glanced over at James he seemed to be half asleep and bored out of his mind. Once it was over, she was still full of the scratching hunger that was threatening to overflow as she watched the refrigerator she knew was stocked.

So promising her stomach she would indulge it at Sunday night dinner, she swallowed quite a few pills and passed out.

Then Saturday came.

As she had gotten up so late, James was already gone. He often spent Saturdays with friends, or studying like her, they rarely ran into each other except in the mornings and evenings - but Margot checked their whole apartment and couldn't find him so came to the conclusion he had already left.

After making herself some coffee, she managed to gather her books - including her borrowed copy of Crime and Punishment and started to revise everything. She had some work to finish for Julian, which she completed in a little over two hours.

She only took a break for the bathroom and to go check what they had in the fridge at lunch - even though she already knew she would only grab the almonds.

By the time night fell over Hampden, she was still in the same spot she started, reading her copy of Crime and Punishment.

She finished off her evening watching some TV, which she rarely did. She was just checking up on the news, and some select other channels she could find as background noise for her reading.

The phone had rung twice throughout the day, although Margot ignored it. It was mostly for James' benefit, as he didn't like her picking up calls for him and also if one of her friends had called she could play him the answering machine - to show she really had been studying all day.

Sat on their couch, she was tempted to play back the recording, but decided against it when she realised that James would be back in less than an hour.

But when she heard the door click open, it was past one am.

She heard stumbled footsteps, and a slam of the door and as Margot turned, concerned, she could see he was clearly drunk.

He had clearly been in some sort of neat-ish suit which was now demolished. His tie was hanging loose around his neck, the first three buttons of his shirt undone while his sleeves where crinkled and had a remarkably clear handprint of dirt on the side. His belt was undone, with mud staining not only the bottom of his trousers but his shoes as well.