Flip Side of Love

Chapter 6

"Knowing what I know now, how it all ends. I would take it all back."

"You. Your state and condition. If taking it back would turn you back to the person you were before this all happened, then I would take it back."

"What? If it was me, in your position right now, if you had to watch me dwindle away... Would it be unfair then?"

- - -

Christopher decided that he did not like staying at home all that much. It was the second time he had woken up with a start. He felt like a car battery being jump started to life, the only problem was he did not need the start. If this continued waking up this way his heart would stop prematurely. There was only so much one individual could take. Rubbing his eyes, he tried to wake himself up; to regain alertness of his surroundings. He was tangled up in his bed, sheets a mess with limbs. Looking around he saw a tidy mess, an illusion. The room was put together enough to hide the fact that he had not taken care of it for about a month now. What was that saying, 'if you want to know more about a person, see how they live?' Maybe, that was just his mom, trying to goad him into cleaning his room. 'This is what girls look for, Christopher, cleanness. Girls no longer want to stay at home cleaning after their husbands' messes...'

He let out a groan, once he realised he had the first symptoms of an oncoming headache. Squinting, though he could see perfectly fine without doing so, he turned to check the time. '11:44' the numbers stared unblinking at him. He felt disoriented, this is what he got for sleeping too much, he should have been up way earlier than this.

"Are you arguing with your body?" Nicky asked him, unimpressed. He gave some unintelligible sounds in response, too lazy to come with a coherent answer, involving actual words from the human vocabulary.

"Your body didn't wake up earlier because it was tired. You've been abusing it, depriving it of rest, so yes it's come back to bite you."

"Why you so mean?" He asked, resembling a tired toddler, as he once again tried to rub the sleep out of his eyes.

"Take a shower, you'll feel better. Better yet, why don't you soak in the tub?" Nicky suggested. "You can use that bath bomb, for sore joints that you got for me. It's not like I'm gonna use it anyway."

"It's too early for you to be reminding me of these things."

"You just have to get used to this fundamental truth. I'm helping you, getting  you out of this denial you've been bathing in."

"I'm happy drowning in denial."

"Yeah, happy but not healthy."

"Touché."

"Come on, up you get. There's a really good bathtub waiting for you in the bathroom. I mean, seriously, it's the perfect bathtub. You can fill in enough to cover your body up to your neck, without any of the water splashing out. It's long enough for you to spread out, without being hindered by its dimensions. It's..." Christopher dragged himself sluggishly towards the en suite, as Nicky continued on with her reverie about their bathtub.