Taken • cth

eleven | taken

Avertizare 7|final

Arrow walks into work the next morning with a feeling that she should get very, very drunk. Like, hammered, destroyed, passed out on the street drunk.

A ratty piece of paper is clutched in her left fist when she throws her bag down into her desk chair, sending the rolling thing flying across the room and slamming into the opposite wall. The girl angrily rips the page, which is similar to the ones from the days before, into a bunch of tiny pieces and shoves it into the trashcan with enough force to jostle everything on her desk.

To start off the day her flight was delayed an hour, then she had ran out of money to eat anything, Calum was late picking her up, she tripped over a curb on her way out of the apartment and to top it all off she found another stupid page in car, again this morning. She needs like, 47 cups of coffee. Preferably mixed with vodka.

Michael appears in the doorway of her office before she can actually act on that, however, looking somber yet amused. His arms are crossed over his chest. "You ok? You came in like somebody stomped on all your toes or something."

Arrow eyes him, taking in the brown sweater and usual black skinny jeans. He looks anything but menacing. Her demeanor softens slightly. "Do you have any alcohol?"

He seems to be caught off guard by the question, but chuckles nonetheless. "No, why?"

Arrow shrugs. "Just wondering." She shoves her bag onto the ground and sinks down into her chair, rolling it back to the desk. "What's on the agenda for today?"

"Just maintain the store, I guess. There's not much more to do." He pauses, picking at his fingernails. "Are you excited about the party Saturday?"

"The party?" Arrow asks, puzzled for a second, before realizing what he means. "Oh yeah, right, the party. I almost forgot. And yeah, I guess." It's true, with all the shit going on it's been hard to focus on any weekend plans at all.

Come to think of it, it's been extremely easy to get stressed out lately. Almost too easy. Her head is spinning.

Michael smiles. "It's gonna be epic. This is one of the first times I've gotten to hear the guys band live, so I'm pretty excited to see if they're as good as they say they are."

"They are." She confirms, but she's not looking at him anymore. Saturday marks the eighth day since her and Calum started finding pages. They will receive the eighth page, she feels it in her gut. But what will happen after that? She's considering staying at home in the apartment with Cal and buying a gun or something.

The boy frowns. "Are you sure you're ok? You don't have to go to the party if you don't want to, I didn't mean to make it sound like I was forcing you or anything."

"No, no I'm fine." Arrow sighs, getting up. "I'm going. I'm just tired, as all." She moves over to the coffee machine, setting up for a pitcher. "Now, are you sure you don't have any liquor?"

***

The day passes by in a fast blur, partly due to the fact that on Arrow's request Lea brought in a six pack of Smirnoff after lunch and she downed three in an hour. She feels light headed and dizzy when she stumbles into the apartment, only to find it empty. She frowns, and immediately gets out her phone to call Calum.

He picks up on the third ring. "Hey, I'm still at Ash and Luke's place, I'll be home within the next hour."

"Oh, ok. I think I'm going to go ahead and get in bed."

She can hear him make a noise of disbelief. "It's not even seven o'clock?"

"Numbers." Arrow waves a hand dismissively, even though he can't see it. "Feel free to treat yourself with takeout or something, I'm not really that hungry."