The Photographer - h.s

Slip Away

Vic

I sat on my balcony with a cup of coffee sitting beside me, and my ashtray beside that as I finished off the joint in my hand. The loneliness in the seat beside me where Arlo used to sit was heavy today, since being back I framed a picture of him to keep right by the glass sliding door to come out here, this truly was his balcony anyway. There was a knock at the door that brought my focus back, Sophia must've forgotten her key... again. She can't keep track of anything unless it's physically attached to her. I got up and walked back, placing my empty mug on the counter as she knocked again.

"Well if you didn't forget your key..." I said as I unlocked the door and opened it, startled to find that Sophia wasn't standing on the other side .

"Uh, hi." He said cautiously and I shook my head.

"Uh... Harry, hi. What are you.... What are you doing here?" I asked and he shrugged and pressed his lips together.

"You weren't answering my texts."

"Probably because I didn't want to talk to you."

"Just... please." He begged and I sighed and stepped aside, letting him in.

"Make it quick, Sophia is supposed to be on her way over and I wouldn't want to get caught bumping into if I were you." I told him truthfully and he nodded as he closed the door behind him. It felt so uncomfortable having him here, this felt so out of place. He took a deep breath and paused for a moment before he began.

"I uh... I'm in therapy..."

"I know."

"Well uh... the nightmares... well after a lot of discussion... well the extreme mental and physical exhaustion and the severe anxiety... I don't know, I had no idea how to handle it all. And it's not excuse... there are no excuses for the things I said and did to you... I thought I was struggling, but I didn't even realize that that was nothing compared to the hell I've been in for the last 2 months since you left."

"Harry..." there's a couple soft knocks on the door and my heart stopped as the door unlocked and Sophia stepped in and froze. She looked at me and then at Harry, and back to me and started laughing.

"Oh.... Oh good. You managed to get your way in here."

"Sophia-"

"What are you doing, Harry?" She asked him annoyed and he nodded.

"Well uh..."

"No, I don't actually care why you're here, there's no logical fucking reason that you came over here today. None."

"Sophia..." I started and she looked at me and shook her head.

"No, I'm sorry but no. You have not one single idea what kind of hell you have put her through. You have no fucking clue and you probably didn't even fucking care, you spineless piece of human garbage. You lied to her, you gaslighted her, you lead her on, and then you ruined her."

"Sophia-" he tried to interrupt her and she held up her hand to him and scoffed.

"You don't get to have an opinion. You weren't here sitting in bed with her for a week while she cried and couldn't leave her apartment. You weren't here when she called me from London crying about how you ruined the city for her. You are nothing but an arrogant, pathetic, small excuse of a man and nothing will change my mind on that. And don't get me wrong, I am absolutely loving the sight of you crawling back here with your tail between your legs because you realized she's better than anyone you'll ever meet. And I don't care about how much you're going to tell her you regret what you did, and I really don't care about whatever issues you had going on, because frankly my only issue right now, is you. So why don't you do everyone here a favor, and leave her the fuck alone, Harry." I had no idea what to say, Harry looked pale white like he was going to vomit at any moment, and I could nearly see the steam coming out of Sophia's ears.