Love on lockdown

“Great. Bloody great”. Anthony exhaled with his cheeks puffed and lips ever so slightly open, so that the air came out slowly with an audible huff, while pressing his index finger against his left eye and his thumb against his right eye, slowly sliding from the outside of each eye until both fingers connected at the bridge of his nose.

He glanced towards the television, hoping for some miraculous change to the news. But it was still the same. He placed his hands on his hips as he watched, once again, the presenter reporting that his town was now in a localised lockdown. No non-essential shops will be opening that morning, no one will be visiting the pubs today and, worst of all, no one is to visit another household. He grabbed the TV controller off the sofa, switched the TV off, and threw the controller towards a chair at the other side of the living room, as though he were pitching a baseball.

While walking around the room, his hands still on his hips, he noticed a slight lump at the edge of the rug. His skin went cold and his heart rate appeared to double, while his breath counterproductively stopped for a few seconds. He reached into a half-lunge and tapped the lump with the edge of his shoe and shot his foot away. The object was hard and didn’t move when he tapped it, which satisfied Anthony that it wasn’t a mouse. He grabbed at the corner of the rug and lifted it up to find a small flip phone.

He grabbed it and ran towards the door. The door slammed against the wall as he launched himself through it and into his bedroom, where he grabbed a charger resting on his bed, which he shoved into the socket of the flip phone. 

“Come on, come on, come on”, he muttered with what breath was left in his lungs. He again started to march around the room, as though doing so was needed to charge the phone. Anthony marched to the phone, and seeing that the phone still did not have enough charge to turn on, punched the nearest wall, and dropped his now throbbing fist by his side.

“How long does a bloody phone take to charge? For God sakes!”, Anthony said as he marched out of the room, his head seeming to be half a foot ahead of the rest of his body. He turned right to enter into the kitchen, pulled a can of lager out of the fridge, and made no hesitation in opening and taking a sip out of the can. His hand appeared to be gripping the can tightly, but without a dent being made in the can.

Can in hand, he marched back into his bedroom, and held the power switch and received a satisfying vibration to signal that the phone was now turning on.

“Finally”, he said and sat down on the edge of the bed waiting for the phone to start up. He wondered how he ever used to wait this long for a phone to start up, and what he must have done while he waited. Anthony thought he could have finished a cigarette in the time it took for the phone to start up, and the thought had his fingers twitching for a cigarette to rest between them.

“Ah, screw it”, he muttered, and pulled a pack of cigarettes out of a draw in the bedside table, and stood outside the front door of his block of flats where he smoked his newly-lit cigarette. 

“Do I get to have a puff of that?”, Holly teased as she approached the building.

“Dunno, I don’t think you’re meant to share cigarettes. COVID and all that, you know?”, he teased back, but held out a fresh cigarette anyway, while inhaling his own.

“Pfft, government probably made it up to stop us smoking. Deffo covering something up. Not the first time”, she said, as she took and lit the cigarette, before taking a big inhale, and exhaling a cloud of smoke into Anthony’s face.

“Nice one, mate”, he said, while using his arm to fan the smoke away from his face. The two stood in silence for a few seconds, focussed on puffing on their cigarettes and puffing out smoke, as though in a competition of who can blow out the most smoke and for the longest.

“So, we gonna pretend yesterday didn’t happen?”, Holly questioned.

“Eh? What you on about”

“Seriously? You call me on some stranger’s phone saying, like, how hot I am and stuff, and begging me for a shag like, and just because I wasn’t here, you now act like we didn’t talk? Bit pathetic mate”.

“Mate, I honestly don’t remember nothing from last night. I had some drinks, and that’s all I remember. Stress from work and that”.

“Well, your loss. I would totally have done it had I been at home”, she said, crushing the remnants of her cigarette as she went into the building. Anthony grinned at her, before taking a couple final puffs of his cigarette, flicking it onto the group, and feeling its satisfying crunch under his shoe as he put it out and went back up to his flat.

He entered his bedroom and snapped the charger out of the phone. The phone gave a satisfying click and he flipped it open, and the keys made a dial sound, the kind you only ever hear in films nowadays, as he made his way through his contacts, before selecting a number to call.

“Alright, mate?”, Anthony said.

“What do you want?”, said the gruff voice on the other side, sounding like someone who had just woken up in the middle of a desert without water.

“I need to get somewhere, but the cops are gonna be everywhere. Are you guys still on the lookout for cops?”

“You call me if you are going to pay me for summit. I ain’t giving free advice”.

“What if I buy the usual on the way?”

“If you pay the usual plus extra for my advice, then yes. Where you going to?”

“I’m going to see someone. I don’t want to get them involved in this.”

“You called me. If you don’t want to see her, fine. If you do, tell me where you are going”, said the voice, sounding somewhat harsher than before, despite his tone staying the same throughout. 

Anthony paused for a few seconds before answering the question. The voice at the other end told him the route to take to meet the contact, who would take payment and give him the rest of the directions, and ended the call.

Anthony punched the same spot on the wall as this morning and cursed. He grabbed a boot from a line-up of shoes in the corner of the room, from which he removed the sole and pulled cash out. He counted the notes, before replacing the sole of the boot, and returned the boot to its spot in the line of shoes. He trapped the notes in his flip phone, which he slid into his pocket, and searched for his keys, which he found half-hidden down the side of the sofa.

