How The Heartaches Come And They Go

Chapter 5

The ringing of the doorbell awoke Marieke. A glimpse at her alarmclock told her it was just after two in the morning. At first she thought it must have been part of her dream, but than she heard the ringing again. Who could it be at two in the morning? Being a little worried something might have happened the young girl slipped out of bed, to first check on Agnetha and make sure that she was still asleep before going downstairs and taking a look through the peephole. Much to her surprise Marieke saw Frida standing in front of the door. As she turned the key in the lock she heard someone shouting from outside.
"Frida, don't ring the bell. You'll wake her up. It's the middle of the night for christ's sake. Get back in the car, please." Aftet hesitating to open the door Marieke recognized the voice, it was Benny's.
"No, I need to know that she's gonna be ok.", Frida yelled back. Marieke had only met the two of them once, very briefly a few days after her arrival in Sweden. She opened the door.
"Oh you're not who I was expecting." Marieke was hit with a wif of alcohol as Frida spoke.
"You stayed here? To take care of her?" Before Marieke could answer, Frida turned around to yell at Benny again:
"Why didn't you tell me she wasn't all on her own?"
"You didn't let me get a word in." Came the reply from Benny who was now making his way up to the door. Still more than surprised Marieke didn't know what to say or whether to let them in.
"Well, I am here to check on Agnetha, to make sure she will be fine."
"It's two in the morning, Agnetha is fast asleep.", was the first thing Marieke managed to say.
"Don't worry I won't wake her. I just need to see that she is taken care off." With that Frida had already let herself in and was tumbling up the stairs. Completely overwhelmed by the whole situation Marieke gave Benny a confused look. He too came in and closed the door behind him.
"I'm sorry, she is drunk and I just told her that Björn and the kids went on vacation alone, because Agnetha was sick. So she insisted on stopping by to check on her. She clearly didn't know you stayed here as well."
"I hope she won't wake her, Agnetha has been having quite the fever dreams."
"No, don't worry. She will probably just hold her hand for a bit and than we can finally go home." Benny scratched his beard.
"And you back to bed." Slightly embarassed Marieke started to fidget with the belt of her dressing gown.
"Would you like a cup of tea or maybe coffee in the mean time?" Before he could answer they could already hear Frida stumbling back down the stairs.
"She is burning up, I put a wet washcloth on her forehead to cool her down." She announced while half way down the stairs.
"Did you give her some aspirin? And has she eaten anything today? Her favourite is chicken soup, that will probably  make her feel a lot better. And-"
"Honey, I think it's time that we go home now. Both Marieke and the two of us need some sleep to. And at least one of us also needs to sober up.", interrupted Benny his girlfriend. But Frida ingored him:
"You take good care of her, right? I know it's only the flu, but still. Oh and she likes ginger tea, that'll be good for her too." Frida seemed lost in her own train of thought.
"Don't worry Ms. Lyngstad, I'm taking the best care of Agnetha that I can."
"See, darling she is in good hands, now let us go home." Benny pleaded again.
"I just need to say goodbye to my poor Agnetha." And with that she staggered up the stairs again, only to come down again less than a minute later.
Benny apologized again for Frida's drunk decision to check on Agnetha at two in the morning, while Frida herself insisted she wasn't going to apologize, she just did what every best friend would have done. Then they left as suddenly as they had arrived.
Before she went back to bed Marieke checked on Agnetha once again, only to find lipstick prints on Agnetha's cheeks where Frida must have kissed her. She smiled. Just as Marieke was about to leave the room she could hear Agnetha whisper:
"Frida? You know we can't do this any more, don't you?"
Though Marieke was confused as to the meaning behind what Agnetha had just said, she didn't think of it as much more than the gibberish of a half asleep feverish Agnetha.