It is 9:00 in the evening. Sebastian has been sitting in front of the television in his room, on the floor, along with two empty cans of beer and a box of pizza containing no slices left. It is the same one from before, only now, not bothering to reheat the entire half left and just eating it cold.
He has been on his gaming console since arriving and will probably be on it until drowsiness knocks him out, if it even does.
His phone on the floor lights up — a text.
He glances on it for just a second, mainly out of instinct. He couldn't even see what it said or who it was from. His focus was on the television.
"Ah, fuck."
He momentarily lets go of the controller to pick up his phone. There are two messages from Rina.
[Heyy]
[Busy?]
He replies.
[Not really]
[Why?]
He lazily throws the phone on the floor to get back to his game.
Another text. A quick reply.
He pauses the game to pick up his phone again.
[Are you at home?]
He replies again.
[Yep]
He hasn't even put the phone down and there is already another reply.
[Good cos I'm at the elevator :))]
He smiles a little.
[Just come in]
[Playing]
Short and vague responses, but he knew that the person knew and would understand.
He drops the phone and gets back to his game. About three minutes later and he starts hearing footsteps.
His visitor peeks inside the dim room, the only light is from the television's reflecting on his face and the city lights outside the window.
"Hey."
The visitor notices the mess that's sharing the floor with.
"Are you placing food on the floor again?" she asks, but it was more of a passive lecture.
"Uhh, technically, there's no food left so," his attention still on the game.
He notices Rina just staring at him, furled eyebrows, like a disappointed and disapproving parent.
"Alright, alright, fine. Jeez" he pauses the game and picks up the cans and box, compelled to do so.
Her frown turns upside down as he takes the rubbish outside and to the garbage.
"So, what's up?" he walks over to the fridge to look for something to offer his guest and finds nothing worthy, but still proceeded to pretend as if he was looking.
"There's nothing in there, stop stalling," she calls her bluff, sitting on the chairs by the kitchen counter.
"You've gone through my fridge already?" he asks as he's closing it.
"No, I just assumed because I'm always the one doing the grocery," she replies.
"What? I come with you all the time, what do you mean you're the 'one' doing it"
"Yeah, and you just complain half the time," she responds, smiling.
"In my defense, you take way too long picking stuff out."
She chuckles. An awkward, brief silence followed.
"So, uh," he attempts to break the ice.
"I heard you're planning on mov-"
"Are we really not going to talk about, what happened?"
She finally addresses the elephant in the room. The man is left speechless.
"What's... I mean, we're... good, right?" he mutters, obviously second-guessing even his own words.
"'We're good'?" she repeats it, slowly, eyebrows frowning, obviously unhappy with the statement.
"Seb, I don't know if you understand, but YOU LEFT without saying anything. And you came back without saying anything AGAIN."
He has been trying to avoid this conversation ever since but it looks like there's no avoiding it this time.
"And we're, I'M, supposed to just act like nothing happened? You come back after a year of completely throwing me to the side and 'we're good' just like that?"
He couldn't slip in anything. He couldn't as he didn't have any.
"Seb, the only reason why I wasn't visibly mad at you, even though I had and still have every right to be, is because I like to think that we're both adults and can talk this out minus the drama. And I like to think that you'd be smart enough to know that."
"But what you got from it is that 'we're good'? Are you for real?"
He didn't know what to say.
"Seb, you THREW ME AWAY like some crap you didn't need anymore and just ran away!"
A brief pause in the storm currently in motion. About three seconds of silence. She was waiting for him to say something. But to no avail.
"That - what happened, what you did, is that... was that a break up? Did we break up? Are we still broken up now?" she asks.
"Because I can't think of any reason why you would just go off to god knows where without even a single word"
"I needed some time alone, Rina!" he finally finds the words, albeit, probably not good ones.
"Away! Away from all of this! The monsters! The missions! Ben! You! I wanted to be alone! To be able to think and live for once instead of just fighting and killing all the time! I was tired, Rina!"
"M-me?" she repeats, softly, painfully.
"You wanted time away, from me? You were tired of ME?"
"I was tired of everyone! Everything! Not just 'you'!"
"My life doesn't revolve around you or anyone or anything else, Rina! It revolves around ME and I desperately had to prioritize ME over everything else so I left everything behind!"
"You're making it sound like I was the biggest and most selfish asshole in the world but what you don't realize is you're being just as selfish right now!"
He only realized the words he uttered after they were already in the wind.
"Hm," her lip is quivered, eyes shiny, obviously only making a conscious effort to maintain composure.
"I see."
"No, I didn't mean—" realizing what he said, he is now trying to diffuse the situation.
"No, you made it perfectly clear."
She gets up.
"Rina..."
"You know, we could have had that peaceful life, alone, together," she is uttering her final words.
"Or, yeah, probably not. After all, you were 'tired' of me, weren't you?"
She heads for the exit.
"No, that's n—" all he could was watch her walk away in unfathomable pain.
"FUCK!" he kicks the bottom kitchen counter of out frustration and rests both extended arms on top of it.
Rina rides the elevator back down. As hard as she tried, she couldn't hold back the tears from flowing. Her lips trembling, quivering, frowning.
He walks outside the balcony, watching her pace and cry her way to the car parked right on the sidewalk by the entrance.
"Fuck did you just do, you idiot," he says to himself.
He goes back inside and to his room to sit in front of the television again, hoping to resume his interrupted gaming time. But he simply sat there for five minutes, not even touching the controller. Five minutes turned to 10, and then to 15. He couldn't get back into it. He was nowhere near the proper state of mind.
He grabs his phone and the pack of cigarettes with only one stick remaining, on the floor as well. He gets up and heads back outside to the balcony to have a smoke under the quiet, starry sky.