Guessing Game

6

"Turn it off!" Teagan groans as my phone starts to buzz rapidly on my bedside locker. I let out a moan myself as I tiredly pull off the blanket and shiver at the loss of warmth. I furrow my eyes as I see who's calling me. "Shut it off Jess" Teagan whines as she throws a pillow at my head.

I narrow my eyes at her but drag myself to my feet as I go for the door, "Just go back to sleep". As I walk out of the door I can hear her shift around before mumbling something that sounded like "Finally" but I couldn't be sure seeing as it was muffled by her pillow.

I rub the sleep out of my eyes as I answer the call leaning up against the wall. "Hello?" I yawn resting my head against the wall. "Hey Superstar" the voice crackled through the phone. I pull the phone back from my ear and look at the time and furrow my eyebrows, "Aurora? What are you doing? It's like 4 in the morning".

I can hear her giggle and hiccup, "Sleep is for the weak!" She giggles excessively before I hear a crash in the background. Now feeling a lot more alert I start to worry about the singer, "Rory are you okay?" "I'm fine. Perfectly fine! I feel g-great!" She slurs followed by another bang as well as glass breaking.

Okay now I start to panic

"Rory where are you?" I whisper as I creep back inside the room and slip on my shoes. She doesn't reply but instead all I can hear in the background is the wild strumming of a guitar as she sings nonsense words.

Well at least I know where she is now

"Rory just hang on. I'll be there in a few minutes okay?" I sigh as I throw a hoodie over my head. Once again she doesn't respond but just blows a raspberry at me before hanging up. I pull my phone away from my ear and look at it weirdly before sighing and making the walk to the music building. Finding which room she was in was easy seeing as she always used the same room everytime she came to play. One of the many things I learned about her was she was a creature of habit no matter how random she was.

But when I walked into the room I paused at the door. The room was a mess to say the least. Music sheets were scattered all over the floor. Some musical instruments layed thrown around and knocked over all over the room. But my focus was on the figure hunched over the piano. She was sitting on the bench in front of the piano, her head lying on her arms which were perched onto top of the piano.

As I grew closer my frown grew. There were beer bottles lying in the ground near the bench and a half empty bottle of vodka cradled in her hand. The door closes with a soft click which makes Aurora's head bolt up off the piano. A dopey smile spreads across her face as she sees me, "Jessie! Hey! What you doing here?" I watch her take a swig from of vodka taking a huge gulp. "I should be asking you that question" I mutter becoming increasingly worried as I watch her throw back alcohol as if it were tic tac's.

"What are you doing here Rory?" I ask gently as I slowly creep towards her. She giggles before throwing her hands up causing the liquid in the bottle to slush around, "I wanted to play music!" She then slams her fingers down on the piano keys and a harsh sharp noise fills the room. She continues to smash down on the keys as I sit on the bench beside her.

As slow and as gentle as I could as to not scare her, I grab her wrists and stop her hands, "Cmon Princess your drunk. We need to get you back home". The eyes I love most gloss over hiding her beautiful stormy grey from their usual shine.

Her eyes begin to water and her bottom lip starts to tremble. With shaky hands she cups my face and starts to inch closer to me as my face heats up drastically from how close she was getting to my face. "I'm sorry" she whispers to me. I tilt my head confused on what she means. I bring my hands up to hold her wrists, "Princess".

And as if all at once, the flood gates open

Tears start streaming down her face as she repeatedly says, "I'm sorry" to me. She would not calm down no matter what I said. She leans so close that our foreheads are touching. She's breathless as she's crying so hard she can't get enough air. Her chest is heaving rising and falling in rapid succession. Her grip on me is firm but gentle making sure she's not hurting me, holding me as if it was a life or death situation.

"I'm so sorry EJ. I'm so sorry. It was all my fault" she sobs looking into my eyes, squinting at me through the tears. "I never should have gone. I never should have left you alone. It should have been me. I'm so sorry EJ" she continues to cry out. Her eyes were red and bloodshot but I couldn't tell whether it was from the amount of alcohol she's consumed or all the crying.

Most likely both

"Aurora, it's me. It's Jessie" I try to calm her down somewhat. But it didn't work. "J-jessie. What are you doing here? Where's EJ?" She slurs as the sobbing subsides. "You called me remember? Who's EJ?" I try to explain but she wasn't having any of it. "Where's EJ? I want EJ!" She shouts as she throws the bottle at a wall and shatters sprinkling tiny glass shards around along with the remains of the leftover vodka that was in the bottle.

I duck my head trying to avoid getting hit with any loose shards. I slowly lift my head careful not to set her off even more. It was completely silence now. It was like in those war movies where the hero was near a bomb that just went off. That ringing noise in your ear as everything was quiet. But even though you couldn't hear anything, you knew shit was about to hit the fan the second you got your hearing back.

I looked up to see Aurora now standing up her elbows on top of the piano. Her face hidden in her hands sniffling and you could hear the sound of the glass crunching as she rocked herself on the balls of her feet. I was in complete shock. It was like she did a complete 180. The bold tough exterior was crumbling fast. Fading away to show a side I doubt many has seen. She was completely vulnerable and unprotected. She was at her lowest point and she showed her hand. She showed me something she never wanted to show anyone.

She showed me how broken she was.

I crept towards her and gently put my hand on her back making her look at me. We held each others gaze before she fell into me. But I caught her and hugged her tight to me. "I want to be with EJ" she mumbled against my neck after her sniffles die out. "Okay I'll take you to EJ" I say even though I don't even know who the hell EJ is. I just need to keep her calm right now.

She lifts her head from my neck and looks at me utterly defeated, "Really?" I nod, "Yeah we'll go right now okay?" She just nods like a child obeying their parent. I put an arm around her waist as I walk her outside. When we get outside I realise one fatal flaw in the plan.

I had no idea where she lived

I groan inwardly as I think for a second. I sigh as I realise the only thing I can do. "Cmon Princess" I whisper to her but she doesn't respond too drunk to even realise what's happening. I half carry half walk her back to my own dorm. She's completely quieten down after leaving the music building and hasn't even uttered a word.

When we stumble into my dorm Teagan is till passed out in her bed. So I try to be as quiet as possible as I bring her over to the bed and set her down. "Okay time to go to bed Princess" I whisper as I lie her down in the bed. "Are we going to see EJ?" She murmurs her eyes already drooping. "Yeah" I just say hoping she's go to sleep. She mumbles something incoherently into my pillow as she starts to fall asleep.

I'm about to walk over to my chair where I'll sleep tonight but she holds onto my wrist. I look down at her and she pouts up at me, "Can you stay with me until EJ shows up?" I bite my lip but nod knowing she won't fall sleep unless I agree.

I pull back the covers and climb in beside her as she immediately clings onto me. And within seconds she's passed out. But I'm unable to sleep. All I can think about is what happened. How I just saw the girl who is passed out beside me, completely break down in her most vulnerable state.

I had so many questions before tonight and all that this has left me with is more questions and no answers. I look down at the girl and wince at the strong stench of alcohol that comes off her. Deciding to leave everything until the morning, I try to get some bit of sleep to help me through tomorrow but one prominent question floats around my head.

Who the hell is EJ?