Page 81 of Dark Room Junkie

“And what’s he doing in a day clinic?” Tom asked beside me. “Isn’t that ...?”

“A psychiatric clinic,” Chris nodded.

“Shit,” Marco muttered. “What’s wrong with him?”

“I already said he didn’t have it easy,” Chris put his glass on the counter and straightened up.

“And how do you know that?”

“His mother and mine are friends. As I heard, she mentioned a relapse. Whatever that means.”

“A relapse?” Marco laughed. “I’m starting to like this guy more and more. Perfect son-in-law on the outside, but a real bad guy in reality.”

“That’s not funny,” Chris declared in a serious tone.

I rested my elbows on the counter and rubbed my face. I was freezing, and my hands were trembling. “This is my fault.”

“Nonsense,” Tom said immediately. “It’s definitely not your fault.”

“I turned him down at the concert. Even then, he seemed like he wasn’t doing well. I ignored it.”

“He’ll bounce back. He’s doing okay so far,” Chris said, sounding confident. “He agreed to therapy on his own. So, he’s on the right path.”

On the right path.

Damn it, man!

I couldn’t help but still wonder about him. I had completely misjudged him during our first meeting. As Marco had aptly put it, Alex was putting in all the effort to present a flawless exterior.

Fuck! He’s like me!

At that moment, everything became too much for me. “I need to go,” I said and downed my soda in one gulp. I needed to get my mind off him as soon as possible. If that meant spending a night at home, then so be it. But I had to get Alex out of my head because everything inside me was screaming for him. After grabbing my things from the cloakroom, I said goodbye to the guys.

“Everything okay?” Tom asked, visibly concerned.

I responded with a brief nod.

“Call if anything comes up,” he added.

“Yeah,” I replied, slightly confused, as I shook hands with him.

“Is it because of Alex?” Chris asked.

“Dude,” Marco said to the drummer. “You’re really clueless when it comes to these things.”

I couldn’t even be mad at Marco anymore. On the contrary. It surprised me how much sensitivity he was showing at that moment, while Chris seemed to have been truly oblivious. It had been Marco who stated the obvious when Alex had picked me up in his car from band practice. Unable to sit there and talk any longer, I left Hyde and stepped out into the freezing cold.

The fresh air cleared my head, and I inhaled a deep breath, but the shock about Alex remained for a while. The walk home took less than fifteen minutes. Like a mantra, I recalled Chris’s words.

He’s doing okay so far.

He’s on the right path.

So, there’s no reason to keep getting worked up about it.

Yet, I clung to my phone like a madman, torn whether to text him.

Damn it! Get it together! After all, you’re not in love with him or anything.

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