Changing Tides 《COMPLETE》

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The churning of coffee grinds purrs in the distance. It's a welcoming sound, soothing and comforting to its very core. Soon the potent and bitter smell accompanies it. The combination begins its weekend duty of erasing the memories of the night before. It hushes the drunken words and the hidden pain.

My eyes flutter open. The room is so thick with smoke I can barely make out all the beer cans and silo cups strewn around the apartment floor. I grunt and try to force myself into a sitting position. The room spins with the movement, and whatever cup was resting on my shoulder spills down my bare chest.

I glance down at the light brown liquid, studying the small cigarette butt still clinging to the bottom of the cup.

"Shit."

With slow movements I feel around the couch for my t-shirt, wiping away the alcoholic remnants as best I can before getting to my feet. Whoa. There goes that mental merry-go-round again. My temples throb, and my throat feels about as dry as broken dirt after a rainless month.

I move into the kitchen, and my roommate glances up at me from the far side of the table. He's reading the newspaper, a clutter of party leftovers hugging the edges of his chair. His glasses do nothing to hide the look of frustration and disappointment lurking in his gaze.

"I see that no-party talk we had last week made an impact."

Instead of cleaning off the chair cushion, I simply shove it off the metal chair and plop down. Two of the beer-pong balls from last night lazily float across the surface of a half-empty cup of beer. Not that it matters, but I went undefeated in that particular drinking game last night.

"I didn't invite them," I mutter hoarsely. "They just –"

"-showed up," Roland finishes for me. "Will the wonders never cease?"

"Give me a break, Rolly. It was just a small group."

Roland throws his newspaper on the table and stands. He kicks aside the beer cans on the floor, and there's a distinct sticking noise every time he takes a step across the linoleum floor.

"A small group, huh? Well damn. They must have been pretty fuckin' thirsty."

He snatches the coffee pot, opening and slamming various cupboards in search of a cup. Unlike most mornings, he doesn't even offer me the usual 'truce' cup a' Joe when he gets one for himself. Instead he leans against the counter and glances around the room. The silence is rigid. Uncomfortable, even.

If someone was to tell me a year ago that things would turn out like this, I would have never gone to college in the first place. I would have either graduated high school and followed in my father's footsteps, working for his company and making thousands without having to lift a finger...or I would have pursued swimming. Competitively.

But there was something, or rather someone, who found a way to change it all. Someone who promised me a future but realized three months into our second semester that 'she just needed time to be single.' Someone who turned my life inside out. I swallow hard and tear my eyes away from the disappointment shadowing my best friend's gaze.

"It's been almost two months, Trey," Roland says, his voice softening. "When is this shit going to stop?"

"It's normal for college freshman to have a few parties," I argue angrily. "And what the hell is your problem, anyway? You didn't seem to mind the parties when we were in high school."

Roland takes a slow sip of coffee and hisses from the heat. I don't know why he drinks it anyway. Maybe it's his attempt to look like a grown up now that we're living on our own, because he sure as hell didn't touch it over the last four years.