The Man in the Blue Tuxedo

She ran outside. The blaring music kept on buzzing in her ears and the world was spinning around her. Three and a half hours of continuous dancing and she felt numb at her legs. Outside, the cold wind brushed through her sweaty curls as she stumbled and sat on the sidewalk. She couldn’t believe her eyes. She couldn’t believe what she saw. That tuxedo.

How did he find me? She had no clue.

It was long into their connection of knowing each other. They were friends initially, working out as project partners, playing the hockey team, and eventually family friends when their parents befriended each other. They spent long hours hanging out after practices, or going out for coffee. Everyone else believed they were lovers. But, for them it was just a good friendship out in the open. Secretly, on the inside, both had something more going on bit never confessed. The days had passed into years where both remained single and just seemed to keep their company like the best friends. She yearned him to say something. He stayed for her to give him any signs. None of them fell. Just times changed drastically as they went apart, when she left out of the blue.

Now she was sobbing quietly, her face deep in the mess of curls and her usually bossy lips trembling in the stammer. Streaks of mascara streamed down her rosy cheeks dripping down on her white crop She looked like a crushed lemon. The sudden run off had broken her heel and it lay next to her in two. The lights flickered in the empty street to the booming rhythm of the club house behind her, she lay sprawled on the walkway thinking of the tux.

She wanted to run away. She started picking herself up and with a stumble. The nausea was back. The drinks were shrinking her vision. This was her final life now, living the paradise dream she always wanted. But, now it was getting worse. She tried to shake off the blinding vision. She felt the nausea rise and as she threw up in the side gutter.

Suddenly, she could feel tight hands grasp her and someone holding her hair back. She had business to finish. Then, she shook out the hands and spun around. The tuxedo stood behind her.

She stood stunned.

“Why did you leave me?” he asked

 “Did you ever look back for me either?” She retorted with a spiteful gasp.

He was speechless.

“Leave me alone just as you have been doing all this time. Why now?” and he grabs her by her hand. “Just let me go. I don’t need you” She smacked her lips to cover the teary eyes from bulging out.

He didn’t say a word. Nothing but regretful eyes looking afar above her as she dangled to let her hand free. The world seemed cruel and cold.

“Why now? Why? Why?” She screamed as she gave up the battle of dangling and the air screeched into a halt. Then…

Suddenly the world blurs out and he grasps her as she blacks out.

Two hours later he stands in the doorway to the emergency ward of the local hospital. He was lost as her nose bled out. But he mustered up all he could to cover his hemophobia, until he got to the nearest hospital.

Standing outside, the room window, he recalled the perfect life they spent as partners when one day she left without a word. He had walked the world to find her, asking everyone from family to friends. But nothing got him anywhere closer, until last night when he miraculously found her dancing in the background of his friend’s Facebook post. He had ridden all the way here today in her favorite blue tuxedo, to take her by surprise. But now he was shaken more than ever, to see her in this condition.

The flash of her lovely marble eyes looking up at him kept repeating before him. She was crying. He knew it. As he kept praying in silence, the doctors worked their way trying to stabilize her condition. What was wrong with my baby? 

The cardiogram stabilized. And as the pulse normalized on the screen he could see the doctor instructs the nurse as he turned towards the door. “You can see her now” The doctor tells him as he leaves.

“What is wrong doctor? What happened to her?” He asks following the doctor at his heel.

The man stops, “So you have no idea. I am sorry, what is your relationship with Selene?”

“She is my best friend” He replies

“Well, her only person of contact was her grandmother who lives here on town. Well, this can be very hard to hear but, she is very sick. She admitted herself three weeks ago. Stage 4 acute leukemia. It is critical now.” explains the doctor.

This was nothing he ever expected. He steadies himself against the wall of the corridor “Doctor isn’t there anything we can do now? What about treatments abroad? Do we have any option?”

“I am really sorry. We have done everything we can” he replies.

“How long does she have?” He could feel a knot in his throat as he asks the most inevitable question he never wanted to.

“A couple of weeks a maximum. Just keep her happy.” Says the doctor patting him as he leaves.

He approaches her door cautiously and pushes it open slowly looking at her in bed. He throws the tuxedo on the sofa and sits by her bedside looking at her just the way he looked at her six years ago, when he first met her. He could feel himself crashing from inside trying to fight the tears collecting in his eyes. He wasn’t strong anymore. It was all because of him. He should have known her better and cared for her. He was blaming himself for being careless. And he starts crying.

Tiny rosy fingers slip through his. They grip his hand tight.

He looks up at her.

“It’s okay” She whispers and smiles weakly. Tears drop down her rosy little cheeks as she nods.

“My lovely angel” he replies with a slow kiss on her forehead.