#9 Friendship (English Version)

(For the Spanish version see below)

A kid was kicking a ball on the playground whilst he was looking after him. It was a sunny day and he felt the happiest man on earth for being there, that kid had inherited his eyes: a way of looking that tried to seek the infinity to get all the details. He knew that his son had inherited his intelligence and he had no doubts that one day, he will go far and achieve anything he wanted. He smiled, he was not worried at all.

They had spent a couple of hours there when he considered that it was time to go. He put the newspaper of the day in his bag and went where his son was playing with the ball. He barely could stand up but despite of his young age, every time he fell down, he rose up as fast as he could, trying to learn something new. The kid suddenly realized that Thomas was there and stared to him with his blue eyes.

However, someone called the kid first.

“Martin, come here! Let’s go home.”

A woman approached them and took the kid into her arms but he was still looking at him.

“ What’s going on son? What are you looking for?”

The kid raised his little arm and pointed to Thomas. Chloé smiled to him.

“Come on little boy. Dad is waiting for us in the car. Let’s go…”

Chloé headed towards the opposite direction where a man was waiting inside a car. As soon as she saw him, they kissed each other and the unknown man smiled to the little Martin. The three get inside the car and it started to move.

Something was wrong, why they did not recognize him? Who was that man? He was not able to understand such situation. The sky turned black and even though, they were moving away into the darkness, Martin never stopped staring to him trying to make him follow them to horizon.

***

When he opened his eyes, he felt something wet. He tried to stand up but he was not able. His legs did not respond, and his head was about to explode. He tried to stand up: each breath was a pain. He felt dizzy and vomited something that he identified as a black liquid. When he finished, tears appeared on his eyes as a reminder of all the alcohol he had drunk that night.

He tried to look around to find where he was. Darkness had absorbed all the lights of the street and it was complete empty. He concluded that it should be around 4am and continued heading towards his home. He had done it again…

Then, Thomas touched his pockets and fortunately, he found all his belongings. He was feeling a bit better and soon he recognized the path to his apartment. He was not far. After all, he had been lucky. However, his right cheek was burning in pain and it was starting to swell. He imagined that his head had kicked the ground when he fell. He tried to remember and some memories of his night appeared inside his head, as if they were a puzzle that he had to solve.

***

It was not the first night that he needed to get drunk. In fact, he did it often and often. People usually think that they need to drink to forget, however, he knew perfectly that he did it in order to get lost in a world without end that did not belong to him anymore. For some reason, he transformed himself and to reach a fake world that was designed for him. The idea of giving up was not conceivable and that is why Thomas could not stop drinking.

His friend Grégoire had called him las Saturday evening to invite him to his party that would be held in his apartment. He and his girlfriend wanted to celebrate that they had been living together for 3 years and had insisted him to go and spend a good time with them and some of their friends. Thomas knew that Grégoire cared about him and although he did not feel like ready to go into a party, he thought that it maybe would be a great idea to forget his problems.

However, as soon as the door opened he knew that it had not been a good idea…

His old friend greeted him affectionately and invited to join the other guest on the living room. Some of them were drinking some wine and speaking about his lives. The ambiance was relaxed and Thomas thought that in other time he would have enjoyed that place.

“I’m so happy that you finally came! Grégoire’s always speaking about you. I wanted to meet you!”

“Yes, I guess I had to come to see your house…”

Aurore was Grégoire’s girlfriend. He was a small girl with a smiling face that transmitted kindness to everyone. He knew that she was trying to do whatever she could in order to make him feel better. She soon introduced him to the other guests without knowing what to do or say. He was sure that everyone knew about his background and that he went missing for years but nobody would dare to say something about that. He hated that feeling of compassion: he just wanted to be a normal guy having a good time. Something that was completely impossible at that moment: he was gone.

A few minutes later Grégoire came with a glass of wine and offered to him.

“You have to understand them. They would feel bad if they told you something and you didn’t like it. That’s why they prefer not to mention it.”

Thomas remembered that before disappearing, Grégoire had another girlfriend and all their friends were different. He nostalgically looked at the people in the party.  Almost all of them were couples talking about their jobs, children or the new house they had been bought.

“I guess you’re right. I don’t know what to say to them.”

“Come on, you will see that it’s gonna be a good night!”

Thomas was completely out of context. He tried not to think about how different they party would have been if Chloé would have been there. Perhaps, they would have been talking about his new home, their jobs or their soon. He looked to the cup on wine he was holding.

“You’re right, let’s give a chance to this party.”

***

He did not know what had happened but he already had enough. He could not stay any longer in that place. He felt overwhelmed and he did not know what was about to say. He stared at the girl he had in front of him which was kissing a guy that had just arrived to the party. He knew her name but all that he could remember was that he had been talking to her all along the night. It looked like she was very interested about his story and for a moment, he thought that maybe he could have a chance with her. But of course, he was wrong.

“I’m going home Grégoire”

“What? But we haven’t finished yet!”

“I’ve had enough. This is bullshit. I’m off.”

He took his coat and slammed the door as hard as he could without saying goodbye to anyone. He walked down the stairs and in the last step he fell into the ground. He stood up and he finally reach the street. He could not walk properly but he did not feel pain. He started to cry in silence.

“Thomas, wait!” Grégoire had followed him. “Can you explain me what’s wrong with you? Why did you leave the party in that way?”

“Are you serious? Haven’t you realized it yet? I thank you for your invitation but your party was the biggest shit I’ve ever seen.”

“What? I only wanted you had a good time… I thought that it would be good for you. I’ve seen you depressed and I wanted to make you feel better…”

“And what do you want? To get me down in the dumps? You were only couples! What did you want? To show me you are better? You know that I haven’t accepted it yet, and you were talking there about your fucking lives, houses, children… definetly bullshit!”

“I think that you are getting us wrong Thomas. I’m sorry that my party hasn’t helped you. I only wanted…”

“That I had a good time with that fucking whore you have brought? Are you telling me that it was to cheering me up? Did you thought that the poor Thomas has forget about hanging out with girls it was a good idea to bring one for him?”

“I asked Aurore to bring one of their friends that was single so that’s why Caroline came… You still need to forget Chloé, Thomas. I thought it was probably a good idea that you met someone else.”

“Bullshit! That’s just bullshit. So then tell me: who the hell was the fucking guy she was kissing?! His father?”

“I didn’t know she was to bring a guy. Aurore didn’t even know either! It’s not my fault. Caroline apparently has asked her if he could come during the party...”

“Shut up please and go to the hell! If you want to help me just forgive me and be happy with your fucking bullshit life as all of you had been doing during those last 6 years!”

“Thomas, you are unfair with us. We are only trying to help you. You need to overcome your problems.”

“I need to overcome what?”

“The fact you were gone those years. Why you never told us…”

“I’ve never disappeared asshole! I’ve never left Paris. Can you hear me? Never!”

“Thomas, you are drunk and you are saying bad things. You know perfectly that we are trying to help you…”

“You can’t help me if you don’t believe me! You, assholes, think that I’m not telling you the truth. So do you want my opinion? You can go the hell. I’m dead for…”

He couldn’t finish the sentence. Grégoire punched into his cheek and he lost his consciousness. The last thing that Thomas saw was his old friend leaving him alone in the street.

“Get lost and don’t come here again. From now onwards you are a dead man for me. You actually died 6 years ago.”