[Mellisond] Short Stories

Attention [How Long Pt. 2]

{Song - Attention by Charlie Puth}

     Chase sat in his car, parked outside of a bank waiting for his friend, Dylan, who needed a ride home from work. He mindlessly scrolled through his phone while Hall & Oates played on the radio.

   Chase was trying to fill a void that existed within himself by looking through the images Amelia recently posted online. He looked at her pictures not to make himself feel better because it never did, but it was a type of torture that he'd long given himself over to.

     Chase wasn't too sure if what he was doing could be considered stalking, but he didn't like to dawn on that thought too much. Amelia smiled in every picture, posed and strategic, but Chase didn't recognize the insincerity in her posts; he just saw her living a life that didn't at all involve him.

     A hard rattling knocked Chase out of his daze and made him look up from his phone.

     "Unlock the door, you jerk," Dylan said tapping his knuckles on the passenger window.

     Chase quickly let him into the car, and Dylan grabbed Chase's phone out of his hand the second he got into his seat. Dylan scrunched his face at the picture of Amelia before turning off the phone and glaring at Chase. "You're being pathetic. She's not even worth all this," he said.

     "I'm not being pathetic."

     "You don't think looking at your ex's pics every day is pathetic?" Dylan asked raising one precarious eyebrow.

     "It's not every day."

     "It's practically every day."

     "Whatever, man," Chase said snatching his phone out of Dylan's grasp. Chase started driving down the road hoping Dylan would lose interest in talking about Amelia.

     "There's a new club opening downtown, and you're going," Dylan said as if he was giving Chase an order.

     "I don't like clubs; I've told you this."

     "It doesn't matter. You're just going to find a nice girl to hook up with and never talk to again." Chase looked at Dylan out of the side of his eye and shook his head.

     "That's not going to help me," Chase said stopping the car at a red light.

     "It will."

     "You're not getting me to go to some stupid club," Chase said agitated.

.

.

.

     "I hate you," Chase said walking into a club called 'Red Room'.

     "Yeah, well, you'll thank me later," Dylan said grinning.

     Chase and Dylan walked down a barely lit staircase into a barely lit room where the walls were a deep red as if blood was streaming onto the floor. You couldn't move in any direction without nearly bumping into someone else.

     It took only a couple minutes before the loud music started to go to Chase's head, and he didn't know what to do with himself. Dylan was busy trying to talk over the music with some guy. The only thought that kept repeating itself and clung to his mind was 'I need a drink'.

     Dylan wasn't paying any attention to Chase, so he easily ducked away. At the bar, his shoulders were sunken as he sat waiting for the bartender to come towards him, but he was busy chatting up some girls.