The Lunatics 2: Push Tumble & Fall

Monday 9:38 p.m.

I laid in bed, but my eyes were wide open. Anxiety sat on my chest, making me feel as if I'd never fall back asleep again. It felt like little needles on my body. So I shifted my weight back and forth, and at first ignored it—but it was useless.

The Pull had found me and it wasn't going to leave me alone.

I got out of bed and threw on my jeans, the black RedEye tee that Jonathan had given me when we first started going out and my combat boots. I left them untied.

When I stepped outside Laurels, I took a deep breath. "Ok, take me there," I said to The Moon. And then, without an exact direction on where I was headed, I began to run.

I ran towards the French Quarter. I stopped in front of Big Joint Pizza for a second to tie my boots. A girl with long blond dreads who wore a Grateful Dead T-shirt walked by me, and she reeked of weed. I didn't like the Grateful Dead, they sucked, in my opinion. I never loved pot much either, and it made me gag every time I smelled it. In my past, I had been cigarettes and Gin kind of girl.

I crossed the street past the RedEye, and I knew then where The Pull took me. I stood right in front of the rundown colonial building with its wraparound balconies. The same building, I had been to many times in the past three months to be with Jonathan.

"Oh no,' I said. "Why are you doing this to me?" I spoke directly to Her, but She didn't answer back. I ran up the stairs and slowed down as I approached Jonathan's door. I stood in front of his door. I waited a couple of minutes before I put my hand on the doorknob. But come on, having to Bliss, my ex-boyfriend into Delirium? Was this call for Jonathan? "No, this can't be," I said to myself.

When I put my hand on Jonathan's door, it was locked. I doubled checked I tried again, this time harder. But nothing. The door was locked, and The Pull was still present. I felt like I was on the wrong track, so I took a step back.

I leaned against the hallway wall and the only light bulb that worked flickered. I slid down and sat for a few minutes next to Silence. I pulled down my armbands and rested my eyes on my Spirals.

Someone stumbled up the stairs and laughed. A man and a woman hung on each other, and they were drunk. "No no no, I think she wanted to come home with you . . ." said the woman with a slur. I couldn't quite make them out, but they were older like maybe mom and dad's age.

"Yeah baby, I would've legit looooveed to see that scene. Yowsa!" The guy sounded even drunker than the woman and when he said 'yowsa' my skin crawled.

They came up the stairs and didn't notice me. They hung on each other and one of her blue heels fell off and landed on the hallway a few feet away from me. A few seconds later the other shoe flew down the stairs, and they both laughed.

They ran down the hallway on the floor above me, and I wondered if the noise would wake up the whole building. A door opened and closed and the clatter disappeared. And I was back with Silence. I stared at the blue shoes and thought about how in the morning, everything that seemed so reasonable to them tonight would look completely insane. They'd probably try to have sex now only to discover they were both too drunk. He'd probably pass out first and then she'd follow soon after. Maybe, once the sun was out, they'd go to the mandatory breakfast together. At breakfast, two things would probably happen; they would either A) have coffee and part their ways to never see each other again or 2) they'd order mimosas at breakfast and be drunk by noon and start the insanity all over again.

It was close to five in the morning when I heard a door open, and it wasn't Jonathan's door it was the door across his apartment.

A little frame appeared from inside the apartment.