Daily Prompt – Trio No. 3

Today you can write about anything, in whatever genre or form, but your post must mention a dark night, your fridge, and tears (of joy or sadness; your call). Feel free to switch one ingredient if you have to (or revisit one from previous trio prompts).

 

Jessica couldn’t contain her excitement when she returned home, ‘Guess what, babe? You and I are going on a trip…. TO NEW YORK CITAAAAY!‘

Jessica’s girlfriend, Lauren didn’t believe her. ‘Oh really?’, she said, raising an eyebrow.

‘Really! We leave in six weeks!’

‘Okay, explain to me how we’re able to go to new York all of a sudden?’

‘I was the fifth caller on a radio competition this arvo on the way home from work. I was about to jump on the train but I got through just as the train pulled up and didn’t want it to drop out the way it always does when I call you, so I stood on the platform a bit longer. I answered a few questions and just like that, a trip for two to New York! Oh my god, I don’t even know what to do now, this is like the best day ever!‘

Lauren closed the door of the fridge, grabbed two wine glasses out of the cupboard and rummaged around in the drawer for the corkscrew. ‘Babe, I’m so happy for you. This is amazing… and I think it requires a toast, don’t you?’

They stood across the kitchen island bench and clinked their glasses, ‘To us!’, Lauren declared. ‘To us AND to an amazing trip to New York!‘, Jessica replied, with a giant grin on her face. They sipped their wine and gazed lovingly at each other. Jessica looked away shyly. She always did this when Lauren stared at her for too long. It made her feel quite self-conscious, but she knew that she needn’t be; she knew Lauren was in love with her, and loved everything about her. Whenever Jessica looked away, Lauren fell just a tiny bit more in love with her – she thought it was cute.

Lauren leant across the bench and grabbed her hand, ‘Come on, let’s go and enjoy this outside’, and led her across the living room to their ‘balcony’. they lived on the ninth floor of a twelve story apartment building. Their ‘balcony’ was actually the landing of the fire escape, and they had put out a small round table and two stools. Both of them would regularly sit out there first thing in the morning, even before the dawn had broken to have their morning cigarette, or the last thing they did at night. They enjoyed the stillness of the city. No traffic. No noise. No hustle and bustle, just stillness. Peace and quiet. As though the city had been completely abandoned and they were the only two people left on earth.

They climbed out through the window onto the landing, and sat on a stool each, clinked their glasses again and stared across to the city skyline, lit up like a Christmas display, with buildings of all different heights full of lights.

‘I wonder how much energy the city would save it all those buildings just turned their lights off at night?‘, Jessica pondered.

‘Dunno, babe. But that’s what Earth Hour is pretty much about. Although I reckon they should have it once a month.’

‘Or put more of a push on installing solar panels. Imagine how much energy would be produced if every building put up solar panels on the roof! We should try and get whoever owns this building to install solar.’

‘But babe, it’s a massive expense, their expense, and they don’t get the benefit out of it!’

‘Yeah they do! They benefit by being totally awesome landlords, and giving their tenants cheaper energy bills.‘ Jessica’s eyes were full of excitement, and it was just another one of those things Lauren loved about her.

Lauren laughed, ‘Hehehe, if only it were that simple.’ She kissed Jessica’s hand, ‘I think that it’s adorable and admirable that you think of things like that. There’s definitely more to you than meets the eye!’

‘Transformers… more than meets the eye!’, Jessica started signing in a robotic voice.

They both leant back laughing, as Jessica opened her pack of cigarettes and put one in her mouth. She offered one to Lauren, who also took one and pulled a lighter from her pocket. She lit her cigarette, and then handed the lighter over to Jessica. Jessica fumbled the lighter in her fingertips and dropped it. It bounced off the table onto the metal grate of the landing, and fell through a gap. The girls sat there listening to it bounce and ricochet several floors.

Lauren looked back, rolled her eyes and groaned, as Jessica giggled. ‘It’s okay, I’ll go down and find it. Sounded like it was only three floors or so… I’ll be back in a sec’, said Lauren.

‘No, babe, don’t. I’ll just get the other one from inside instead’, said Jessica, grabbing Lauren’s hand.

‘That was the lighter from inside. I don’t have another spare one. I lost my bag one yesterday, and totally forgot until right this very second that I needed to buy a new one. I really just need a lighter in every room of the house and in every bag and in every pair of my jeans hehehe.’ Lauren stood up, walked past Jessica, kissing her quickly on lips before  preparing to climb down the first ladder of the fire escape.

‘Babe! Be careful!’

‘Of course, babe… I’ll be back in a flash… you just sit there and enjoy your wine and be pretty.’ Lauren winked before she disappeared down the ladder.

Jessica sat there and sipped her wine, eagerly trying to see through the gaps where Lauren was and if she was okay. It always made Jessica nervous whenever she had to climb down the fire escape, or if she saw somebody climb past their window. She did not trust the structure of it whatsoever, as some parts of it were completely rusted, they were barely attached the actual building. It wouldn’t take much for the entire thing to completely detatch itself and fall to the ground.

Jessica took another sip of her wine. The more she thought about it, the more horrible the thoughts were that began dancing around in her head. As she leant back against the window, she heard a loud creak, and then a louder snap, and a scream. She instantly knew it was Lauren, and something was wrong.

‘Lauren? LAUREN?….. LAUREN!!’ Jessica screamed over the edge of the landing. Just as she did she saw a cloud of dust on the ground below start to dissipate and all she could really see was a pile of rusted metal. ‘LAUREN!!! LAUREN!!! LLAAUURREENNN!!!’

There was no response.

Jessica climbed back through the window, and tore across the living room. She flung the door open and ran down the corridor to the lift. She frantically pressed the button repeatedly, wishing the lift would arrive, but it was moving quite slowly, and she didn’t have time to wait. As she tried her best to hold back the tears, she burst through the door to the fire stairs, and as she hurriedly descended the stairwell she called 911. Yelling incoherently down the line, she managed to get some basic details out before she reached the bottom of the stairs. She swung the door open, running through the foyer of the building and outside. She saw pieces of metal on the footpath, but realised that the rest of the structure, and Lauren, were stuck on the other side of a giant solid-wooden fence.

The fire escape had fallen into a neighboring construction zone, which was guarded by a rather high ply-wood fence. Lauren anxiously looked around for something to climb onto and couldn’t see anything. She asked passers by if they could give her a boost over the fence, but they gave her nothing but strange looks and avoided her. She ended up grabbing a rubbish bin from the other side of the road, dragged it up to the fence and climbed on top of it. Jessica peered over the fence to see the rest of the fire escape laying on the ground in a rusted, twisted mess. ‘LAUREN? LAUREN CAN YOU HEAR ME?!’ 

There was no response.

 

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