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The sharp headache woke Lorraine up before anything else.
At first she had forgotten the whole night before, only remembering going out to dinner with Ed, and dancing, and then…
Oh.
Oh no.
She remembered everything.
Lorraine groaned in shame, bringing her hands to her face as she looked up at her ceiling. Why did she do that? Why did she just grab Ed and kiss him out of the blue? If he wasn’t weirded out by her before, he was definitely weirded out now.
Lorraine glanced over to the nightstand beside her, spotting the bottle of tylenol and the glass of water. She smiled warmly. What a sweet man Ed was. She would have to thank him the next time she saw him. He was most likely gone by now.
But as Lorraine woke up more, she could hear something sizzling along with the smell of something cooking. Confused, she slowly got out of bed, coming to the realization that she had slept in her dress from the other night. Good god, she was a mess.
Lorraine popped a couple capsules of tylenol with a swig of water, and walked out to the kitchen. She was too tired to care about what she was wearing, but that carelessness soon changed when she realized her kitchen was occupied by a man with familiar sideburns.
Ed was still here, and he was making breakfast in Lorraine’s kitchen. She was lost in the sight of it. Though, he must have felt her presence watching him with stars in her eyes since he turned over his shoulder and looked her up and down with a grin.
“Now where are you going all dressed up like that, huh?”
Lorraine just smiled, her voice softening as she leaned up against the door frame.
“…you stayed.”
Ed stopped in his tracks, seeming to stutter a little.
“Yeah, I… hope that’s alright. I just felt bad leaving you alone, you know? I mean, you were… you drank quite a bit last night. I’m not sure how much you remember, but–”
“I remember everything…” Lorraine reluctantly interrupted. She sighed and rubbed her eyes, leaning up against the door frame.
“God, I’m so sorry about all of that… about the kissing. I promise, I’m usually not that wild. I didn’t even realize I drank that much…”
“No, no! I promise, it’s alright!” Ed reassured. “You were just excited, I get it. Nothing to be sorry for!”
Water under the bridge and all that, right?
Lorraine hummed, still not quite reassured, but also relieved Ed wasn’t weirded out by any of it.
“Yeah, that…won’t happen again, I’ll make sure of it. One of us will keep tabs on how much I drink next time.”
Ed smiled, turning off the stove and starting to dish out the eggs for him and Lorraine.
“Ah, so there will be a next time?” He teased. Lorraine quirked her lips to the side as she looked away and shrugged.
“...Last night was very fun.”
Ed nodded, almost finishing what she was thinking. Only because he knew.
“The happiest you’ve been in a long time… you told me that before you passed out on me.” He recalled with a slight chuckle.
Lorraine sat down at the small kitchen table, staring distantly at the small vase of daffodils displayed in the middle. Happiness. New beginnings.
She’s told him too much already.
“I said a lot of things, didn’t I?”
“You were drunk, Lorraine. Things happen and stuff gets said. I know I’ve had my share of drunken words I regretted in the morning.” Ed mentioned as he placed the plate of eggs in front of her. She didn’t even notice that he had dished out more for her than himself.
“I hope you like them scrambled.”
Lorraine smiled and nodded.
“Yeah, thank you.”
Ed smiled back, sitting down with his plate across from Lorraine as they both started enjoying their breakfast together in comfortable silence. All you could hear was the frequent clink of forks hitting ceramic plates, and Lorraine’s occasional humming of approval. Ed looked up to see the woman rolling her eyes back and nodding with a mouthful of eggs. He gave a pleased grin.
“That good, huh?”
Lorraine swallowed, giving an ‘okay’ symbol with her eyes closed.
“Incredible… oh my god, wow.” She shook her head in disbelief as she went in for another bite. Maybe it was the subtle hangover that was making her absolutely ravenous, but these were some excellent eggs. This Ed fellow was a great cook.
He should come to her house more often.
Once Lorraine scarfed down all her food— which she did very quickly— she instinctively got up and took the tea kettle off the stove to put water into.
“Ed, would you say you’re a tea person at all?” Lorraine inquired, looking over her shoulder at the man, who had just finished up his breakfast right after her. He shrugged, looking off to the side.
“I mean, I’ve only had it once years ago. To me, it just tasted like… grass water. Haven’t been a big fan since.”
Lorraine snorted.
“Grass water…” She repeated as she chuckled to herself. Silly boy.
“You wanna know what I think?” Lorraine started. She turned on the stove to heat up the kettle before fully turning towards Ed, leaning up against the counter.
