So, Here I Am

Chapter Thirty Three Lightning Strikes Twice

Maggie took the elevator up to the apartment as usual, stepping out into the hallway, took the few steps to the apartment door, and opened it quietly.  As she made her way to the kitchen to get a drink, she could hear the shower was in use, and as she approached the bedroom, she heard Laurent shout through the bathroom door

"Get ready for me honey, I'm gonna make you scream my name 'till you can't remember anyone else's !"

-- Oooh, that's hot ! -- thought Maggie -- he must have heard me come in the door --

"Do we have time?" she yelled back, giggling to herself at the thought of a passionate quickie before Larry and Issy arrived.

The shower turned off.

Then silence.

Laurent came out of the bathroom with a towel around his waist.

Maggie rounded the bedroom doorway with a smile on her face.

The boy in the bed looked like he'd been struck by lightning.

Maggie looked at Laurent.

Laurent looked at the boy.

The boy looked at Maggie.

If the scene before them hadn't been so paralysing, so fucked up, it would have remeinded you of one of those stupid movies, you know the ones where lovers are running around a hotel corridor, just missing one another, then making an "uh oh" face, when they do actually meet, canned laughter in the background.

Laurent looked at Maggie now, and the boy glared at Laurent.  She thought "boy" she realised later, as he couldn't have been more than a teenager, certainly no older than twenty.

But she wasn't thinking at that precise minute.  She couldn't think.

Laurent moved to make his way to her.

"Maggie, I can ...."

"What ?  Explain ?  Who this is ?  What he's doing here ?  No, you can't.  There's no way, EVER, you can ...."  Tears sprang from her eyes, she had no control over them.  She was dizzy, grabbing the door frame stop herself from falling to the floor.

She felt like she couldn't breathe.

She was drowning, and she felt she might never breathe again.

That would be a good thing though, right ?  Given what she was confronted with, right here, right now.

Laurent tried to move forward again.  The boy was still frozen in place, having obviously been struck by lightning.  Maggie roared at Laurent, shaking violently, her face red with rage.

"Don't you fucking take one more step!!!"  Again, she couldn't think.  Everything was guttural now, her voice, her heart.

Was her heart still there ? She couldn't tell.

Was it still beating ?

Why was it still beating ?

Laurent was crying now, the boy still imobilised in the bed.  Maggie uncurled herself from her fetal position, even though she was still on two feet.  She turned away from this .... spectacle ........devastation ....... walked ...... staggered ....... crawled, she can't remember .......to the front door ........ got outside somehow, closing the door behind her.

She took a few steps into the hallway, again those noises escaping from her, as if pain like this could make itself known as a sound.  She held herself around her waist, lowering her head, wanting to implode in on herself, while the ground swallowed her up.  Her legs gave out, her insides were heaving, apparently struggling to get out of her body.