She slips past me and heads for the closed door, but doesn’t move through it without telling me the same thing she does every time I give her my dick.
“No one fucks me like you do, Chase Keller.”
I chew on the inside of my cheek, not replying, and when I hear the door snick closed behind me, I crush my fist against the wall, biting back the pain that shoots through every nerve, tendon and bone in my forearm.
“Fuck,” I groan. Rolling my forehead on the rough brick, I turn, slide down the wall, and unclench my bleeding fist to retrieve the bag of coke Ally likes to keep stuffed in her bra before she realizes it’s missing.
It’s the only reason I fucked her today, because I knew what I’d find.
I hold it in front of my eyes, stare at the pile of white powder, and feel the way my blood trembles for it, the way my heart stutters off rhythm for the euphoric release. My spine turns hot and sweaty and it’s fucking disgusting, and I hate myself so much right now.
“You remember how her mother died, yeah?”
“Give her something to believe in, or let her go.”
Harlen’s phantom words are like a knife in my ear.
Still, I open the bag, chew on my bottom lip and peel away the loose skin. But I don’t shake it out, I reseal it, throw it across the room and get to my feet.
This time, I cultivate the strength to leave it behind.
Twilight had fallen hours ago, dark clouds obstructed all but one blade of moonlight.
I curl around the corner, stepping onto the deck at the lake house, not surprised to find Harlen in the dome chair waiting for me.
It creaks when he shifts out of it, pushing to his feet. He moves slowly toward the railing, placing the can of Coke down, before pulling himself onto it, watching me, watching him.
And when I stop moving, when silence presses in, he asks, “We gonna talk about it?”
I knew he was talking about Devil’s Tunnel, about what had happened between me and Laiken.He had messaged to tell me that he had her, and to ‘remember what we’d spoken about.’
“You remember how her mother died, yeah? You need me to remind you?”
“Give her something to believe in, or let her go.”
I shrug, and take to the chair he just came out of, resting my elbows on my knees and jamming my forehead to my throbbing fists.
“Okay,” he starts, “How about we start at why it took me a good couple of hours to stop the girl's tears?”
I bite into my fist, press my eyes closed. “She didn’t tell you?”
“Nope,” his reply is instant. “But you will.”
I suck on the inside of my cheeks. “Because I’m a cunt,” whispering under my breath.
He scoffs, and I look up at him, watch him take a drink from the can beside him. “Welcome to humanity.” Harlen swallows, hiccups, then lets go of his breath. “Humans…we are all cunts, even when we don’t want to be.”
I palm my face, exhaling slowly on the drop of my chin.
“Stop stalling, man. Talk to me,” he rasps.
I look away, into the thick swath of trees, feeling a light breeze curl around me. “Severed Veins…”
“What about it?” he encourages.
“I shared it with her. She added to it.”
Harlen finishes his can of Coke, crushes it beside him, then pegs it into the bin at his feet. “Isn’t that progress?”
