The Beat of My Heart

Strangers

Said that we're not lovers, we're just strangers

With the same damn hunger

To be touched, to be loved, to feel anything at all

"Elide, when do you need to go?" Asked Manon, her guitar inside of the car, looking at her roommate and wondering what she was going to do.

"Well, in ten seconds..." Elide checked her purse before locking the door of their little single floor house, realizing she needed to buy a new wallet. Hers was a mess, the compartiment where she usually puts coins in had a huge whole in it, so it was going to be impossible to use it. And where she puts her cards and ID, was of course, ripped. "Can you give me a ride to the subway station?"

"Where's the new place you're working at, by the way?" Manon waved at Elide to come inside the car as the engines started off with a big bang. Manon liked her used cars, meaning she liked the ones that, the more noise they did, the better. Elide tried to understand, but it was impossible to understand the mind of her roomate and only friend.

"It's at the Palladium Stadium." Putting her seatbelt across her chest turned out to be a struggle because the material of the belt was almost deteriorating. "It will help me a lot if you leave me at the Denver Station."

"Nonsense, my rehearsal is ten minutes from the Stadium, I can give you a ride there today."

"Thanks, Manon." She felt a little bad about making her roommate drive more time and thus spending more gas with her, but one thing she learned about Manon is that when she says something is because she wants to say it. If she says she will go buy you ice cream, she wants to go buy you ice cream. Elide liked Manon's personality and both of them had many things in common. They both came from unsettling backgrounds and worked a lot to get out of it, never stopping believing that they deserved more than what their families set for them.

"So, when it's your show? I would really love to meet your new band."

"Well, it's next week. But you can meet my band anytime, for you information, they are strange and unsociable. That's why you weren't able to find them last time we were at the Glass Castle."

Glass Castle was where Manon, and most of people from the region, seemed to go have some fun and dance through the whole night. It was owned by one of the richest family from the country, the Havilliards.

"Don't say those things about your friends...They have to endure a lot too. Like your charming personality."

Manon laughed. And the driving seemed peaceful, until Elide got a text on her cell phone saying that today, even if it was her first day, she would be working until late because of a match.

"What happened?" Manon noticing Elide's expression through the rear-mirror asked.

"First day and I have to work until late." Elide groaned and thought about her feet. Even if it was fine most of the time, if she spent a long time standing up or doing physical work she would start to limp. "I need to buy some painkiller after work. It's going to be tough, I guess."

They both didn't have secrets anymore. Not after meeting one year ago during the worst part of their lives, during the time where trusting someone seemed unimaginable and relying in someone, even farthest from their reality. Because of an accident Elide suffered as a child, her ankle got messed up and, after not being taken care of, it got worse. Manon sometimes wondered if there was more to the story that Elide wasn't telling her, but she chose to let it go for the meantime.