Page 50 of Push & Pull
Why was Simone’s fight or flight response peaked, though?How I felt the other morning…As if she were drugged.That person tried to break into our room last night…As if they were targeted.
Now, this?
“Hey!” Simone pounded on the bathroom door, aware that few people could probably hear her over the bumping music and caterwauling of the karaoke bar. “Anyone out there? The door’s stuck!” She pulled out her cell phone. There was barely enough signal for her to send a distress signal to Petra.“Stuck in the bathroom. It’s like someone’s jammed the door from the outside. Could you check it out?”Now, if Petra didn’t check her messages while making friends at the bar…
Shit. What was Simone going to do?
“Helloooo!” She pounded on the door again. “Anyone out there? Could use some help! The door’s jammed!”
Her hand lowered from the door as soon as the numbness settled in. It was soon enough to hear the rustling behind her.
Simone whipped around. The rectangular window that was poised high up the wall had opened. She swore it wasnotopened before!
A shadow flashed by the already darkened window.
“H… hey!” Simone pounded her hand against the door again, this time with the urgency of a woman trapped without air. “Anyone! Can you hear me? I need help!”
She couldn’t tell if voices were tittering behind her. Not with the subdued sounds of karaoke music filtering down the hall. Simone could, however, hear her heartbeat pounding in her head.It’s not safe here. We have to go!That was all she heard alongside her heart. The urgency of her subconscious telling her toget the fuck out!
What the hell was she supposed to do?
The door opened as suddenly as it had jammed shut. Simone gasped in surprise as Petra appeared before her, phone in one hand.
“Damn, girl.” Petra only had eyes for Simone as she clasped her palm over her chest and immediately regretted looking like a frightened old woman. “That was one stuck door! What’s up?” Both of Petra’s hands landed on her hips as she stepped out of the way for Simone. “You got claustrophobia or something?”
Simone looked over her shoulder. The window was still open.It absolutely was not before.She swore it.
“The door… it was stuck.” Simone cleared her throat and wiped her bangs away from her eyes. “Someone… someone opened the window up there.”
“Huh?” Petra looked up the moment a woman ambled down the hall as if gunning right for the bathroom. “Don’t tell me you’re seeing things.”
Simone pushed past her. She wasn’t comfortable until she was in the hallway, well within sight of the other patrons of the bar that night. First thing she noticed was that the man in the surgical mask and hoodie was no longer there.
“Can we go?” Simone kept close to the wall, far away from any windows. “I know you got a drink, but…”
“I actually haven’t bought anything yet.” Petra got out of the way of the woman who wanted to use the bathroom. Simone had half a mind to tell her to not go in there but knew she would sound crazier than ever if she tried it. “You okay?”
“Not really. I guess I’m a bit frazzled from last night. Remember? Someone trying to break into our room?”
The gravity of Simone’s worries finally hit Petra, whose frown was monumentally reassuring as she took Simone’s hand and gave a curt nod. “Let’s go back to our room. I think the crowd is getting to you.”
“I could have told you that,” Simone said as Petra tugged on her arm. “Didn’t want to come here to begin with!”
The loud music enveloped them as they pushed through the growing crowd of a karaoke bar in Washington, DC. “But you had fun!” Petra called over her shoulder.
Simone held her sweater over her chest as she allowed Petra to pull her through the crowd. Soon, the cool night breeze hit her. “It was certainly a time!”
They stumbled onto the sidewalk, filled with people fanning themselves and smoking cigarettes. The bar’s security joked with one of the regulars who hung outside with him. The occasional person passing through paid no mind to the two women holding hands beneath the old-fashioned marquee advertising a free drink to all those who signed up to sing.
Simone finally allowed herself to breathe.
“You’re in a hurry to get back to the room,” Petra said, sidling up next to the woman who almost snapped the buttons off her own sweater. “Because you want to spend somequalityalone time with me.”
She was lucky Simone didn’t snatch her hand away. “My world does not revolve around you right now.”
“Maybe not.” Petra weaved them between small groups of people and the smoke clouds they created. “But it sure can tonight.”
Simone had no idea what to say to that. After all, she was a woman of many contradictions – and hypocrisies.
