@inherentvice
There’s my sweet girl.
No concern. No inquisition. Just the quiet certainty that I was never surprised. That I’ve been patiently waiting, that I’m not going anywhere.
I watch the screen. No delivery receipt.
Because she panicked and turned her phone off.
It doesn’t matter.
She reached out for me, I grabbed her. She can thrash all she wants, I’m not fucking letting go.
@inherentvice
You don’t have to tell me who hurt you.
I already know.
I glance up at Melissa. Even in her state, she recoils at whatever she sees on my face.
“The boy hurt what’s mine,” I say through a chuckle. “And he’ll pay for that. Dearly.”
Melissa’s bloodshot eyes stare back at me with undisguised horror.
I look back down at the screen. Still no reply. No delivery receipts.
I type one more message, the one I want sitting at the bottom of the message thread like a goodnight kiss.
@inherentvice
All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream
Sleep well, sweet girl.
Chapter 8
Kai
The Airbnb’s door opens with a faint creak.
Thank fuck.
I slip inside, shoes in hand. The last thing I need is Haven waking up to my drunk ass stumbling in at quarter to eight in the morning like some piece of shit who stayed out all night getting wasted after he walked out on his girlfriend.
Which is exactly what I am, but my girlfriend sure as hell doesn’t need the reminder.
A slurry of booze and ranch-slathered nachos pushes up my throat, but I force it down with a hard swallow. My head’s been pounding like a fucking bass drum since I woke up on Kruger’s frat house’s couch this morning. All I want is to climb into bed and sleep my way through this hangover.
But before I’ve even closed the door, something’s telling me I should never have come back.
The place is clean.
Not just picked up. Fuckingspotless.
Gone is the pizza box. The beer bottles we lined up like trophies last night. My notes that were scattered everywhere like I’d had a goddamn seizure while studying? All of it gone.
It’s creepy as fuck.
