Was he OK? I thought groggily. Passed out somewhere? Worse?

I was lying there, breathing rapidly in the dark, woodenly wondering what I should do next, when I heard the sound.

It was a giggle, and it had come from the bathroom behind me on my right. I rolled myself up onto my elbows and tilted my head off the bed to look through the crack of its slightly open door.

In the light of a strange, low glow, I spotted Alex leaning against the sink. Then I heard another giggle, and Maureen, my best friend, appeared in front of him holding a lit candle.

At first, as Maureen put the candle down onto the counter and they began to kiss, I truly wondered if I was still asleep and having a nightmare. Then I heard Maureen moan. Realizing that I was very much awake, the enormity of what I was watching walloped into me like an asteroid into a continent. It was my worst fear, everyone’s worst fear.

My boyfriend and my best friend together.

Crippling waves of anger and fear and revulsion slammed through me. Why wouldn’t they? Primordial betrayal was being enacted right in front of my locked-open eyes.

I heard Maureen moan again as Alex began to peel off her T-shirt.

Then they were cut from sight as the bathroom door closed with a soft, careful click.

A T. S. Eliot quote from my last Modern Poetry class popped into my mind as I blinked at the closed door.

This is the way the world endsNot with a bang but a whimper

Or a moan, I thought, turning and looking at the clock again: 2:26.

If my premed boyfriend wasn’t currently busy, he could have marked it down.

Time of girlfriend’s death.

I didn’t scream as I sat up. I didn’t look for something heavy and then kick the door in and start swinging.

In retrospect, that’s exactly what I should have done.

Instead, I decided not to bother them. I just simply stood.