I woke up with my head pounding, still in the passenger seat of Murray's car. I had awoken abruptly, jumping in my seat at a loud bang that I would later discover was a car running over a speed bump. It was like I'd been hit by a truck and my head felt overwhelmingly heavy.
A panicky feeling suddenly came over me as I came to the realization that Murray was no longer in the car and I had no idea where I was. It was dark and every few seconds, blindingly bright lights would pass by. However, my panic ceased when I discovered that I was sitting in a parking structure. The issue was that I still didn't know where I was or how long I'd been asleep for.
Pulling down the car mirror, I noticed that my mascara had flaked off and was now scattered underneath my eyes. There was a large red mark on my forehead that must've been where I'd pressed it up against the window while I slept. The pain of my headache really started to kick in then, as I brought my hands up to massage my temples briefly.
"Jesus," I mumbled. It was clear that I couldn't sit in the parking structure forever, so I unbuckled my seatbelt and slowly worked up the motivation to open the car door and step out. Everything seemed about four times louder outside of the car, causing my head to pound so hard it nearly split in two. I must have looked like hell, but I was hardly paying attention to my appearance.
It was now obvious to me that we'd arrived at the apartment complex, I just had no idea when or how. This bothered me. It was very rare for me to fall asleep during the day. It always gave me an uneasy feeling that I'd missed something important, which in this case I clearly had.
After ringing Murray about seven times, resulting in no answer, I decided on taking things into my own hands. Of course I had no idea which floor our apartment was on, so it would take alot of wandering and guessing until I hopefully came across Murray somewhere in the building. Although knowing her, she could've be anywhere in town by that point. I made a mental note to myself to cuss her out when I finally found her, and continued on towards what looked like an elevator on the other side of the structure.
The flickering, flourescent lights felt like they were melting my eyes right out of my skull as I walked. I was beginning to grow more focused on finding some asprin, rather than my friend.
This was just like Murray to leave me alone, asleep in the car in a parking structure. She may have been my best friend, but she had absolutely no common sense. I was suddenly starting to remember all of the times that we'd gone to a bar and she'd gone home with some guy, leaving me alone with a bunch of drunk, greasy-haired men and no ride home. As you can imagine, I only got angrier as I reached the elevator.
I noticed the doors starting to open, letting someone else out. It was Murray, all smiles. I stopped dead in my tracks and put on my best pissy face, throwing my arms up into the air.
"Hey!" she exclaimed. Her smile agitated me to the point where I thought I might punch her straight in the mouth.
"What the fuck?" I spat, crossing my arms.
Murray's expression quickly changed and morphed into a much more somber one. "Excuse me?" she retorted, raising one of her eyebrows at me. "What's wrong with you?"
I merely shook my head and couldn't help but laugh a little. "You left me. In the car, asleep, in a parking garage."
One thing I would never understand about Murray, was the way that she never seemed to be able to distinguish between right and wrong. She was the type of person who could put someone else through hell, and not feel any need to even make an effort to apologize. She really had no moral code, which made it incredibly difficult for me to keep our friendship alive. There came a certain time where it had begun to feel like a chore to be Murray's friend. Like it was more of an obligation than something that I actually wanted.
YOU ARE READING
Smother
RomanceAn intelligent and softspoken artist, Mavis Castor lives a quiet life in Santa Barbara, California. She and her childhood friend Murray leave their three other friends behind to pursue their careers in art, in another small beach town hours away. Af...