charlie finally pays @fmdalyssia a visit sometime after the latter has been released from the hospital. alternative title: charlie swallows down her own discomfort and tries to be a good friend.
The trek towards her destination has never demanded a greater effort from her before now. It is not an unfamiliar path she walks; she could find her way easily with eyes closed if she wanted to.
But she doesn’t want to.
Right now she wants nothing more than to turn on her heels and speed down the stairs, never to look back. Yet she knows if she were to really go through with it - to run away like she usually does - she would never really forgive herself and the feeling of unease would not subside. Then there is the looming presence of a manager escorting her to the apartment she really cannot shake off. Before she can beget another possible escape route they are already standing by the front door. Access is easy (too easy) and before she knows it she has come to a point where there is no chance of returning.
It can only go forward from here, can it not?
Aside from the dimmer lights, courtesy of curtains being pulled almost close, the apartment does not look too different from any other time Charlie has visited before. Steps are carefully taken around the eerily quiet place; it feels less like a home now and more like a prison and the unease simmers beneath the surface, making her more than ready to hightail it out of the apartment. What keeps her rooted in place is the face of a girl whose last image is clouded in pain and hurt, embedded in her mind ever since she witnessed the undoing of a persona the other female worked so hard to craft and cultivate over the years.
It is this undoing Charlie comes to the realization how little she actually knows about her friend despite having spent more than ten years in each other’s company.
A lowly and soft hey is all she can manage as she steps further into the room, taking in the sight of Alyssia, a face she had not seen since the latter’s premature leave from promotions. Thoughts are running a million miles a minute but Charlie, for once, is at a loss of what to say. All her senses are on high alert - as if she was walking into the lion’s den and not visiting a friend who, now more than ever, was in need of support and care.
