Given half a chance

Chapter 11

Sebastian

" Can you go one day without drinking ?" Anna asks me teasingly as I take another small swig of my whiskey.

" I can. " I lick my lips in an attempt to wet them.

Anna shifts in her position beside me to look at my face as best as she can ." Have you gone without drinking a day in the last two months ?"

" No ." I reply honestly .

" Then how can you tell if you can really go without drinking a day ?" She thinks I am addicted to alcohol. But I know I am not.

" Because I know I can. " She huffs in agitation. I smirk. She looks kinda cute when she's frustrated. Especially when that frustration is about something as futile as my drinking.

I hold my glass in front of her. " Take a swig. " She looks at me with anger in her eyes. " I told you I don't drink. "

" Your exact words were I don't want a drink. You never told me that you don't drink. " She looks irritated. I chuckle at her scrunched up face. " You don't drink at all ? Like ever ?"

" I don't drink at all. Like ever. " She repeats my words after me .

" I wonder what have you done all these years in your college ." I take a large swig from my glass and close my eyes as I relinquish the taste on my tongue and feel the liquid making it's way down my throat .

Anna wanted to know what exactly happened between me and my father that day. " I need a drink. " I have told her. " I can't do it without some alcohol in my system. " That's how we have ended up here , like this.

Both of us on the floor of the living room with our backs resting against the couch, sitting side by side. It reminds me of her first day in office. That day also we ended in the same positions on my office floor. The only difference is that was office and this is my home.

" Have you got enough alcohol in your system now ?" She nudges my side with her elbow. I nod without opening my eyes. " We had a fight that night. It was the last fight I had with him. " I tell her.

The images of that night emerge and pass behind my eyes , one after the other like a slide show. My mind a projector and the blackness behind the closed lids my eyes is the screen.

" He was upset I didn't go to the college he chose for me. He wanted me to study business and management. But I had already taken admission in college by then with Catherine. " I can see his disappointed angry face now. As clear as if it's happening in front of me now. His face is red. Hands clenched . Eyes red from anger .

" He was disappointed because I chose English literature. A subject for wastes, according to him . I told him I don't want anything other than to be close to Catherine. He had cursed me that day , that I and Catherine are bound to break up and that I'll regret everything. And there will be no one . No one to console me ."

I open my eyes and stare at the wall opposite from me. The flat LED attached to the wall staring back at me like a rectangular black hole.

" He was right. We broke up. I dropped out of college. I regret everything. And there was no one I could go to seek sympathy. " I sigh heavily. I steal a quick glance at Anna . She looks sadder than I have last seen her.

" You still want me to continue ?" I don't want to dump all my past sad memories on her like a burden. That would be wrong. I don't want her to be sad. She doesn't even need to sit here and listening to my life's tragedy.

I feel her hand reaching for my glass . She drowns the rest of the alcohol in it. Bloody hell . She did it so fast that before I know what she's doing she is already making a face at me. " It's so ...damn ! How do you people even drink it ?" She coughs. I snatch the glass away from her .