Drawn & Quartered

Chapter 7

February 15th 2011

Caitlyn was in bed talking to her friend Nina on the phone, laptop in front of her. Nina had just gotten engaged to her boyfriend Mikel the day prior and they girls were excitedly talking.

"I just emailed you a link to bridesmaids dresses, what color do you think?" Nina asked.

"These are all kinda dark for a summer wedding though. Are you sure you don't want to with something brighter?" Caitlyn replied.

The girls continued their chit chat not knowing Ville had just arrived home. He heard Cait talking but wasn't sure to whom or what about. He walked through the bedroom and smiled at Cait, not wanting to interrupt her conversation. He made his way into the closet to start changing out of his snow-dampened clothes.

"Did you find the ring he got you? Let me see. Oh my God it's gorgeous Nina!" Ville listened to the one-sided conversation. "He really chose a gorgeous ring. ...Oh my god look at this one though. Yeah, I just sent it to you. You go it? Isn't it so pretty?! I love it."

Ville tried not to eavesdrop as he passed through the bedroom again to go into the bathroom to bathe. He was able to deduce that Caitlyn and one of her friends had been talking about engagement rings. The fact that he heard Cait talking about rings and was kind of looking for herself got Ville oddly excited. He never really cared too much about marriage, and he and Cait had decided in the past it wasn't a necessity, but they also never said 'never' either.

Ville got out of the bath and he realized he didn't hear Cait talking any longer. Poking his head out of the bathroom door he saw she was no longer sitting on the bed, but her laptop was.

Ville quickly pulled his boxers on and took a look at her laptop. There were several tabs open, and he found the one Caitlyn had sent over to Nina, the ring that she had said she really liked.

"Say no more, my love." he mumbled as he sent himself the link to the ring via email. He was convinced he was going to shock the pants off of her and he couldn't wait.

January 10th 2012, 1pm

Ville hadn't been out of bed in days. The room was littered with water bottles and beer cans, cigarette ashes scattered across the floor, he'd given up on ashtrays almost entirely. The TV in the room played some random infomercial he'd heard almost 30 times before. He nearly had it memorized.

[ *BANG BANG BANG* ]

Ville could hear someone at the door, but he couldn't care less.

[ *BANG BANG BANG* ]

"Oh fuck off..." he grumbled grumpily before rolling over and slamming the pillow over his head.

To his delight, the banging ceased and he began to fall back to sleep. Only to be interrupted what felt like miliseconds later to a booming voice.

"Ville!" It was Mige.

"Fucking hell! When did you get here?" Ville asked sitting upright, heart racing in his chest.

"You didn't hear me banging?" Mige asked, clearly annoyed.

"I did. I was hoping whoever it was would fuck off." Ville replied with an eyeroll as he reached for his cigarettes and lighter. "What brings you here?" Ville asked nonchalantly as he lit the cigarette hanging from his lips.

"You haven't picked up the phone, for anyone, in days." Mige stared him down.

"Seppo bought me a new phone. It's somewhere. I think it's dead." Ville motioned dismissively with his hand. "How'd you get in anyway?"