5

Chris woke up in the couch with the worse hangover he had had in ages. He remembered the previous night as a blur, most of the events and words had disappeared but the feelings of rage, despair and abandon were still there. His laptop was closed in the middle of the room, and he looked at it with disgust. He knew that opening it would mean speaking with Dianne, and he wasn’t ready.

He stumbled into the kitchen, and opened the fridge. He looked at the eggs, the cheese and OJ for a while, trying to understand what it all meant, and finally closed the door again. He walked over to the sink, and splashed cold water into his face. He immediately regretted doing so. He opened the fridge again and took the OJ out. He left it on the kitchen counter and went into the bathroom. Wile he was standing, he started looking for his phone, and found it with the battery flat. He cursed, but his thoughts turned immediately to the fact that he needed to buy clothes. He had been saving for plane tickets to visit Dianne, but that didn’t seem important anymore, so he started planning a visit to the mall. Maybe he would finally get that tattoo.

“Things are loo-oo-oo-ooking good,” he chanted as he crossed the house towards the kitchen. He saw the OJ and wondered why it was outside of the fridge, so he opened it and tossed it inside. He picked the cheese and threw it away, then realized the bin didn’t have a bag, so he picked it up again. He searched the cupboards for a bag, but found none, so he returned the cheese to the fridge. He thought about writing a shopping list, but decided against it after realizing he would probably leave it home anyway.

As he walked back into the living room, he saw the laptop sitting in the middle of the room, offering a window into the outside world. He decided he wasn’t ready for news yet, so he simply plugged the phone without turning it on and he went straight to the shower. When he came out, he was feeling slightly invigorated, even though his head still hurt.

He turned on his phone, expecting no new messages, and was instantly bombarded by a number of missed calls and messages the likes of which he had never seen.

He almost dropped the phone but managed to regain his cool. He decided that Dianne must had made public the break up, and these were concerned people worrying about him. He silenced the phone, as he didn’t want to talk to anyone yet. He needed coffee first.

He grabbed the keys and his wallet, and opened the door to live his house. The hundreds of reporters that had been waiting for him to appear all reacted a second too late, and they were only able to ask a few incoherent questions before Chris locked himself back in.