If that’s what you want.

“Shushushu… yaess…shupsh… yes… yes YES!”

“No! Shut up! I- spushu, and she- shushu sipuhshpishpi… and that’s what they-“

“But- shp…su”

”That’s what I said! She deliberately-“

there was a brief pause, followed by a ragged sigh, “Just forget it.”

It was 1am.

1:15am to be precise. 

 And they were right outside my bedroom door. Well technically, not right outside, rather, in the kitchen that adjoined the living room (which was currently being used as my sister- Laura’s bedroom, since her actual room had all the maps laid out on the floor to let them dry up from having been freshly painted) ,albeit, with the living room hardly having any furniture in it, voices literally reverberated off the walls  and bounced beneath the crack of my door straight into my room. 

I didn’t want to listen in. I didn’t mean to. It seemed super rude. But they couldn’t seem to keep they’re voices down, so now I was forced to be a part of their conversation. 

As for the conversationalists, we had Laura and a bunch of her friends. Said friends sometimes crashed with us to talk about what our next move would be. You see, we were Adventurers! And each member of the group had a role to play, as they’d either be assigned to handling transportation (be it our transportation or the transportation of whatever it was that they were dealing with) or, our safety. Selene, a member of the group, said there was no point in me knowing what they dealt with right now because they had it all covered. Terone, a second member, said that if I didn’t have a role to play when the time came to make deals concerning ‘it’, then ‘it’ was none of my business. I mean, in a sense, he was right. But it’s not like I could really say whether or not I’d be any good at dealing with ‘it’ if I was never told what ‘it’ is. Either way, I prefer how Selene had said it. Terone could be a bit too blunt at times. 

Pfft- Jammie got the short end of that stick. 

Jammie was the funniest one here. There were about 6 of us, myself included. He used all types of humor to keep us entertained. Even taught me about something called dark humor and mentioned how it worked best for self depre- depresiation… deprecia- well, I forget. He was simply hilarious. I want to believe that sometimes he forced it, because no one could be that funny round the clock. He’d once mentioned how his parents were clowns, so I guess it’s in his genes. 

The consistent mummers had just barely died down, when they picked back up. Lord! Now I could actually hear the voices distinctively. I internally sighed, shutting my eyes tightly, willing sleep to come. 

«Ты со мной говоришь?» 

Ah, Russian. You with me speaking¿ Oh… so, are you talking to me?  

That was surely Misha. He was the only one amongst all of us whose accent didn’t sound like it was attempting to butcher the language. Understandably so, seeing as he was Russian. 

“Why’re you speaking to me informally? I don’t know you like that.”

Mm… Jammie. 

”Du bist nicht lustig.”

And that was clearly Terone serving up some German. Hmm… Du bist nicht means ‘you’re not’ Lustig… loost- lost…ig… it…like when you lose it when you’re laughing because something’s  really funny. Sooo… that should mean ‘you’re not funny’ oof- sorry Jammie.

”Honestly Jammie, You’re really not.” another voiced chimed in. 

”Ah- Umm… full on attack mode? I made one statement guys. You’re all just haters, I swear. ” Jammie retaliated. 

More chattering went on, some words less distinctive than others. I was proud of how many new words I’d picked up along the way. I was a few steps closer to living the life of a polyglot, although I really wasn’t keen on having my mind subconsciously try to translate whatever it heard. I just wanted to go to bed, but those on the other side of the door had made their intentions clear. That wasn’t happening. 

About 7 minutes should’ve passed, and my continuous tossing and turning landed me in indescribable position. I just know that I felt like a snail, so I must looked like one. All bent up with my face literally on the wall and my belly facing 10 o’clock when it clearly should’ve been at 6. Of course this didn’t help the echoing situation, but I’d more or less given up on that. 

“It’s our only option Laura.”

“I’m not leaving him behind Misha!”

Huh? 

“You’re well aware of the fact that you can’t take care of him on your own.”

“That’s why I have you guys-“

“We’re not his babysitters. Don’t be inconsiderate. If we ended up helping you with this, the same way we help you with everything else, it’d be a hindrance… for all of us… him included.”

Wait wait… who were they talking about? A hindrance? 

I’m the only one Laura takes care of though. 

A-are they talking about me? 

I scrambled to get my ear plastered onto the wall so briskly it could’ve chafed. 

What was that? 

What did they just say? 

Oh wow! Now that I actually had the intention of listening in, I could hardly hear a thing. 

I tried quickly getting off the bed, but ended up with my feet trapped in a bundle of sheets as I moved around to see if a different position or ear would let me hear them better. 

I still couldn’t. 

Not bothering to fully get myself out of the clutches of warmth and thickness, I ended up tripping and falling onto the heap of the duvet that followed me to meet the rug covered floor. 

They could’ve been done by now! What was it that they’d said?! I heard-

“It’s not that easy Jammie, we can’t just do that.” Laura started, seemingly anxious. 

“Yes we can! And you know that we should.” Jammie replied, rather harshly.

What did they want to do? 

“We really can’t though, I’ve checked and it’s not legal.” Misha added.

“You’ve checked?”

Everyone seemed surprised at the fact that Misha had…checked? Simultaneously replying with ‘when’s’ and ‘how’s’. Checked what? Were they looking for something? Were… were they not supposed to look for something?

“It doesn’t matter, I checked and that’s that, nothing we can really do about-“ and then their voices got low again. This was agonizing. I know what I’d heard. I wanted to go back to bed. Doze off, dream about nothing and not wake up until I smelt Laura’s eggs with her special buttered and jammed bagels by a little after 9am.

But here I was, with one knee and my entire upper body on the rug, while my other leg remained tangled up in a bundle of grey, red and blue against my high framed bed.

Ugh! I couldn’t even outwardly groan, in fear that if I could hear them, they’d probably be able to hear me. If they hadn’t already from my hard kiss with the rug. Thank goodness my bed didn’t creak.

“We have to leave him.”

There they go again! 

“But…”

“I know it’s hard Laura, but we have to.”

And with that, silence and complete darkness blanketed the apartment. They’d most likely ended their discussion on that note. 

I got back into bed properly, tucking myself in extra tight, knowing that however many hours I had left wouldn’t be accompanied by sleep. And that when everyone else would wake up to meet me later on, chances would be that I’d be getting told goodbye.