a misty gashed aperture

what happens at the heart of a galaxy

A/N: No more interruptions... I swear? Kids, please get out of this chapter. 🍼

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They reached Roseanne's place and when the supermodel turned the light on, Lisa shielded her eyes reflexively. The brightness caused her head to become dull one moment, and then dizzy the next.

"Oh, sorry!" Roseanne's hands were fast switching to the pin wall lights and holding Lisa's arm to guide her to the couch. Sitting by Lisa's side, she watched the artist lay there with eyes closed, hands massaging her temples. "Be right back."

Lisa felt Roseanne's weight lift off the couch, carrying the warmth with her and allowing the cold to occupy that space and seep into her skin. The jacket she was wearing became useless as her body tingled at the peeling off of the layer that was supposed to protect her from shivering.

That night turned oddly colder, she remembered the sensation crawling under her skin. The woman—was she blonde?—had tears in her eyes as she stood there at the doorway of a blurred room. The moon rising in the east trickled on half of her face down to her body through the glassed doors leading to the balcony. She regarded Lisa piercingly—was she hurt?

Did I hurt her?

Who did?

...who did?

Suddenly, the images produced sound.

A pair of heels clicked against the concrete floor. The luggage was unzipped on the floor. When no words were exchanged, the woman walked to the console table and turned the Linn Sondek LP12 turntable on, placing The Beatles' Revolver vinyl record on the platter.

As the needle was lowered on the record, it played on the third line of Here, There And Everywhere. Hearing some unwanted, scratchy noise, Lisa went to check and gave the suspension a quick bounce using her index finger, tapping the record close to the center spindle. When she saw the platter and arm board come to rest, she went back to packing.

"Tell me it was all a joke, Lisa," said the woman in a shaky voice, insipid of another reason she refused to accept.

"It wasn't." Lisa was calm with her honesty, not even glancing in the direction of the woman.

"You have to make me understand because obviously, I don't know where I went wrong or—"

Lisa paused from folding a jacket. "You didn't. It wasn't your fault. It just didn't feel right to me so—"

The woman approached but Lisa kept her back on her. "I thought what we had was special. Do you really just dump people for art? Like you don't care how they feel—Right. Of course." She nodded when suddenly, something clicked. "You just used me."