You Too

What happened to Zoe?

"Zoe?" I managed to stutter. I had talked to her about 3 days ago, and she had seemed fine. And it was 12 o'clock at night.

But obviously things weren't fine.

"AliceIcouldonlygetatraintickettoLondonsoIhadtocomehereimsosorrycanistay?" She babbled, hiccuping when she finished.

"Of course!" I ushered her inside, wheeling in her suitcase as she sat on the couch, small tears leaking from her eyes.

I quickly made a tea for her, and she cupped it with both hands, still slightly hiccuping.

"Do you want to tell me what happened?" I said, almost in a whisper, like Dan did when I was upset. She gave a tiny nod, taking a sip of the tea before taking a shaky breath.

"I- I got in a fight with Alfie. I had to get out, I-" she was cut off by her own sob. Alfie and herself had moved in together around this time last year.

"It's okay." I pulled her into an embrace, her small, shaking body against mine.

"Why did you get in a fight?" I said quietly.

"I- I don't even remember!" Her voice rose with each word, until it crumbled again, and she cried into my shoulder.

"All I remember is a lot of shouting, and him slamming to door to our room, leaving me in the kitchen. Then I think I had a panic attack." I cringed at the words. They were horrible. "Then he le- left, saying nothing. I packed 2 weeks worth of clothes and ran. I got a taxi to the train station, and the only one not f-full was the one to London. So I came here, because I have your address in my contact-" she hiccuped "-s."

I was dumbfounded for a second, because Dan had told me that Alfie has mentioned to him he wanted to propose to Zoe soon.

"It's okay. You'll be okay. He'll be okay. You guys will be okay." I muffled. She sniffed, pulling back, her eyes drying. "Thank you Alice." Her lips tugged up slightly upwards.
"Of course." I hugged her once more, before leading her to the bathroom so she could wash her face and change if she wished. I quickly decided to call Dan, maybe him and Phil could come over, lift Zoe's spirit.

I have him a short summary, and he said they would come.

Sure enough, I heard a knock about 5 minutes later, as Zoe was finishing her tea, and I insisted to make the couch as bed-like as I could for her to sleep on. I didn't have enough room for a spare bedroom, and to be honest, I was scared that she might be weirded out by the fact if me and Dan weren't already sleeping together, in the middle of the night we would slip into each other's flats, (we each have spare keys) and in to bed with them.

I opened the door to 2 slouched over, pajama clad boys. (Well technically men but.. Not really.)

"To lazy to change." Phil muttered, walking over to Zoe and hugging her. "Hey." Dan kissed my cheek, proceeding in and sitting next to the others.

"Hi guys." I saw the sides of Zoe's mouth twitch up slightly. Good. Progress.

"I'm tired." Is the only thing Phil said about three times, until he feel asleep on Zoe's couch bed. Only took 5 minutes.

Zoe awkwardly placed her empty mug in the sink and sat cross legged on the floor, playing with her pajama pants.

"Zoe...?" Dan broke the long silence.
"Would you like me to text Alfie?"

"I don't care." Zoe gulped. "He probably hates me."

"Well I doubt that." I said looking pointedly at Dan to try his plan. He pulled out his phone and typed a quick message to Alife.

"It didn't deliver. Let me call him."

Dan walked out of the room, his phone pressed up against his ear.

The only noise was his pacing and the never ending sound of London traffic.

Zoe looked at the ground.

I looked at Zoe.

Dan hung up and looked at both of us.

"Right to voicemail. Did you see him grab his phone?" He asked Zoe gently.

"The funny thing is, I don't." She said.

"Hm."

I sighed. I was getting tired, I didn't get to bed late last night and I don't want a repeat, especially with all this to deal with. I'll have to get Louise over here tomorrow.

"Hey um, why don't we all take a break and try to sleep for a bit? Things will hopefully be a bit calmer tomorrow." I beamed at the only two barley awake people.

"Yes." Dan said. Zoe nodded solemnly in agreement.

I looked at Phil, still asleep on Zoe's temporary sleeping arrangement.

I know, (from experience) if I wake him up when he only got to sleep for 10 minutes, at 1:30 am...

"Um, Zoe, would you mind sleeping with Phil? If we woke him up he would be mad for the next week..."

"Sure. I don't mind." Zoe gave out a slight laugh, sniffed once, and crawled right into bed next to Phil like it was natural.

I smiled at Dan, but it was quickly broke when an abrupt yawn came out.

He giggled, flipping off the light.

"Let's go to sleep, we can deal with this tomorrow."

"Hey, that was my idea!"

"Of course."