What's a Girl to Do? (Season 2)

Chapter Four: The Fallout

I couldn't sleep that night, and found myself just lying there in the darkness of my bedroom, on my side, staring out through the sliver of silver light which crept through my curtains. The silver soon turned to the gray dawn and then, pink light filtered into my bedroom as I continued to lie there in the same position. The concept of leaving my bed seemed so foreign to me that, even when the light morphed from pink to yellow, and the autumn sun tried its best to convince me through the space it was provided, I made no moves to get out of bed.

"Hey, rise and shine!" came Ian's voice as he knocked on my door, opening it and merely standing in the doorway. "Murph?"

I found myself automatically opening my mouth to speak, but no sound came out. It was as if my brain just switched off my voice command system, thus rendering me speechless.

"Murph?" Ian asked, sitting on the bed and touching my shoulder. "It's close to noon. What are you doing still in bed?"

I didn't move to answer him; I didn't even move.

"Murph, this isn't funny. If you're playing a game here, please, don't."

I found myself scooting away from him then, his hand falling off my shoulder and onto the bed behind me.

"Murph, really," Ian said, getting up and circling around to face me, and I avoided his eyes. "I can see that's something's up. What's wrong?"

"I don't want to talk," I replied, and was shocked that my voice was devoid of any emotion whatsoever, something very odd.

"What?" he asked, his voice sounding nervous. "Murph, you don't mean that."

"I do. Just... You can go," I said, staring at a portion of the cheap carpet which littered the floor of my bedroom.

"Fine. If that's what you want," Ian replied, sounding reluctant as he moved around my bed and walked out of my room, shutting the door behind him. From the other side, I heard him sigh heavily, and then I heard Trevor's voice.

"What's up?" he asked.

"I..." He hesitated then. "I need to call Fiona."

"Why? Everything okay?"

"No," Ian replied, and I heard their footsteps receding in the other direction, as Trevor continued to pepper him with questions.

I remained lying there for god knows how long, until my bedroom door opened sometime later, and I still hadn't moved. I knew it was Fiona by the way the steps sounded, and the scent of the perfume she wore wafted into my ears as she stepped closer. She perched beside me on the bed and leaned over, trying and failing to catch my eye.

"Hey, Murph. What's up?"

I didn't reply.

"Ian's concerned that you randomly stopped texting him last night, after telling him what Lip was doing here," she said softly. "And he says you haven't gotten up yet. He mentioned you've been sleeping until nine during your time off from work, but it's close to three o'clock now, Murph. Is something going on?"

"No."

"Well, at least you're talking to me," she said quietly. "Are you okay?"

"Fine."

"Okay," she said. "You're not sad?"

I shrugged, which felt odd, due to my lack of movement. "I don't feel anything."

"Not anything?" Fiona asked.

"No."

"Okay," she replied, and I could sense her voice breaking, and yet, I didn't move to see if I could comfort her in any way. "I'll just... Go and leave you to it," she said, managing to get the rest of her sentence out as she left my bedroom. "Ian, it's not good," Fiona said quietly.