Adrenaline

⌊Chapter 3⌉

"Why do you still have that old thing? I can hardly hear myself think!" Atlantis called from the bathroom as she tried to tame her dark, curly hair. She wore a salmon tank-top with black words spelling out 'Orion's Watching,' a TV show she loved, and black sweatpants. She had sharp facial features and her eyes looked upon everything in such a sense of love and decency that even if she was upset, that twinkle of life was still always glimmering.

"Because she's reliable," Atlantis's roommate, Jayla, responded from the kitchen, pressing her hand atop the screaming coffee maker in an attempt to silence it. "As long as it can make coffee, then I'm keeping it."

Jayla poured coffee into two cups - one with a jungle leaf pattern and one with giraffe designs all over it in which the handle was also made to look like the neck of a giraffe. She put milk and caramel into both cups and slid the leaf cup to the end of the counter so when Atlantis left the bathroom, she could take it since the rooms were adjacent to each other. The two of them lived in an open concept apartment with a wide and tall window looking out into the city. Even if there wasn't much sun, it cast nice light into the place so they would have less electricity bills to pay - that buffering of bills wasn't available in many places around Adelmir any longer. It was a quaint place, though. Not the biggest, roomiest one out there, but it had two bedrooms and one bathroom which was enough for two people to live there contently together.

Truth was, the only reason they did live together was because of Jayla's older brother, Edmund Kelley. He was a sovereign aide to Blake - a Private First Class who was well loved by the man. However, due to how much Jayla and Edmund fought, Jayla didn't desire to live around him any longer. She couldn't afford a place of her own and Atlantis was still trying to figure out how she could leave her old mobile home at Adelmir's eastern side so they came to the decision of moving into an apartment called 'Mosisnoir' together and splitting the bill accordingly. They had been living together for three years at that point, and even if they had been good friends before, they were inseparable now.

Jayla unplugged the coffee maker and the apartment instantly smoothed to a silence and Atlantis left the bathroom, giving up on her hair and just putting it up with a black hair band. "One of these days I'm getting a new one," she said, taking the cup from the counter with a gratuitous smile toward Jayla. "I guarantee that one doesn't have half a year left on it."

Jayla shrugged, drinking her coffee from the giraffe cup. "It's holding on by a thread, but I'm certain to keep it until it combusts. Which may not be a good day but it'll be an interesting end of an era."

"How are you so positive, Jay?" Atlantis asked rhetorically, knowing that Jayla always gave the same answer: 'I wasn't born to be negative.' The two sat on the blue chairs by the window, and Jayla criss-crossed her legs, watching the cars on the street drive by down below and the rain creating a reflection of the city on the ground. She set her cup on the coffee table and looked over at Atlantis (whose eyes were following a bird flying around outside, holding her cup with both hands) and smiled.

"I've got a friend who's working at Project Neon tonight - said he could hook us up with discounted drinks if you're free. I think it would be fun," she said, hoping Atlantis would say yes because it had been a while since they talked to each other. Project Neon was a bar on Adelmir's northern side - about a 15 minute walk from Mosisnoir. In Adelmir, Project Neon was the bar. The bar with the best (but expensive) drinks anyone could get in the city, the bar with the highest satisfaction rate, the bar with the electronic swing or live music, the bar that held years and years worth of memorabilia of the history of music. "Paradiso Moscato is still in season there."

Drinking her coffee, Atlantis nodded. "I'm up for that. Especially after today, I'm sure," she answered once she lowered the cup from her lips.

"What's happening today?" Jayla asked, tilting her head. She knew that Atlantis's job was always stressful, but she did still wonder what happened down at that police department.