End of Time

        Laying on a hotel bed, they remained silent, holding hands, both thinking about everything so confusingly that nothing could be understood even in their minds. Actually, this was their strategy to breathe when too many things were happening or about to happen. Ten years of friendship made their silence be enough communication; their history was completely different because of each other's presence. He seemed to be the only man who could love her without desire; she seemed to be the only woman able to see beyond his appearance. With no masks they spoke, laughed and cried together through the years, being siblings, the norwegian girl and the italian man.
        - You are screwed, you know that, right?
        She laughed as answer. The moment of worry was gone for a while. The best of being together like this was that there was something about him, something very subtle that seemed to say "Forget everything, be just a girl with her brother, let me just a boy with his sis". It usually worked, so, at least for one hour all the hell or heavens which were worring them, just disappeared, and then they could go back to a safe place in their lives, where there was nothing but friendship and a little of fun, and even seemed that they could be young and brave once more. As life was making them grow older and older, only more regrets and useless experiences were added to their "wisdom". At least, they had built great professional lives: she made it through the medical school and became a great general surgeon, while he became the brilliant writer he always dreamed of being.
        Their sucessfull professional lives were a good mask for their personal mess. He lived by himself in a fancy apartment in Rome; she lived with her best friend (who was also a surgeon) in a house near the hospital where they worked. The flight for Oslo was in two hours, but she did not want to go home. Liv, her best friend, was now with a good life: she had finally gone back to her musician and very beautiful boyfriend. She was thin and really beautiful too, with amazing dark eyes, behind which all sort of sadness had been through. For a long time, Liv was the only person who could know everything about her, and that was...
        Someone was at the door. Lazily, he rose to answer it. Before she was even able to realize what was going on, she heard he whisper to her "Easy, honey" and then the lights were on and the voices spoke in italian and english and nothing else made sense: in a moment she was watching Liv dancing through the living room, smiling as she almost never did, and the hospital's lights were blinding her and somewhere, in some very distant place, the italian man was waking up with his phone ringing, with Liv's crying voice and there wasn't enough time to fly to Oslo, there was... That was the end of time.