I hadn’t heard the door open. I turned and found it open as Julia rushed toward me, but I hadn’t heard her open it. My senses went in and out, as if some part of me were buffering and couldn’t connect to the damn internet. I looked down at the muted scene, watching Julia cup my bloodied hands within hers. They were so small. So delicate. So pristine, compared to my scarred-up knuckles and crooked joints. She tugged my arms over to the faucet and turned it on, and I watched as she tempered it before jutting my hand beneath the stream of water.
The lukewarm sensations comforted me as blood-stained water swirled down the drain.
“Did you really just punch the mirror?” Julia asked breathlessly.
I looked up at the mirror and found it shattered to bits, but I still couldn’t find the strength to move my mouth to speak.
“All right,” Julia said as she slid the slivers of glass from beneath my skin, “you wanna tell me why you’re so upset, then? Maybe I can help.”
I scoffed at her statement. Like she could help with any of the shit happening around us.
“Oh, so we’re not talking now?” she asked.
I glared at her before drawing in a deep breath, steeling myself against her emotions.
“Okay, I’ll bite,” she said as she reached for a towel. “What in the hell did I do this time?”
I furrowed my brow tightly. “This time? You mean, there are other times where you connived behind someone’s back to get what you want?”
She balked at me, her jaw dropping toward the floor. “What in the actual fuck are you talking about?”
I ripped my hand away from her and wrapped the towel tightly around my still-bleeding skin. “I heard you talking to your sister. I know exactly what you two are planning.”
Her eyes widened. “Wait, you heard that?”
I turned around, leaning against the countertop with my back. “I know what you’re going to do. I know you’re working with them, or at least against us, and it’s not going to work. You’re not the first woman we’ve ever encountered that they’ve planted with us, but you are certainly going to be the—”
She held up her hand. “Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.”
I blinked. “What?”
She scoffed as her hand flopped back down to her side. “You think I’m working for Bullet and his guys? Is that what you’re actually trying to convince me that you heard?”
“I know exactly what I heard, and it’s—”
She shook her head softly. “You’re a big, dumb idiot, aren’t you?”
“No, I’m not.”
“Are you sure? Because when I tell you what you actually heard, you’re going to feel like one.”
I pinned her with a look. “I’d rather feel like an idiot than have to kick you and your sister to the curb in the middle of the night.”
“I’m not working with Bullet and his men. And you’ve gotta be one sick motherfucker to think I’d actually help them after everything they did to my sister. Do you even hear yourself?”
I shrugged. “Who the hell else would you be working with?”
She threw her hands into the air as her face turned red. “You guys!”
“What?”
She rushed toward me and placed her hands on my forearm. “I’m hoping to work with you guys if you’ll pull your head out of your ass long enough to see that we’re not here to sabotage you. We’re just here to try and get back to our lives.”
It took a while of searching through her stare for me to grasp what she was saying. But when it slapped me across the face, I tugged myself away from her.
“No,” I said plainly.
Julia scoffed. “You don’t have a choice. I’m helping you guys take this man down, and that’s final.”
