Oli reached over to grab another photograph. “What about this one?” He smiled and showed it to Alice, who also seemed pleased to see it. I was anticipating something I might not want to hear, that might ruin my dignity, after seeing those two smile.
“Go on then.” I said, ripping the photograph from his hand and gripping it tightly so only I could see it.
Alice started the tale this time. “So, as we were freshly best friends, I wanted to test out what kind of person you were at a party. I hadn’t been properly pinging in a while, so I thought that this stupid party we were invited to, might have been the place for it… So long as I could trust you to look after me, if I got a bit too fucked up. So essentially, I didn’t know whether you were into the drugs scene or not, you told me you never really went to parties at university, so I was kind of worried you wouldn’t want to be around me when I was tripping.”
I sighed. “To be fair…” I said to her. “I remember university like it was yesterday. Everyone wanted me to try some form of drugs, but after a while I got sick of them trying to force me into it. That’s why I didn’t really go to parties. I wasn’t big on drinking either. I actually remember, for my degree, I studied and photographed people who were victims of overdoses or “bad trips” and interviewed them, and I did a huge three thousand word essay on the whole thing, meaning it was really…”
“Shut the hell up girl. I don’t even know you!” Alice shouted. She seemed kind of angry at me, which made me feel awkward for going on about it. She said more relaxed this time, “You, Laura, had the nickname Loopy Laura because you were practically a queen of taking and buying drugs. Once you got into it, you fucking loved it.”
“I would never, ever, do a single drug in my life!” I yelled at her, feeling irritated. “That’s not me.”
She grinned. “It was you though. You did them all. Just you wait until we get there. For now, let me carry on with the story, okay?” I nodded to her. “Alright” she began. “So, I picked up the smallest bag of MDMA from my dealer before the party, and I didn’t tell you I had it until later on. We had a great time at the party for the first few hours. Somebody had bought a shit tonne of Becks beer for the party, and you had at least four or five bottles in the first hour. You were so drunk, you kept blabbering on about everything and taking pictures of everyone. Anyway, I took you with me to the bathroom to take some of my Mandy that I had bought, and there you were, standing there completely frozen with fear, like the drugs were going to absorb into your body through the air. I told you to chill out, but you stormed out of the bathroom screaming, and went on a rant to a bunch of people you didn’t know about how easy it is to overdose. I still took the stuff, and when I was finally pinging, you had calmed down a bit, and were more concerned for me than angry. You told me it was my own choice, and that you respected it. So yeah, and that was how I ended up on the table, kicking the empty beers off and eating a Daim bar, as you do.” She was still grinning.
It didn’t really sound like me to respect that decision at all. Maybe I had too much to drink that night, or maybe I was influenced by what someone else had said to me, but either way, it seemed out of character for me to ‘respect’ someone who I had only just met, who was taking MDMA in a random bathroom in a random house.
Oli sat forward. “What about me!? Don’t forget about me!”
Alice smiled. “Oh yeah. So essentially, I knew Oli way back from college, my sister knew him a lot better because she used to work in a pub where he would do gigs. And he happened to be at that party!”
I turned to Oli. “You do gigs? So you’re like… a musician?”
“Does that shock you?” He said. “I’m a singer, actually. In a shitty metal band. But we are just starting up, we hardly know anybody that actually likes our sound.”
Alice interrupted. “Shut up, Oli, we don’t need to hear your sob story about your failing band every five fucking seconds.” Oliver lowered his head awkwardly and then Alice carried on. “So basically, I knew Oli, well sort of, at the time, and as soon as he saw me at the party he came over to say hello, but then he saw you standing next to me, and he got scared and turned around to walk away instead. But I’d already seen him, and as I was high as fuck, yelled out his name and ran over to him, because I didn’t really understand why he had turned away from me. So we started talking, and you were just, like, standing behind me, almost hiding, and I, being the stupid idiot that I was, awkwardly introduced you to him, even though you guys had already met. And that’s when he sorta blew up at you for not calling him.”
Why would I call him? He seems like a loser, I mean no offence to him, but I had just come out of University with a top degree in photography, I’ve worked with plenty of models and really attractive, intelligent people, yet this failing musician wanted me to call him back after he drove me home one time? Yeah right, I can understand why I didn’t call him…
Oli stood up and held out his tattooed hand to help me up too. He turned to Alice. “I didn’t blow up, and it wasn’t awkward. I just said hello to her, Alice, you’re totally making it up now.” I could tell he was embarrassed. “Lets just get poor Laura to bed, yeah? She’s had a hard enough time already, and I bet her head fucking hurts.”
Alice said her goodbyes to me, and offered to stay, but I really just wanted her to go, because I barely knew her. Oliver helped me up the stairs, got me some water, some painkillers, plumped my pillows and more. But then as soon as I got myself into bed, he laid down next to me, and I totally freaked out.
“I don’t know you, Oli.” I said.
“You do though. We have been together for nearly a year, you used to not be able to sleep without me…” He sadly got off the bed and moved away from me towards the door.
“I don’t remember that. I’m sorry.” I said.
He walked out of the door and as he turned to close it, said to me, “Don’t worry. It’ll come back soon. I promise you. Just sleep on it. You’ll remember everything we’ve made together soon.”

Notes