Eternal youth had never seemed so unappealing.
Suyin forced a smile and took the condensation-slicked glass, clinking it against Iris’s before taking a sip. Her blood-red lipstick left a print on the edge.
“Girl, your makeup is smudged down your face something fierce,” Iris shouted in her ear. “You look like a goth zombie.”
Suyin ran her fingers under her eyes and laughed when theycame away black. Then she shrugged. Goth zombie sounded like a good look to her.
Taking another sip, she shouted in her friend’s ear, “Why don’t you ever mosh with me anymore?”
Iris shook her head. “I’m too old for that shit.”
Suyin arched a brow. If only she knew.
“Plus,” Iris added, “if I came home covered in bruises, I think Meph would go on a murder spree.”
She said it with a dreamy look in her eyes, but Suyin inwardly grimaced. Iris’s new boyfriend was an awkward subject between them. It bothered her that Iris still refused to properly introduce them.
She’d seen “Meph” once at Iris and Lily’s last birthday party—and she still wasn’t sure what his weird name was an abbreviation for. He was in Lily’s scary hot boyfriend’s group of scary hot friends. Suyin remembered teasing Iris, telling her to go talk to the fuckboy she kept staring at. Iris had scoffed and told her he was toxic, and she wasn’t going near him.
Next thing Suyin knew, they were madly in love. They’d even gotten a fucking dog together.
She rolled her eyes inwardly.
In the beginning, Iris’s reluctance to properly introduce them had made sense. Iris normally went through a boyfriend every month or so, each more of an asshole than the last, and there was no need for Suyin to waste time meeting guys she hated the second she saw them.
But Iris had been dating the mysterious Meph for a while now, and she had yet to complain about him. At all. In fact, she seemed to get sappier as time passed. While that was vaguely nauseating, Suyin was happy for her friend. There was only so much male assholery a woman could endure before she became a total misandrist.
But Iris still wouldn’t talk about him, and she avoided the subject of an introduction like the plague. Worse, because Iris’slife was becoming more and more entwined with Meph’s, it meant she and Suyin spent less and less time together. And the more Suyin felt like Iris was keeping secrets from her, the more she pulled away herself.
It felt like their friendship was ending, and Suyin didn’t know how to stop it.
“Are you okay?” Iris’s question snapped her out of her musings.
“Huh?”
“It’s just, we haven’t spoken a lot lately, and I can’t help but notice you look a little stressed out.”
Suyin waved her off instead of replying. Speaking meant shouting because of the volume of the music, and she didn’t feel like shouting her secrets, let alone speaking them in a normal tone of voice.
Iris glanced around the club with a determined expression, and Suyin realized she’d come to the same conclusion. A moment later, Iris seized her arm in a vise grip and tugged her across the venue.
Suyin let herself be led. A part of her knew that if she really hadn’t wanted to tell Iris anything, she could have made some excuse about not wanting to miss the show. But … she was so tired. Tired of feeling isolated. Tired of keeping secrets. Though she’d never admit it to Iris, shewantedto tell her.
They slipped through the door onto the bar’s back patio, which was more of a narrow gap between two tall brick buildings. Cigarette butts littered the ground, and smoke filled the air from all the metalheads lighting up.
Iris dragged her to an empty picnic table that rocked dangerously when they sat. They chose opposite sides to balance it out and set their drinks down between them.
“I’ve been having dreams,” Suyin blurted. She’d never been one for subtlety.
Iris blinked. “What kind of dreams?”
“They feel like nightmares while I’m having them, but afterward, they feel prophetic. Like they’re trying to tell me something bad is coming.”
“How often?”
“Almost every night.”
“Damn.” Iris took a sip of beer. “What happens?”
