15 minutes

I took another puff from my joint and the smoke continued to fill my dinky apartment. I sunk deeply into my sofa, wondering how my life had turned out like this: living alone in a shit apartment with a girlfriend who has a mouth the size of Russia.

Bottles and cans of alcohol had spread out across the floor. I groaned, too tired to clean up the mess I’d let accumulate for months. Isn’t this what girlfriends were for?

I must have dozed off because the sound of a knock at the door had awoken me. I ignored, feeling much too tired to get my lazy ass off the couch. The knocking soon gave me a slight headache, causing me to slowly peel myself from the couch and approach the door.

“I don’t want it!” I yelled at the door, expecting it to be some damn salesman.

“Travis!” a shrill voice came from through the door.

Speaking of girlfriends…

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I let out yet another groan. I’ve been doing this for too long now.

“Open the door!” I unlocked the door slowly, hoping to provoke her further. It didn’t work because she burst through the door and pulled me into a hug, but I pushed her away. I must have been asleep for a while because the smoke from the apartment had cleared up.

“I called and you didn’t pick up! I was getting so worried,” she said frantically. I frowned, she worried too much. Hasn’t she ever heard of something called space? I wondered why she hadn’t left me yet, I really do. She wasn’t a Californian beauty but she wasn’t bad. With her cute, little ass she could probably get another man, one much better than me.

I wonder what she’d be like with another man. He would probably appreciate her much more than I do.

“Why are you here?” I asked, walking into the kitchen.

“Well, I was—what are you doing?” She noticed me taking some pills from the medicine cabinet.

“I have a headache, is there a problem?” There is. Everything is a fucking problem with her.

“Have you been drinking again?”

Silence.

“Smoking?”

Another silence.

I guess I must have done my job perfectly in infuriating her.

“I told you to stop.” She said it softly, but this was the calm before the storm.

“I didn’t say I would listen,” I said back just as calmly.

“Fuck, why do you always have to do this?” She was on the verge of yelling, I could tell. She stomped into my room angrily, as if that would solve anything.

“Hey. Hey! Don’t go in there!” Too late. A loud crash came from my room as she rushed out angrily.

“What is that in your room?!”

I guess the stripper forgot to take all of her clothes.

I chuckled as I chugged down a glass of water. She frowned; I guess she didn’t like my response. She headed towards the door in a huff.

“You disgust me.” Her final words before she slammed the door shut and leaving me alone in the dirtiness of my own home. At first I wanted to laugh, maybe I had finally driven her away for good.

But I didn’t laugh.

“Fuck.” I placed my head in between my hands. An empty, unpleasant feeling arose in me. It was as if I had a tick gnawing at the pit of my stomach. I rolled back onto the couch, hoping to fall asleep but I couldn’t.

I walked out of the door, half expecting to see her angry face there to stop me and half expecting her to be long gone. The latter appeared to be true.

I hopped into the car and picked up my phone. 7 missed calls. A part of me wanted to call her back, but I didn’t. Instead I called a friend of mine.

“Hey, I need a drink tonight. I’ll meet you there.”

A picture of her sat on my dashboard. She smiled beautifully as her arms were grasped around me. How long ago was this? Four years? I wonder why we weren’t like that anymore.

I picked up the photo, wondering whether she was still around because she needed me or because I needed her. I didn’t decide on an answer before tossing the photo into the glove compartment and driving off.