He turned the TV on once more, just in case anything had changed, only to be met with their local politician speaking about how important the lockdown is. 

“Bet that won’t stop you seeing your mistress and filling up on your cocaine though, will it?”, he shouted at the TV, before throwing the remote across the room without any direction, leaving the TV on as he left his flat, and followed the directions given. 

He could feel people’s eyes on him from every building, acting like they were all perfect. He would be willing to bet that they had all broken lockdown at least once, and now they watch everyone who passed their window, waiting for someone to slip-up. Well they wouldn’t catch him doing it. For all they knew, he could be going to the shop. He had his mask on, afterall.

Once he turned down some alleyways and was away from those peering eyes, he ripped the mask off his face, and used the back and palm of his hand to wipe the sweat away from around his mouth and stuffed the mask into his pocket.

He turned round another corner and saw a short but lanky male in baggy tracksuits, white vest top, a thin gold chain hanging low on his neck, and a snapback cap. The man, holding his trousers above his groin, squared towards him and they both held their right arms out to the side, before swinging them towards each other for a handshake.

“Yo! How’s it going? The boss said you called”, said the man in baggy clothing.

“Sup! Yeah mate, trying to see the missus for our anniversary, but these cops are watching everyone. Bloody police state mate”.

“Tell me about it. I’m just trying to sell my stuff, and they are sniffing about. Anyway, you got the missus a present? She’ll kill you if you ain’t”.

“Mate, why d’you think I’m buying this off you? And I’m hoping this present will get me another present later on, if you know what I mean”.

“Hah, nice one!”, he said, before taking cash from Anthony, and handing over a small white bag, and giving Anthony the route he should take.

“Nice one mate, see you again”, said Anthony, and the two fist-bumped before going their separate ways.

Anthony followed the directions given until he reached his girlfriend’s house and, having a quick glance in both directions, knocked on the front door. The door opened slightly, before a hand reached out, clenched the top of his top, and flung him into the room, before slamming the door shut.

Before Anthony could grasp what had just happened, a fist smashed against the side of his jaw, launching his head towards the ground, as he flattened his hands and arms against the ground and squeezed his eyes shut as though this could keep out the pain. Anthony was barely getting his bearings straight when two hands grasped the top of his shirt, and pinned him to the wall.

Still dazed, he looked down to see a bold hardened man, probably about 6’2 and 200 pounds of muscle. He thought it might be a burglary, but the anger on this man’s face suggested that this was much more personal, but he didn’t even know who this man was. And if it was personal, why would this man meet him here? He wondered if his girlfriend had been cheating on him with this man, playing them both, and if she had been cheating, how he was going to make her pay.

“You are bloody stupid, aren’t you? You piss the boss off last night, and think you can just call up a favour this morning? Well, it is my job to teach you that the boss doesn’t appreciate being treated like crap”, said the man.

“Mate, what you chatting about?”

“I’m not your mate, and I’m also not as stupid as you are. You think you can just act like you have forgotten what you did, and everything will be ok? You’re having a laugh.”

“No, honestly, I don’t-”, Anthony was cut off mid-sentence, as he was launched across the room onto a low-down table, which collapsed without a fight under his weight. Anthony curled up and heaved clutching his stomach, as he tried to get some air back into his now-empty lungs.

“Ok, ok, I’m sorry! It won’t happen again!”, Anthony pleaded, as his feet flurried across the floor, only moving him back slightly in his panic. 

“Damn straight it won’t happen again”, said the man, as he swung his foot into Anthony’s stomach, before turning to leave the house.

Anthony vomited onto the floor which, apart from adding a little colour to the grey carpet, did not do much to affect the appearance of the room which was now cluttered with broken furniture. He heard a muffled cry, and knew from that the image in the corner of his eye would be his girlfriend tied up in the chair, but Anthony was still too weak to move from his current position, and allowed another couple of minutes before he slowly got to his hands and knees, and then steadily to his feet, and grabbed scissors to cut his girlfriend loose.

“What is wrong with you, you arsehole”, cried Lisa, taking a few steps away from Anthony as she was set free.

“What you on about? How was that my fault? I’m the one that got beaten up, all you had to do was be stuck to a chair”

“You bloody well know what you did, you arsehole! How dare you piss someone off and give them my address. Happy anniversary, great bloody present”.

“I gave them your address because I wanted to come see you without getting caught by cops, I didn’t know I had pissed off the boss. You realise I could have got in trouble just by coming here?”

“Aww, how bloody romantic! Can’t wait to see what you get me for valentine’s day, maybe you’ll give my address to a serial killer, since you are so thoughtful!”

“Can’t believe you’re mad at me, taking the piss mate. And after I got you this”, he said, pulling a blunt out of the white bag, which Lisa snatched out of his hand.

“I’m pissed off at you, but that doesn’t mean I’m not taking my present. And besides, I bloody need this right now”, she said, searching for a lighter amidst all the clutter now on the ground, which she used to light the blunt. Anthony pulled his own out of the white bag and lit it.

They sat in silence as they inhaled the blunt, but once the effects began to kick in, the two began chatting again, and Anthony held the white bag beside his face.

“You know, I got us some stronger stuff to try out”, he said.

“Hmm, happy anniversary”, she chucked, as she reached up to kiss him.