TANK

6 (plot)

As I pull into my apartment I notice one of my roommate's cars parked in one of our assigned spots, which surprises me, as I didn't expect to see her for another day, at least. I feel thankful for that, it will be, at the very least, a distraction from the way I took my life and fucked it up last night and this morning. I turn my car off and walk inside. Before I can even get my key in the door it swings open.

"And where the hell have you been??" Nora's bright voice chirps at me with energy and fervor I couldn't even fathom at 10 am. I shoulder past her, kicking my shoes off and dropping my bag of clothes on the floor before collapsing on our couch. "I'll tell you," I start, rolling my head to face her, "but only if you tell me why the hell you're back already." Her face scrunches up and she huffs indignantly. "Fine," she points her spatula at me, "but only because I was gonna bend your ear off about it anyways no matter what you said." I huff a laugh, relieved that some things will always be the same.

She stomps back into our kitchen, cooking something. "So it's not really that exciting, but I have to bitch before I literally explode. So we were having a normal fucking dinner, right?" I listen to her story, as well as the sound of her aggressively scraping the pan of whatever she's cooking. "Suddenly, out of nowhere this bitch, you remember my step-sis Bella right? Well anyways she was there for some fucking reason." Nora sighs, clicking the stovetop off and digging through the cupboard for a plate. "Anyways, this bitch has the audacity to ask what I think of the protests. And I tell her," the clang of a plate on the counter, "That like any human with the bare minimum of a moral fucking backbone, I'm in support of BLM, and that what happened was disgusting and unforgivable." I hear her scraping her food onto her plate. She rounds the corner into the living room holding a plate of eggs that smell fucking amazing and brandishing a fork like a weapon. "And you know what she says? You know what she fucking says?" Her voice shifts into a whinier pitch. "Well maybe what the police did was wrong but nobody's going to take them seriously if they keep rioting snd destroying property." I groan audibly with her. "Fucking right?" She exclaims. One of the downsides to growing up rural: ignorant people, often including family members. "Heres the worst part," she punctuates each word with the stab of her fork, "No one would back me up." I shake my head in solidarity with her. "So, I decided I don't fucking need this, I'm leaving. So I left. Now I'm here." I lean into her shoulder still shaking my head. "The current state of the world could leave anyone speechless." I reply.

"So anyways, enough of that." She addresses me, "What the hell happened to you that you couldn't make it home?" I groan and shut my eyes. "It's a long story, and I don't know if I fucked up big time or if I fucked up big time." She perks up at that, eyeing me with the energy of a vulture eying a particularly delicious piece of roadkill. "Do tell." She says.

"So it started last night," I begin. "I went to the protests alone, and stayed too late. I was trying to head home and got hit with tear gas, this... guy in full riot gear ran up and threw the tear gas back and took me to get medical help. But, the cops were awful, it was terrifying to be on the streets, so he invited me into his apartment to flush my eyes since it was so close, and I said yes, because I was scared and didn't know what else to do." With the last admission Nora eyes me angrily, but manages to keep her opinions quiet. "So I'm just alone in this guy's apartment because he went back out to help whoever he could, scrubbing tear gas off myself. After, I decide there's no way I'm waiting around for this guy to show back up, I have to go. But right as try to leave, he comes back and I get a good look at him." I grab Nora's face in my hands, "I shit you not, this man is like, 7 ft tall, and built." Her lips part in surprise. "And he tells me, 'you can't leave, its bad out there', he looks fucking scared so I believe him-" "No-" Nora interjects, sounding scandalized, but a grin spreads across her face. "Yes," I reply, "I sit back down and stay. And it's like, a little weird but I feel like I can trust this guy, y'know. We both go to sleep but I keep getting scared and waking up, so I go out to him and crawl in next to him to sleep. I'll spare you the details but we end up, fucking fucking." Nora draws in an all too excited gasp. "I came four times." She blinks at me, speechless. I level her with a stare, "But, this morning came around and I got scared. I blew him off and distanced myself. I made him drop me off at my car and leave me there, with no way to contact me." Norah's face contorts for a minute in disbelief, but her expression softens as she sees my face fall. "But it felt... so right in the moment." I finish, voice choked.