“I think you just need to find the right tea with the right additives… I won’t force you to try it if you really don’t want to, but I’m strongly encouraging you to at least give it another shot… would you want to do that?”
Maybe Lorraine was right, Ed thought. Maybe he just got off on the wrong foot with that one cup of tea he had when an incredibly sore throat had gotten ahold of him as a teenager and made him feel like he was swallowing a cactus 24 hours a day for a whole week.
“I’ll try anything for you.” Ed nodded. Lorraine turned her back to him so he couldn’t see the heat rapidly rising to her face. The water wasn’t quite boiled yet, and it wouldn’t be for a good while. So she took the window of opportunity.
“I need to go change out of this dress, can you keep watch of the kettle for me while I'm gone?”
Ed nodded simply.
“Yeah, no problem.”
And with a grateful smile, Lorraine hurried back to her room. Ed was left alone in the kitchen once again, and he decided to keep himself busy by washing the dishes he used to make breakfast. Every now and then he glanced at the kettle to keep watch. Just like Lorraine asked him to do.
He would do anything she asked.
Lorraine threw her dress on the floor carelessly next to her discarded coat. She decided on a simple, pale blue nightgown with a long, brown knitted cardigan. Something flowy, but also comfortable. It’s not like she was going anywhere today. She wanted to go to the library later today, but she was too worn out from last night.
Lorraine wondered how long Ed would be staying. A part of her hoped he would spend the whole day here. She strangely felt much safer with him around.
But just as Lorraine finished changing, a sudden familiar chill ran up her spine. That same blanket of dread was draped over her, and she knew what her mind was convincing her was there.
God, no. Not now. Not while Ed was still here.
Lorraine slowly and carefully looked over her shoulder, wrapping her cardigan around herself. Almost as a way of protecting herself. Not like it would do anything, but it was a force of habit.
There was nothing.
Maybe it would just be feelings of dread today. No hallucinations, no moving shadows in the corners of her house, just the feeling of something that wasn’t there.
Lorraine made her way out of her bedroom and into the bathroom across the hall, opening her medicine cabinet and grabbing her usual medications. But when she closed it again and the mirror was focused on her, she was met with the last thing she wanted to see.
That same recurring woman behind her in the mirror.
Lorraine had never whipped her whole body around so quickly in her life. A startled gasp caught in her throat, and her heart leapt out of her chest. But when she turned around, the woman was gone. She looked back at the mirror, and nothing was there either.
Panting, Lorraine grabbed the edge of the sink for bearings. She gripped her pill bottles tightly in the other hand without realizing, the indents making marks in her poor palms.
After a short while, she could hear the kettle start to whistle. Lorraine quickly snapped out of it, rubbing her face with her free hand, cold from her grip on the sink. Grounding for just a second.
She walked back into the kitchen, almost a new woman. And not in a good way. She tried to hide it as best as she could, but her mind was truly somewhere else right now. Almost like she was between worlds.
Ed turned off the kettle, the faint orange color around him lighting up when she came back.
“Ah, we’re cozy today, are we?”
Lorraine blinked absentmindedly, grabbing two tea bags from the cabinet.
“Yeah.”
It was short and sweet. Very quick. Like Lorraine wanted to just get a simple reply out and be done with talking for the rest of the morning. Ed stood by helplessly while she seemed to take over the kitchen and pour both cups like clockwork.
“You okay?”
Lorraine didn’t look up at Ed. She couldn’t. Did she really want to tell him?
“I…”
A moment of silence. Ed’s eyes fell onto the orange bottles Lorraine had placed on the counter. She didn’t have to say anything further.
“…did you see something?”
Lorraine debated for a moment, words caught in her throat.
He said he wasn’t scared of her. He said he wasn’t going anywhere.
He promised.
A deep breath.
“…it was a woman.”
Ed nodded, letting Lorraine continue on if she wanted to. She stirred a spoonful of sugar into her tea as she spoke.
“…she’s been following me around for a while. In my head, at least… I saw her when we first met, then while we were walking to the garden…”
Ed recalled that walk. Was that the moment Lorraine was tightly shutting her eyes? He just thought that the sun was bothering her. He felt terrible that she was too nervous to tell him about these things. Of course it’s not the greatest ice breaker when you just meet someone, but it hurt Ed to know that Lorraine felt the need to keep all of this in. To just deal with these scary things she sees all the time, and move on with her day.
Lorraine decided her tea was cool enough. She popped her pills into her mouth accordingly, taking a swig of her tea and throwing her head back to swallow them down. She looked out the window above the sink, watching the single crow peck at the ground outside.
