Paint the town red

Chapter LII

It was quite difficult for me to wake up on Saturday. Probably, the stress and yesterday's outburst of emotions are affecting. My head ached as if I'd been hanging out at the club all night and drinking like crazy, and now I'm suffering from the wildest hangover. But everything is much more prosaic: sobbing, self-flagellation, hopelessness and doom - everything I love, yeah.

I didn't even look at the time, but just picked up the phone and was surprised to see a message in the mail from Lewis. My brain didn't want to think yet, but I opened his letter anyway. In it, he agreed to represent my interests in case I was charged with at least some charges and asked me to keep him informed of events. Well, at least in this regard I can be more or less calm. I put the phone down and covered my eyes with my palm. There's only one hearing left, and it'll be over. Max will be imprisoned, the case will be closed, I'll return to my previous life. But will I be able come to back? I still haven't decided what I'm going to do after it's over. Yuki once offered me to go to Japan with him, he'd help me there, as I help him here, but I refused. He just found a great job here, so I don't want to cut him off in the bud. And I'm not ready for such a big change myself. So, let's wait and see.

Anyway, I had to get up, so I got out of bed, took a shower, then went to the kitchen, where I didn't find my neighbor. It's Saturday, he's probably sleeping off the work week. Without thinking twice, I decided to drink coffee and go to the gym - there I'd always relax mentally. So after I drank an invigorating drink, I packed a gym bag with my things and left the house.

There weren't many people in the gym, so I managed to work out calmly and not think about anything, even about the hearing and the fact that I'd see Max again. Hell, of course I was thinking about Max, because this is where we exchanged our first messages with my stupid flirtation, which turned out to be very successful in the end.

In the end, I spent about three hours in the gym, and when I returned home, Yuki had long since woken up and was lying on the couch, lazily switching channels. We said hello, then I went to my room to change my clothes. When I returned, he was still lying on the couch, but the TV remote was already on the table. I sat down on a chair and before I could ask anything, he started talking.

"Charles, I'm afraid to go to court on Monday."

"Why?"

"Well... I don't know. What if I say something wrong? Pierre's family will also be there."

"So you know each other, what are you afraid of?"

"Well, because we..."

Yuki quieted down and pursed his lips, and I looked at him carefully. His cheeks turned a little red, and I immediately understood what he was getting at.

"You were dating with Pierre?"

Yuki's cheeks turned redder than red, and he nodded. God, did he really think that it was unnoticeable from their conversations, gestures, and they literally had fireworks shooting out of their eyes when they looked at each other. I smiled and reassured him, saying that his parents treat him well, so he has nothing to be afraid and ashamed of. I don't know if my words calmed him down, but his cheeks remained red for a long time. I decided that tomorrow I'd tell him in more detail about what to expect so that he'd feel more confident on Monday, but today we are resting.

We decided to order food delivery, but Yuki was against the idea at first. I said that he'd cook at work, and since we were both at home, we had the right to eat some unhealthy food. In the end, he still agreed, and I ordered the delivery of all kinds of junk and certainly high-calorie food.

Overall, Saturday passed quite easily and quickly, and neither Yuki nor I even noticed how the whole day flew by. We watched movies, ate, played video games, even played cards a couple of times, but when I once again lost fifty euros to him, I decided that I had had enough for today.