Straitjacket

Chapter IV

“Why are you here?”, I seeth, not bothering to be polite. I rub my knuckles together - having them in constraints even for a short time numbs the feeling out of them.

Liam raises an eyebrow. “To check up on you, of course. You’re my bestfriend - ”

“Not! I am not. Not anymore, not since you abandoned Claire while she was pregnant for some stupid job opportunity at NASA. Not when you’ve known all along how much I loved her”, I say, cutting across him.

Silence fills the whole room – the two halves of the room anyway, separated by a huge floor-to-ceiling sheet of plexiglass. Small circular holes were permeated on its surface on small concentric patterns, to allow communication between the two users of the room – the sane and the insane.

“Brother - ”

“I am not your brother!”, I bellow, punching the glass with all my might. A guard hurries toward us, Taser at the ready, but Liam signals him that everything’s fine.

“Yes, you are. You still are.”

I fume, pacing back and forth the room, wanting nothing more than to break the stupid sheet of glass that separated me from my former colleague and bestfriend, along with his infuriating face.

“I wanted to see you. If you were doing OK. If they were treating you fine - ”

“Where’s Claire?”

“Alex. You must understand. You must accept that she’s no longer - ”

“No longer what? Mine? Of course, she isn’t. Not anymore. Not now that you’ve taken her from me!”

“Alex! Calm down, man. I understand that you’re not in the fit state of mind to take everything in, all at once - ”

“You telling me I’m crazy?”, I say in almost a whisper. “You know that I am not, Liam. You know that. I am not cra - ”

“Then why are you here? Tell me, huh? What are you doing here, Alex?”, he raises his voice to match mine. His handsome features scrunch up as he’s losing patience, trying to get me to understand something that I’m clearly trying to reject. Heck, I’m the one who’s supposed to lose patience. Not you. You have no right.

“You just wanted Claire for yourself - ”

“Enough!”, he spits. “Enough with your bullshit!” Liam visibly looks furious now.

“Yes, enough”, says a new voice. “Enough of your shouting. You can hear each other just fine, right? God, you’re just in the same room, the two of you, not on the opposing sides of a football field.”

“Lexie. What are you doing? How did you - ?”, I ask, puzzled, turning to see her slip like a cat into the door. The guard outside seems not to notice anything.

“I was worried. And indeed, I have a good reason to be. You’re getting hammered here, Alex”, she says, winking at me, tossing the long sheet of golden-blonde hair over her shoulder.

“I am not getting hammered.”

“Aww, really? But I thought I heard - ”

“Just – just shush, OK?”, I press a finger to her lips and drag her into a corner, motioning for her to stay put.

Liam just shakes his head at the both of us. He starts pacing at the end of his room.

“Look, brother”, he starts. “Claire choosing me over you was not my fault. Neither is it Claire’s nor yours. You loved her. She was honest enough to admit that she can never reciprocate your feelings for her. She wanted to be free. Back to me. That’s why you let her go.”