#♫ / rachel: 001.

[elijahfalvey]

— LOCATION: Mic Drop!

— CHARACTERS: Elijah & Rachel ( @rachelxhan ).

Suggesting to go to Mic Drop!, of all bars — when there were many, many others to choose from that didn’t routinely leave Elijah with a headache and a hangover — should have been seen as the cry for help it was. In his happiest, most rational state of mind, he’d never choose the karaoke bar for his ideal night out. At least, not anymore; not after last time, and the time before that, and the time before that, where he woke up the next morning feeling every millisecond of his age and the faint instrumental of Whitney Houston’s I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me) was still pounding at the base of his fucking skull. No, no, absolutely not — he knew, deep down, that he couldn’t put himself through that anymore. But alas, here he was, about two whiskey sour’s deep as he sat across from Rachel at the high-top table destined to repeat the past’s plentiful mistakes. In due time. A woman no younger than fifty stepped up to the stage next, just as the applause for the previous volunteer — a young gentlemen who introduced himself to the uninterested crowd as Bobby Disco — fizzled out. Elijah brought his nearly empty glass to his lips, wondering to himself just how she was meant to top an off-key rendition of Bruno Mars’ Locked Out of Heaven, when the opening counts of the very Whitney Houston song of his nightmares busted through the speakers. He groaned, his head immediately folding into his hands. “Raaaaachel,” he whined, “What did I do in a past life to deserve this? Please, for the love of God, rip my eardrums out — I can't do this.”