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Auscultation by akire [Reviews - 2] 
Cosmo shuddered as Lina dragged the string of pearls through her fingers. Back and forth, back and forth, like a saw across his brain. Don glanced over at him, worry already beginning to etch itself on his forehead – for him, or for the epic disaster unfolding on the screen, who knew? – and Cosmo forced himself to paste a bright smile on his face. Don look away after a second, eyes drawn back to the debacle being played out in front of them. Cosmo tilted his face downwards, away, grateful he was on the end of the row and didn’t have to risk some woman slapping him for staring at her cleavage. There was a stain in the theatre carpet, on the edge of the pool of light cast by the running lights. He stared at it, trying to guess its shape, its colour, its source. Maybe if he just focused on that… “…and I can’t stand him!” Lina’s horrible voice cut through him like a knife. Cinema was about pictures – it should be played out in silence, or with a gentle, subtle, above all ignorable piano score underneath it. This was all wrong. ‘And I you, Lina,’ he muttered under his breath, too quietly to be heard above the scratches and hisses of the sound track. A gentle touch on his arm; he didn’t have to look to know it was Don. He could tell by the strength of the touch, of the pattern of his breathing, of the way he shaped the silence around him into a query of concern that he knew only Cosmo would hear. Beyond him, he could make out the echoes of Lina – gods, even just sitting there, mouth open and panting at the screen she sounded dumb – and beyond her, R.F., his heartbeat speeding up for an explosion. Well, boss or not, if R.F. wanted out of this nightmare, he’d have to get in line. Without looking up, he tapped Don’s fingers with his own, once, twice, then slipped out of his seat, staying low though the audience were so engrossed in the tragic comedy on the silver screen they probably wouldn’t have noticed his passage up the aisle if it were tracked with a marching band. Cosmo half-wished he had one. It might have just drowned out the sound of Don declaiming on-screen about the bite of Cupid’s arrow. It was one thing for Lina to sound like an idiot in front of these people, but Don? Cosmo didn’t stop until he was out the doors and into the beautiful clean patter of the rain. |
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