"Here, this will make you feel better." Megan hands me my mug. It's almost too hot to touch. Its content spreads a delicious scent. My kitchen is a mess, but I don't care. She made her special hot chocolate, the one and only medicine for broken hearts and other heart shattering life experiences.

It doesn't matter how long we know each other, she never told me the recipe. She always said that it was a family secret. It was passed down from mother to daughter. And with the recipe came the solemn promise never to tell anyone what the secret ingredient was. I've asked her more then once, I even tried spying on her, I tried to analyse the taste, guessing the spices she uses to get this particular taste and I even tried to replicate it, but I failed miserably. The recipe is her best kept secret.

Carefully I blow over the liquid, to cool it a bit. Carefully I take a small sip, but it's still too hot. I place the mug on the coffee table, next to my phone. It's another excuse to throw a glance on the screen. No new messages, no missed calls. The same amount as the last time I checked, about a minute ago.

"Still nothing?" Megan falls down on the couch next to me.

Disgruntled I shake my head. "Nope."

Of course there were enough phone calls and messages after the tournament. Old friends, congratulating me with my victory, some journalists, who wanted to hear my side from the story and the inevitable spam mails. But not a word from Dan, not even an accidental pocket call or a misplaced text message.

"You didn't call him, did you?" Megan catches my gaze and quirks an eyebrow.

"No, of course not." I chew on my lower lip. Of course I tried to call him. To avoid her questioning eyes, I look at the television. Megan picked some horrible romcom. I don't like the genre, I never did, but I know she only tries to cheer me up. Like everything she did after I arrived at the airport. She drove me back to my house, flipped off some paparazzi and now she's stuffing me with every comfort food she can lay her hands on. To be honest, it makes me feel uncomfortable.

"Geez, Elise." Megan shakes her head. She must have read my face, I'm like an open book to her. "I don't think that was the smartest thing to do."

"Don't worry, he didn't answer anyway." I turn my face towards her. The wrinkles in her forehead clearly indicate that she's annoyed with my attempt to reach out for Dan. I grasp my mug, taking a sip. It's still warm, but it's not scorching anymore and I drink it anyway. 

"Did you change something about the recipe? It tastes different." I only say it because I want to desperately change the subject, but I can't deny that the taste of the hot chocolate is substantially different. The difference is in the aftertaste. It's more bitter than I can remember.

Megan doesn't answer straight away. When I turn myself to her to see what's keeping her from answering, I catch her staring intently at me. Then her eyes flick through the room, as if she's looking for something.

She quickly flips back her hair and shrugs. "I experimented a bit with the ingredients, adjusted the amounts of ingredients here and there. Do you like it?" 

"It's different." I say too quickly. I don't like it at all, but I don't want to disappoint Megan. Normally it's sweet and spicy. This version is a bitter parody. My answer doesn't really matter, as it is obvious that Megan's mind is wondering about something completely different.

"Anyway, what are you going to do now?" Her hands pluck restlessly at her sleeves. "I mean, you lost your job, you lost your boyfriend and you can't make a comeback into gaming."

As if I haven't thought of that myself. This is it, these are the dry facts. My life is like a peck of dust, floating in a vacuum. The tiniest huff of air can send it spinning in any random direction. So far, I've only seen it spiraling downwards. And to be honest, I can't see this ending in a happily ever after.

"I don't know." I take another sip of the warm chocolate, even though I don't really like the taste. The mug is almost empty. I roll the last bit of the fluid around, gathering enough courage to drink the last swig. I'm sure my face must be all scrunched, but Megan doesn't say a word about it.

Instead she pats my arm and says: "You just need to take back control of your life."

I nod, stare at the television screen. A blonde actress throws herself in the arms of the hero. Stupid movie, I think, it never works like that. A shivery sigh leaves my mouth. I wish I could forget Dan's existence with a snap of my fingers, but right now it seems impossible. He's everywhere.

His books are stacked in pillars across the room, one of his t-shirts hangs over one of the chairs, the bedsheets still carry his scent. It's like he can walk in the room any minute, but my hope evaporates as time goes by and I still haven't heard anything from him. And it hurts.

"We're going to show the world that you're fine, Elise. We're going to have so much fun!" Megan's voice full of energy. On what planet is she living? I don't want to show the world I'm fine, I don't want to have fun. I want to lie down, cover myself with a blanket and hibernate. I want to sleep until everything is solved and gone.

"I've got it all planned out. Tomorrow we're going to a spa- Hey, where are you going?" The more Megan talks, the more I feel like I'm in a deep dark ditch and she's running on some sunny mountain slope, surrounded by birds and orphan kids, singing on the top of their lungs.

"I don't feel so good," I squeak, as I speed to the toilet. I feel the bile rise in my throat. I don't know what's wrong with me. I don't know if I ate or drank something wrong, or if all Megan's plans are just a bit too much for me. All I know is that my stomach starts to protest.

It's strange how you feel that things go wrong and still make it in time to the bathroom. I feel relief as soon as the brown liquid leaves my body. Sweat pours down my face, and the world can't seem to stop spinning. Slowly I start to rise, but I sink back to my knees as soon as another wave of nausea hits me. I hug the toilet close and I retch until my stomach is empty.

"Eli?" Megan's worried face appears in the door opening. "Are you alright?"

"No." My voice sounds hoarse, crooked. It depicts perfectly how I'm feeling. "There's nothing left."

She wipes my face clean with some cloth and pulls my hair back into a messy pony tail. With some effort she gets me from the ground, and supports me back to the couch. She walks over to the kitchen and I hear her pour water in a glass.

I almost jump up when my phone starts to buzz. Megan is still busy. By the sound of it she's cleaning out my cupboards. I reach for the device. As soon as I stretch my arm, I know this was a mistake. The room seems to rock back and forth. It feels as if I'm standing on a ship during a storm. As my fingers fold around the buzzing apparatus, I close my eyes.

"Hello?" The word sound strange from my mouth. Talking feels weird, as if it costs too much effort. My mouth is dry and my tongue feels too thick.

"Eli, I'm... glad... reach you." The familiar sound of Dan reaches my ears, but the line is terrible. I think I can only catch half of the words he says. A tear rolls slowly down my cheek. I desperately tried to reach him the last days, but now that we're talking, I'm not so sure anymore. This phone call will be the end of us.

"We finished....I... so much. Listen, we need to... are you?" Distorted, that's how his voice sounds. So many words are lost in the crackling noise of a bad connection. His words are replaced by silence and I have no clue what he tries to say.

"There's something wrong with your connection, Dan." After my episode of puking, my voice is barely audible. Even I have trouble recognizing my own voice. "We need to talk. About you, me, us. About what you did. I'm at our... my place, if you want to talk."

I don't know if he heard me, because at that very moment the phone is yanked out of my hands.

"Listen, Dan," Megan says, the words sound like a sneer. "Don't bother calling her. She doesn't want to see you again. Ever. Not after what you did."

I want to scream at her, tell her to hand me the phone, but my body is not responding. Something is wrong. I know Megan's behavior was always a bit eccentric, but that never bothered me. She dragged me along in her weird plans, there was never a dull moment when she's around, but right now she creeps me out.

"I'm glad that's settled. " There's a razor sharp edge to Megan's voice as she shuts down my phone.

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AN: Thanks for reading! If you liked the chapter, please vote for it by pressing the little star :)

The story is almost over. Three more chapters are coming. One for closure, to fill in all the blanks, one to go back to the beginning, that looks similar to the prologue and one epilogue, to see what comes after.