Which one are you today?
Locke:
What do you mean?
Eris:
Some days you sound like a jealous boyfriend.
Others like you’re reading me poetry.
Or like you want to lock me in a room just to keep me safe.
The reply takes longer than usual, and I frown down at my phone while I wait.
Locke:
Maybe I’m all of them.
Eris:
People aren’t like that. They don’t change that much overnight.
Locke:
But I’m not people.
It should sound like a joke. I can feel it trying to. But it doesn’t land that way.
It slams into me like absolute truth.
My chest tightens. I set the phone down beside me, lean my head back against the wall, and watch the ceiling fan spin slow circles. Outside, the hum of the city filters through my cracked window… Cars, voices, a siren a few blocks away.
All of it is normal.
Ordinary.
Except it isn’t.
This is getting out of hand.
It’s not just an app, but it wasn’t supposed to matter this much either.
And yet, when I close my eyes, I don’t think about men and kisses.
I think about words I can’t explain.
I can know you.
How?
My phone buzzes again, but when I look, it’s not the app.
It’s a text.
Unknown number:
Nice dress. The black one you wore last night.
