Love Pills 3: The Waters Meet!

In Fred’s Apartment, Bibi kept dialling Dorcas’ number, which was repeatedly unanswered. Fred
inquired who she was calling so ardently, just as she turned to him, the water kettle rattled an alarm, and Fred walked into his kitchen to turn off the gas. Fred poured the hot steaming water into a bowl of spaghetti, ‘What are you trying to make this time? You

know your meals always have funny names, Bibi said, smiling. ‘This one is Spaghetti Cabohara, I hope that is not too much of a big name, ’ he said, smiling. ‘At least that’s better than the last one you made, what was that again? Oh, don’t bother, I don’t need another tongue twister, they both laughed.

Read: Love Pills 2
Read Love Pills 1

Fred cooked the meal and brought a portion for Bibi, who was in the sitting room with her eyes glued to the big TV screen on the wall. When Bibi heard his footsteps, she dragged the side table in front of her, and Fred placed the tray on it and opened the dish cover, which covered her face with the steam from the hot food. Bibi immediately stopped watching the TV to concentrate on the new religion. She grabbed the cutlery and started digging through the pile of noodles that was dumped in front of her. Fred sat beside her. ‘How about your friend? I thought you mentioned she really needed you, Fred inquired, ‘She’s not picking up her phone, I will check back on her before I go, she really needed to talk, you know, one of those girl moments,’ she replied. ‘Yeah you should check back once before you go, and how do one get to know the best girl’s moment, I just suck at getting it right’ he said while mouthing a fork wrap of Spaghetti. Bibi inquired about the flatmate Fred has been talking about and laughed out about his idea of buying her a big teddy bear ‘You really amused me’ she said while still laughing, Fred smiled shyly and hit her on her shoulder, she bent over laughing ‘…and she saw you right there at the shopping mall when you bought it…’  she laughed the more. Fred started thinking about Dorcas. He has always observed her to be very calm, and the experience they had the night she fell into his arms was tattooed on his mind.

Bibi finished her noodles and took her bowl to the dishwasher. She returned to the sitting room, picked up her phone and dialled her friend’s number, which wasn’t answered. She told Fred she would check on her again; she never knew her friend to be the type who ignores calls for any reason, even in her busiest moments. She stepped out to Dorcas’ door and tapped on her bell. Dorcas had slumped on her couch with her mind hovering over the man she thought would become Prince Charming. She heard the bell ring and sighed. This wasn’t the time to entertain visitors, and she rarely had them. She sat up for a while, and the next ring got her on her feet as she started towards the door. She peeped through the hole and saw her best friend, the only person she needed. The door swung open, and Bibi, already looking away, turned to see a pale, sullen face. She gasped and rushed in to hold her friend. Dorcas fell forward into her arms, and they both hugged for a while, a great solace for Dorcas. Bibi turned to shut the door behind her and guided her friend to the one couch that had hosted the duo in most of their best times together/

They sat down facing each other, ‘What’s happening to you?’  Bibi snapped, ‘You look like you’ve lost weight. ’ Dorcas turned and rested her head on the sofa headrest, ‘It's about Fred, I think he already has a girlfriend, I just feel so hurt, and the worst thing is that he doesn’t know anything about it. Bibi held her close; she had never seen her friend in this mood before. This was different; she felt like she had never known her. She sighed. Outside, a lady’s voice was heard laughing loudly, with a heavy, indistinct voice muttering. Dorcas got up in a rush to peep out of her window. Bibi was startled as she watched her friend stretch to look at two passing figures. Dorcas sighed as she held her curtain when she discovered it wasn’t Fred and the supposed girlfriend; now she felt really embarrassed. She left the window, went into her room and popped a capsule of her prescription drug. She needed to calm herself down so she wouldn’t look too abstract to her friend, whose face was now flushed, wondering what was happening to her. Dorcas popped three more capsules in a rush and left for the kitchen to get a glass of water. She brushed past her friend at the door to her room and went into the kitchen. Bibi followed her and met her gulping water, and before she could realise, Dorcas fell backwards before her, and the glass cup fell out of her hand and landed with a stuttering sound on the floor. Bibi rushed in and held up her friend, tried to drag her up, but she was already convulsing and spitting out. Bibi held and shifted her to a sitting position with her back against the cupboard. Then she rushed out to call Fred.

Dorcas felt dazed and tried moving her limbs. She squinted as she tried to open her eyes to a brightly lit room. She was sure this was not on her soft sofa; she was on something that was a bit with a spread on it. She sprawled on the bed, trying to get a hold of herself and felt a sharp pain in her right arm. She looked and saw a tube running from her arm and tried to follow it up, but couldn’t contend with the bright light up ahead. She looked the other way and became aware of a face observing her intently. She couldn’t mistake that face, that was the face that turned her about-to become a magical day to a tragedy. It was unmistakably Fred, the neighbour! Just before she could say anything, Bibi rushed in and ran to the bedside to hold her up. ‘Dee! You are up, I was so afraid for you, what is happening to you’ Bibi snapped while breathing heavily. Dorcas was now having a migraine. She tilted back to relax on the pillow, and Bibi helped her adjust. Dorcas turned to Fred and held up an inquisitive look while she wondered if this was one of the friendly gestures from someone who never really felt anything for her, then a strange thought went through her head, ‘Could it have been Bibi all this while?’. Yeah, she could remember the girl walking from her side of the apartment building to enter Fred’s apartment. She gazed back at Bibi, who was also looking inquisitive, hoping to hear from her friend. ‘How do you feel, Dorcas?’ Fred asked, Dorcas turned again to Fred and kept her calm as she replied, ‘I’m fine’ in a deep undertone. 

“Do you know her?’ Bibi asked Fred, who turned to Dorcas first, ‘Yes, she’s the neighbour I was telling you about’. By now Bibi was looking all lighted up ‘This is my cousin, Alfred, the one I told you about, he just moved into your apartment building a couple of weeks ago’ Bibi was rattling while glancing at Dorcas and Fred, ‘I told you about him a week ago, oops, so you are the one he bought a teddy bear for?’ Bibi said, laughing, that the thought of his cousin purchasing a big teddy bear for a lady he has not spoken to before has always sounded hilarious to her. Dorcas beamed as she turned to Fred, ‘You bought the big brown teddy bear for me?’ By this time, Fred stood up and walked closer to the bed, looking shy as he nodded to Dorcas, who was now holding up a surprise and a smiling face. ‘I thought you had a girlfriend already, ’ Dorcas said while turning to Bibi, ‘Oh gosh, now this is hilarious. ‘If I ever had a girlfriend, it was you, ’ Fred said to Dorcas as he walked to the bedside, looking directly down at her. Dorcas sank into her pillow, her eyes rolled, and she slumped for the second time! Bibi reeled and ran out to gesture to the nurses she had seen in the corridor folding napkins while Fred held up her hands and looked at the signs which started spiralling down and beeping on the monitor. Just in a moment, the signs went back up, and Dorcas gasped for breath.

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