Pills of love

Dream World (part 3)

"Va va va va va va..." Benny hummed to himself as he kept his eyes on the notes in front of him. He sighed and set the papers down on the coffee table in front of him, his sock-wrapped feet silently sinking into the soft orange carpet. He quickly stretched his neck, trying to undo the knots he felt at shoulder height.

He looked at his watch and saw that it was almost time for dinner, he would have to hurry and go prepare everything before it got too late and his potato pie might not see the light.

He had specifically called her mother to have the recipe dictated in detail, enjoying making her nervous with his questions and his false transcription errors. But hearing her laugh was worth every polite curse she had said against him.

He gave one last go through the freshly written chords, pauses and ligatures, and got up from the plush Chesterfield sofa he adored and headed for the kitchen.

Halfway to the kitchen, he stopped suddenly. He stood still for just a moment at the distinct thump he heard from upstairs and then ran like lightning towards the stairs, taking the steps 3 at a time to reach the bedroom at the end of the left corridor as quickly as possible.

Benny's heart was in his throat as he reached the top step, thanking heaven he hadn't slipped and tumbled down the stairs, and he rounded the corner almost colliding with the edge of the wall.

His heart in his chest was locked in a grip of anxiety and fear.

"Frida!" he exclaimed before throwing himself with his whole body against the door of the semi-closed room.

He stopped almost as if a spell of immobility had hit him from behind and he felt a fist squeeze his heart, threatening to break it.

He looked at her on the ground, next to the bed.

"Fuck... Go away, Benny..." she muttered almost in a tone that was outright menacing. From every word she exuded frustration and anger. She tried with difficulty to sit up, on her face beaded with sweat on her forehead a grimace of pain and shame.

He ignored her not so kind invitation and sighed, approaching, scooping her up from the floor carefully and gently despite having to fight every moment against her who tried to push him away indignantly, throwing all kinds of curses at him as he felt her tone breaking for the lump that was forming in her throat. He looked up into her eyes and felt a sudden and unexpected urge to cry when he saw her eyes almost completely blurred by tears.

They looked at each other for long moments, without saying anything, until her face contorted again in a grimace of anger and pain and she ordered him to put her down. When he didn't move, she attempted to punch him on the shoulder, on the chest, but she was too weak from her previous attempt to get up to really hurt him.

Who knows how long she'd been fumbling to get to her feet, wearing herself out.

After a few seconds, he still motionless, not even knowing why his body wasn't responding to any of his commands, she lowered her gaze and began to cry silently, leaning against him. Hiding from his eyes.

It was probably the feel of her cold tears against his neck that woke him from that torpor.

"What happened?" he whispered, squeezing closer that light body that seemed to be disappearing into her pale pink pajamas.

She shook her head and he looked around, seeing one of her crutches leaning against the nightstand as he'd left it for her, but the other on the floor.

Benny sighed deeply "You know you have to call me to help you out" he said more confidently, with a firmer tone, as one would do with children when you want to make them understand something wrong that they stubbornly continue to do "We've already talked about it over and over again... I've lost count of the times I've asked you to...".