Lifeline (Marc Guiu)

Chapter 5

Alicia woke up and felt how much her neck hurt immediately. She had fallen asleep while she was finishing her assignment and her desk was definitely not as comfortable as her bed. It was 4.30 am and she didn't have much left to write, so she took her laptop to her bed and wrote the final few paragraphs before placing the laptop on the floor and falling asleep again.

Hearing her alarm a few hours later made her groan but she needed to get up to take the laptop downstairs and print her assignment using the printer in her dad's office.

"Morning!"

"Good morning. Did you finish the assignment?"

Alicia lifted the pieces of paper she was holding. They always sent the assignments to their professors online but her dad forced her to print them too, just in case the internet stopped working right when she needed it the most. It was actually smart to have more than one copy, and for one of those copies to be a physical one, but she was too tired to appreciate that.

"How much sleep did you get?", asked her mum.

"Enough. But I might take a nap later".

"I thought you were going to Vicky's later".

"I can nap there. She doesn't leave her bed and that's the best place for napping so...".

Her comment was meant to be light-hearted. Alicia would never say anything mean about Victoria, especially when she was going through such a horrible time. But she was so tired, her tone didn't come out right and she could see how shocked her parents were.

"That's no way to talk about your friend".

"I didn't mean it in a bad way. You don't get it. She would have laughed at the joke", tried to explain Alicia.

"I don't think her situation is one for jokes. And given the part you played in all of this, you're not the one to joke either".

Alicia glared at her dad. "The part I played?"

"Please", begged her mum. "Not this early in the morning. Let's start the day peacefully".

"I don't want to fight. I just want to know what part I played in my best friend's road to depression. Because she keeps telling me how she wouldn't be able to remain strong without me but apparently dad thinks I'm the reason she cries every five minutes!"

"Alicia!"

"No, dad. I'm really tired of your comments. It's your friend who hurt her with his stupid rules! He never let her do anything! What did I do? Allow her to have some freedom? Allow her to meet a boy who loves her to death and would never hurt her? Yeah, what a horrible friend I am. I don't know how she can stomach being with me!"

"Maybe if we had had more rules around here, you wouldn't talk to your father like this", said her dad, trying not to raise his voice.

"You would have only made me hate you. And I'm not hungry anymore. I'll see you after uni".

There were so many things Alicia wanted to change back to how they were before, apart from Victoria being happy again. She didn't want to feel about her parents the way Victoria did about hers. But only a few weeks of being so overbearing made her realise Victoria was actually way too patient. Alicia wouldn't have put up with that from her parents for so long. She would have left the house the moment she turned 18 and would have never looked back.

"You ok?", asked her classmate Cintia when she noticed Alicia's mood.

"I'm just tired. I forgot about the assignment and finished it super late".

"I told you about it when we finished our classes yesterday. How could you forget?"

"Do you want the made-up excuses or the real reasons?"

"Real reasons?", Cintia was confused by how odd Alicia was acting.

"I had a job in the afternoon and then I made out with a hot guy who made me forget my name".

"Nice. How hot are we talking exactly?"

Alicia laughed. She couldn't tell Victoria about Marc. And she wasn't going to tell Cintia about the guy being a Barça player but it felt good to talk about it. What was the point of making out with a hot guy if you had to keep it all to yourself, right?

"Tall, dark hair, big muscles, great kisser, ...".

"When are you meeting him again?"

"Maybe tomorrow", answered Alicia, trying not to smile like an idiot.

"Go to the library to get the homework done before you meet him then".

"I might do that...".

The day of classes felt like it would never end but once the last class was over, Alicia ran to her car and drove to Victoria's.

"Knock knock", she said, opening the door slowly.

"Hi. You got here early".

Alicia didn't say anything else and just walked to her best friend's bed. She lifted the comforter and got underneath it so she could hug Victoria. "I missed you".

"I missed you yesterday too. How was the shoot?"

"It was fine", was all Alicia said, not wanting to elaborate more on what happened. "But then I had to stay up until really late because of uni stuff. So I'm really tired".

"We can nap now if you're tired. I'm a pro at it at the moment".

Alicia chuckled. She knew Victoria would laugh at the joke because she knew Victoria made those jokes. Only to Alicia. It was important to know who would understand your jokes instead of getting offended for no reason.

"I talked to Fermín last night".

"Did you?"

It was painful to see the way her eyes lit up when Fermín was mentioned. "Yeah. We were planning how to get you two to meet soon. It involves you staying at my place on Sunday morning while your dad and Fermín are at training. I'll tell you all about it later. I'm going to literally fall asleep now".

"That's ok. You work too much and need to rest more, Ali".

"Yes, mum".

Normally, Victoria would have laughed at that comment but she could barely smile at the moment. But she felt so grateful to have her friend by her side, looking after her like no one else did. So Victoria turned to her side to look at Alicia, who was already sleeping and hugged her. Victoria wanted to sleep too but that was all she did all day and she just stared at Alicia instead. The dark circles under her eyes looked darker than usual and she felt like such a bad friend. Alicia was taking care of Victoria all the time but who took care of Alicia?

Maybe the guy who kept texting her while she napped could do that while Victoria didn't have the strength to do the job.