Lifeline (Marc Guiu)

Chapter 3

For a second, it looked like Marc had forgotten where his car was parked. He hadn't. He was just nervous about being alone with Alicia.

"Here we are", he said, opening the passenger door for her and noticing how she blushed.

"Thank you. I'll give you my address. It's not that far...".

When Alicia told him where she lived, Marc knew immediately where to go. "You don't live too far away from me, actually".

"Oh, good".

"Happy to be close to me, huh?", he kept teasing her. It was too much fun.

"I meant good so you don't have to go too far away from your house to drive me home".

"I wouldn't mind if I had to".

Alicia picked up her phone again to check her messages. Fermín had been texting her non-stop and it was starting to give her a headache.

"You ok?", asked Marc when he heard Alicia sighing.

"Yeah. It's just...Fermín is texting me".

"I thought he was dating Vicky, not you".

"Ha ha. So funny. He's so in love with her, I don't think he realises there are any other women in the world".

"Then what's the problem?"

"They want me to try and help them meet without Vicky's dad finding out. And we managed to do that before but...Oscar is onto us".

Marc couldn't even comprehend how complicated the whole situation was but felt Alicia really needed to talk about it.

"What do you mean?"

"The last time I visited Vicky, he told me he knew I talk to Fermín".

"So?", asked Marc, snorting a laugh. "Is no one allowed to talk to Fermín now?"

"It feels like it. But I just...I know if I show up asking Vicky to go out with me, he'll know it's because of Fermín. She doesn't leave the room at all. So it's not believable that she suddenly felt like going for a walk".

"Is it really that bad?"

That question made Alicia realised she had said too much. She felt like a horrible friend but knowing that Marc knew at least a bit of what was happening made her too comfortable to just talk. She didn't think before saying all that. And that was a bit dangerous.

"Forget about it. Let's talk about something else".

"It seems like you want to talk about this. It's ok, Alicia. I swear to God I won't say anything to anyone. But if you need to talk...".

Instead of talking, Alicia looked away so Marc wouldn't see her tears. It was so hard to be in the middle of all of it. So hard to try and help her friends but feeling like she wasn't doing enough. And she couldn't even talk about it with someone to word vomit or something. She had to keep everything inside of her, all her worries, and it was becoming too much.

"Hey. Don't cry, please". Marc found a place where he could park his car and turned to face Alicia. "Alicia...please, look at me".

Alicia tried to get rid of her tears quickly using a tissue but didn't do the best job. "I'm sorry. I...".

"Don't apologise. I get it must be hard for you to see your friend like that. I didn't talk to Vicky much. She probably won't even remember me", he chuckled. "But she seemed like a nice girl. Feisty too. So it's sad to hear that fire is gone now. And knowing the reasons why only makes it worse. So if I feel bad about it, I can only imagine how tough this is for you".