Page 407 of Call Me Baby 2: Side B

“I keep foolin’ myself, thinkin’ you do.

“‘Cause I badly need it to be true.

“But hell—maybe this’s always been a game to you. Maybe this is all some fuckin’ game ‘cause Miss Taylor’s bored in her penthouse.”

My teeth grind and grind

as I stare and stare,

the chain glinting back,

laughing at me.

And how dare he say this shit while still wearing a leash, keeping him chained to his past. As long as he’s wearing it, it’ll never matter what I say or do. He can’t believe me if he’s always blinded by his own shame he wears every day.

His voice bleeds back through⁠—

“That’s the truth, Allison.

“I’ll never be enough for you.

“You’ll never let me all the way in.

“You’ll never tell me why I got my girl pukin’ her brains out every time I make her come. You’ll always put yourself first. And you know what? Fair. I get it. You look out for you. You do what you gotta do to get what you want, doesn’t matter who gets burned, who loses their job, who gets dropped. We’re all just pawns in Allison Taylor’s FUCKIN’ WORLD⁠—”

I grab the gold chain

and rip it off his neck,

pitching it across the parking lot.

It clinks against the dumpster,

drops into a pile of dirty snow.

It happens so fast it shocks even me,

leaving me at a standstill, chest heaving.

Andrew stands paralyzed, stunned.

Then his hand lifts to his throat.

But the chain is gone.

He stares at me

with a war in his eyes,

like I just stripped him, saved him,

and slaughtered him all at once.

Like I threw away Andrew Harding,

the myth, the pussy-pleaser, the fuckboy,

and now all that stands there is just…