Long Distance is a Bitch by shiprat

[Ramesh_Rocky]

Long Distance is a Bitch Ch. 02

I entered the apartment and was relieved that my roommates were still sleeping in their room. I did not need to deal with their questions about where I had spent the night. I went to the bedroom, change into a bathrobe and went to the bathroom to take a long shower.

Throughout the shower, I mulled over the previous night's events, especially how fast they had unfolded. Even when I entered Dustin's apartment the previous night, I had no inkling that I even felt any sort of attraction to him, forget the idea of sleeping with him. But as I thought back to the time I had spent with him, there probably had been some sort of special rapport between us, if not chemistry. I had always found him easy to talk to, interesting, kind, and a great friend. But maybe I had subconsciously felt something more, something I had refused to even recognize because I was still convinced that I was still in love with Parag.

But once I got an inkling of Parag cheating on me, and ditching me for the umpteenth time, maybe my mind, unshackled thanks to the weed, had recognized the attraction and given in to the moment. Don't get me wrong. I am not saying it was all weed or even mostly weed that led to last night's events. I don't believe weed, unlike alcohol, can make you do stupid things that you later regret. But it does make you think more clearly. Or make you think you're thinking more clearly.

So...what exactly had last night meant? Was it just a one night thing, meant to relieve the stress of a tough couple of weeks? Or did I really feel something special towards Dustin? And what was I to him? Just an attractive woman who ended up being in a vulnerable state and giving in to his charms? Or was I something more? He had, of course, shunted me out in a hurry because Vicky was coming.

Questions. Questions.

I turned the shower off, dried myself and returned to my bedroom. The hot shower had made me sleepy again. So I just threw on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, and crawled under the sheets. Within minutes, I was asleep.

I woke up at noon, and checked my phone which was still on silent mode. Five more missed calls from Parag, and three voicemails, all of which I assumed were from him. I knew I had to talk to him eventually. There's no way this could continue. I had to tell him about Dustin, confront him about his woman on the side, and break up.

But I needed some coffee first. I went to the kitchen, brewed a tall cup, and with it sat down in front of the TV. My roommates were not around, and I assumed they had gone for their weekly grocery shopping trip. I flipped the channels and froze when I saw the headline on one of the news channels.

"NC Mall Gunman Stand-off."

There was a reporter in front of a mall talking to a group of people, one of whom was positively Parag. What the fuck is this, I thought to myself and turned the volume up.

'We're talking to some of the shoppers who were holed up in the mall for several hours last night when a gunman went on a shooting rampage in a college town in North Carolina last night. Fourteen people were shot, two of whom are in critical condition, but thanks to the alert mall security, there have been no deaths so far. Here we have a group of people who have been released by the security officer after preliminary debriefing and first aid. They were all holed up in different parts of the mall as the gunman made rounds for several hours until a SWAT team shot him dead.'

What the fuck?

'Yes ma'am, you were in the jewelry store?' she asked a young white brunette standing next to a blonde man.

'Yes, My husband and I were in a jewelry store on the 3rd floor at about 8 PM when I heard gunshots. Immediately, I feared the worst. I rushed out of the store with some other people and saw pandemonium. Most people ran down the stairs, and we were about to as well, when the gunman started firing shots in the air. We ran into the corridor where a mall cop directed us into one of their offices.'

'And how many of you were there?'

'About twenty of us.'

'And what happened next.'

'We closed the solid wooden door, turned the lights off and stayed silents. There was still sound of sporadic gunfire. The mall cop asked everyone to stay completely silent, and he radioed for help. My husband and I were really scared.'

All the time, I was listening to everything with shock, and staring at Parag, who was a few feet away from the couple, looking very shaken. The reporter then thrust her mike in front of Parag's face.

'And you sir, were you also in that office?'

'Yes, I had gone to buy my girlfriend a gift from the jewelry store, and I also heard gunshots.' I heard my boyfriend say. 'We all went to the office and hid out there.'

'For how long?'

'Almost midnight, so about four hours. We kept hearing random gunshots through the night. The gunman was obviously walking around the mall, searching for people to kill. At one point, he passed by right outside our door. But we all stayed silent and he didn't realize anyone was in there.'