The Flaw With Perfection

Chapter Eleven "Two sides to every story"

Light. It blinded Lou, he cupped his hands. around his eyes to see where it was coming from. It was Mandy standing in front of an open door, the light was coming from behind her. Without thinking, Lou ran to her, but the more he ran the farther she became and the smaller the light got. He called out for Mandy and reached out his hand but she only looked away and shut the door. She had left him alone...in the dark.

Lou woke up panting and disorientated, he was sweating and lifted his hand to wipe his brow, or tried to. He couldn't move his arms, just then a voice came from behind him
"Don't bother, its no use" Lou looked around, it was Mandy!
They were sitting back to back on chairs tied up together. Lou was overjoyed "Mandy I found you, you're ok!"
"Well if tied up to a chair is ok then yeah I'm great."
Something was wrong, Mandy didn't sound normal, her voice was almost sad, she sounded defeated. Lou ignored it and went on "we need to try to get free and escape" Mandy sighed "I already tried, it won't work" Lou blinked twice confused, "what are you talking about, this isn't like you, you should be the one telling me not to give up, what happened?"
There was a pause and Lou didn't know if Mandy had fallen asleep or was just ignoring him, but then she said: "Lucky bat knew something, something he couldn't possibly have known." Lou waited for her to elaborate but she didn't say anything more. Lou didn't want to pry but he knew if he didn't, Mandy wouldn't be able to go back to normal "What did he know?" He asked
Another silence, Mandy awfully loved silence right now, Lou already asked, all he could do now was wait.
Finely Mandy replied, "I liked you so much." Lou was taken aback by that but didn't comment, "more like I wanted to be like you so much, I adored you, you were perfect...or I thought you were, and I wanted to be perfect just like you, but how could I when I wasn't as thin as you..." Again silence and again Lou said nothing and waited patiently for Mandy to continue. "So I stopped eating, I figured that I would lose the most weight the fastest that way... I was so stupid, I stopped eating for five days and all I drank was water." She bitterly chuckled "and even at the end of that I wasn't as slim as I would've liked."
Lou finely said "so what was it that made you stop"
"I almost fainted, if you hadn't been the one who caught me I probably would have continued." Lou thought back and remembered "oh yeah you were walking and I saw you were unsteady so I ran up to you and stopped you from falling, you probably didn't know that the only reason I caught you was to make myself look good...and I'm ashamed because of it"
Mandy smiled "well, even so, you made me think that I was special for you to catch me, even if I wasn't as slim as you"
Lou turned to look at Mandy
"you are special, but not because I caught you."
Mandy looked back at him and smiled.
A moment passed and then Lou said "I would never have pegged you to like me, I thought you hated me"
"Why did you think that?"
Lou recalled the memory "remember the time you pushed me down a flight of stairs"
Mandy raised her voice in defence "I was trying to ask you a question and when I tried to grab your shoulder I kinda just pushed you, accidentally of course"
"Uh hu," Lou said unconvinced "then what about that time you slapped me randomly!
"There was a mosquito on your cheek!"
" you could have just told me"
"But by then it might have been too late"
"It's not like I would've died"
"Yeah but your face would've been red and swollen"
"It was red and swollen anyway because you slapped me so hard!"
They paused and then burst out laughing uncontrollably. The mood lightened up, they laughed so much that their sides got sore, just then Lou felt Mandy's hand, he held onto it, and she didn't pull away.
"Well I guess there's two sides to every story," Lou said, if he had his arms free he would have wiped away a happy tear.
"Yeah" Mandy replied
At that moment all was perfect... Well besides them being tied up with no way out.
Then they heard the door handle begin to rattle, Mandy gripped Lou's hand tighter.
The door began to open, it was Moxy.
"I'm here to save you," she said
Lou widened his eyes
"What?"