Sorrow.
“…and I just saw her in my bathroom mirror.” Lorraine absentmindedly rubbed the soft material of her cardigan between her two fingers as she stared out the window. She couldn’t do anything else, really. She didn’t want to.
“God, Lorraine. That sounds terrifying…” Ed sympathized, his brows drawn together in concern as he watched Lorraine’s face. He noticed her body grow more slumped. Exhausted.
It wasn’t the right time to be thinking this, but Ed found a part of himself admiring how Lorraine looked at this angle. With the warm morning sun hitting her face just right, her bright eyes were prominent. And they seemed to glisten with longing. Hoping for something better. She looked like she had come straight from a painting. Ed snapped this shot in his head for a sketch to make at some point.
But he listened. He was a good listener, especially when it came to Lorraine.
She didn’t say much in reply to Ed’s sympathy, she just continued. Though she appreciated it. She appreciated him.
“Sometimes when I see things— when I see people, it’s almost like… they want me to go somewhere? It doesn’t make sense, I know. I just get this feeling like… like they want me to know who they are. Like they’re real people that want me to help them…”
Ed wasn’t quite sure what to say, he was just processing what he was being told. Was this typical schizophrenia? He had no idea.
“Do you think they’re real people?”
“They aren’t.” Lorraine responded a little too quickly. “I keep telling myself they aren’t real. Because if they are real, that means I’ve been watched everywhere I go by… whoever these people are. That means I haven’t been alone all this time, and that’s… god, that’s so terrifying…”
Lorraine rubbed her eyes and raked her hands through her hair. She was just stressing herself out, and she was probably scaring Ed. She had to stop.
“I’m sorry, I know this probably wasn’t how you pictured your morning… you don’t have to stick around if this is too much.” Lorraine sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. Ed, however, took a swig of his bare, lukewarm tea, pushing an internal grimace deep down and looking Lorraine straight in the eyes.
“I told you I wasn’t going anywhere, didn’t I?”
Lorraine blinked, almost speechless. Damn, this man was not budging. She wasn’t used to this. Not that she was complaining, Lorraine liked Ed’s company. She loved it even.
She eyed the mug that Ed held by his chest, then squinted suspiciously at him with a slight smile.
“…you don’t like the tea, do you?”
Ed sighed in defeat, immediately folding under barely any pressure.
“It still tastes like grass water.”
Lorraine laughed at that.
“That’s what tea is, silly! It’s dried leaves and flowers in a little bag, and you drink it. You might just need to add something to it to make it more sweet.”
As Lorraine spoke, she glanced out the window once again.
The one crow from earlier had gained a friend.
Mirth.
“Usually, I add sugar to mine. I’ll add honey every now and then, but mainly when I’m sick or my throat is sore… so what do you think? Should we add anything?”
Ed thought for a moment before answering.
“Um… maybe some sugar, I guess.”
Lorraine smiled, and she stirred in a spoonful of sugar. Ed just watched her peacefully before she slid the cup back towards him again.
“Go on, doc.” She encouraged. Ed took a good sip, not grimacing as much this time. Though he wasn’t fully convinced still.
And it was almost as if Lorraine could read his mind.
“Not as bad as before?”
Ed shrugged.
“Maybe this kind of tea just isn't for me… what even is it anyway?”
“It’s just chamomile,” Lorraine stated. “It’s supposed to be calming, and I thought I would need it after my rough start to the morning… Besides, I won’t be doing much today anyway. I don’t need the energy.”
Ed nodded.
“Ah, just relaxing today?”
Lorraine nodded.
“I think so… God, I haven’t danced that much in a long time, I’m beat… I think I’ll just catch up on some reading, maybe answer some emails. Just boring stuff that you probably don’t wanna stick around for.” Lorraine waved Ed off. Though to her surprise, he gently protested.
“Now who said I didn’t wanna stick around for that?”
Lorraine froze, almost looking puzzled. Like she couldn’t fathom that Ed actually wanted to do these boring things with her.
“…you wanna stay?”
Ed nodded.
“I’ll be honest, I’m not ready for our day to end… but only if you want me to.”
Lorraine couldn’t stop the grin that started to form on her face. The rough morning was slowly being forgotten little by little.
“I don’t want it to end either. I, uh… I like having you here. Especially if you're making breakfast for me in the morning.”
Ed laughed as he crossed his arms.
“Well, I’ve always enjoyed cooking, so that works out just fine for me.”
“And I’ve always been more of a baker. We make a good team that way, don’t we?”
Ed nodded in agreement.
“Absolutely.”