Polysomething

God, I'm so tired, Aaron said to himself as he sauntered down the hallway to his apartment. I'm definitely going straight to bed as soon as I rinse my mouth out again. He stopped at the door of his apartment, grabbed his keys from his jeans, then opened the door.

"Shit," he said, stepping into his apartment, "my mouth tastes so bad I'm going to deep throat the motherfucking mouth—" He stopped and laughed catching sight of Alex lying on the couch. "Oh, hey, I didn't see you there."

"Hey," Alex said in a cheerless drawl as she stared at the beige wall in front of her.

Fuck, Aaron thought immediately. Alex usually started a conversation with an excited Hello or Oh my God then followed it with a story about Jill at work or seeing Ryan Gosling at Chipotle. Something was obviously wrong.

Aaron bit the inside of his cheek, hesitating to say something. He wanted to help, but his mouth tasted like the bottom shelf of a college MicroFridge. No, he thought, staring at Alex's sad, cherub face. She's your best friend. You gotta say something. "All right, I'm taking off my coat and shoes and then we're going to have a nice, little talk. Okay?"

"Uh-huh." Alex pushed her long, golden-brown hair to the right side of her face and lowered her head to the satin armrest of the couch.

"Um, okay." Swallowing a gulp of air peppered with vomit breath, Aaron made a small grimace then headed for the hallway closet. There, he took off his shoes and placed them in the neat row of shoes by the door. Of course, he chided as he saw Alex's shoes strewn across the floor. As usual.

When he finished fixing Alex's shoes, Aaron walked into the tidy, square space of the living room and stopped in front of Alex, who was lying across the couch lifelessly, her emerald eyes staring into a void of sad, emo thought. "Oh, no," he said, pressing his lips in aggravation. "I'm not having any of this bullshit. Either you sit up or I'm just going to walk away, all right?"

Alex remained still for a moment then let out a long, depressed seal-bark and sat up.

"That's better," Aaron said, sitting down next to Alex. He then took a quick breath and went on: "All right. So tell me what's going on."

Silence followed until Alex turned her green eyes to the hardwood floor and sighed. "I broke up with Steve."

Aaron sucked his teeth. "Oh, sweetie," he said, trying to sound surprised. "Why?"

Alex shook her head, still looking down. "No, I'm not gonna say. You're going to get mad at me."

Aaron rolled his eyes. "Come on, Alex. I'm not going to get mad at you. This is a safe place." He gave a quick laugh. "Okay?"

"No, I can't."

"Come on, Alex. Tell me. "   

"No, you're—"

"Alex, I threw up at a bar. I'm not in the mood."

Alex looked up, her eyes coated with a sheen of alarm. "What? Why?"

Aaron opened his mouth, but stopped himself. Did he really want to tell Alex about Jonathan and his cavalcade of boyfriends? Nope, he thought, too tired to answer questions about his awkward run in. He then gave a quick sigh, filling the silence, and said: "Because I was standing outside the bar...waiting for the rain to stop and, you know, people were smoking."