Author's note:
This chapter contains only the briefest scene of violence, and it is not described in detail. There is discussion of the content of the previous chapter, which may upset some readers.
As an aside, this story - like all my others - has been written on a large-screen phone as I do not have access to a tablet or computer. I ask your forgiveness for the spelling errors which survive my spellcheck and editing process.
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"Hi," Amy said. She shivered as she held the door open for me, and I stepped past her into the cramped kitchen of her upstairs apartment. It was tiny but cute, merging with a little living room off to the right, a door to the left likely leading to a bathroom. Worn, white-painted cabinetry and woodwork, pans drying in the sink, a green-glass Coke bottle of fake sunflowers sitting at a table set for one.
Student housing if you didn't want to live in a dorm.
The Asian girl hiked herself up on the edge of the table and looked at me expectantly. "How are you doing?"
I huffed air through my nose, amused. "Haven't had a good day. Just wanted to talk to someone I didn't know. Someone who doesn't know me. You know?"
"But I do know you. You like turkey sandwiches."
My laugh felt so good I wanted to cry. I had thought I was never gonna do that again.
She laughed too. "I'd like to get to know you. What do you do for a living? Are you in school?"
I shrugged out of my jacket, hung it on the chair next to her, leaned back against the scuffed Formica counter. "Working on a programming degree. Working at a bank when I'm not in front of a computer."
"Nice."
"You?"
"Engineering degree. Slinging sandwiches in between classes."
"Cool."
We looked at each other across the cramped kitchen, and I noticed a few things about her that made my heart beat harder. The robe she was wearing might've been cheap, but it was made to look like satin, fringed with lace, red with black edging. Her feet were bare, golden-brown skin showing up to the edge of the lace robe, knee height. Her nipples tented the imitation satin noticeably, hard points over the slight swells of her breasts. She'd put on a little makeup, and her pink hair was obviously combed out, had had some attention applied to it.
Amy noticed me staring at her intently and blushed. "Whatcha looking at?"
"You."
She inhaled sharply, realized she'd done so, tried to cover it with a petite cough. Taking her hand away from her mouth, she looked me over as obviously as I'd done her. "You have a girlfriend."
I thought about Cady, waiting for me in the hotel. I thought about what I'd done in that bloody, acid-lit basement. I thought about what I'd have to do tomorrow. A crazy memory flitted through my head, a year ago, bringing Cady tomato soup when she had a cold, the way she'd gazed at me so adoring as she'd sat on her parents' couch, sniffling and clothing and looking a wreck. The look in her eyes had been pure, shining love.
I felt deranged.
"Yeah. You have a boyfriend?
"Not really."
Silence filled the kitchen, the extra space crowded by the memories of people we should probably be with right now.
"Why are you here?" Amy asked. Her voice was serious, no laughter, amusement behind it.
"I can't go home right now. I...I can't be around my girlfriend." I didn't even want to say her name here, it felt like a betrayal to cast the syllables into this woman's air.
"Fight?"
I laughed, low and dark. "Yeah. Something like that."
"You want a drink?" Amy slipped off the table, pulled a bottle from a cabinet across the room. Across the room was relative in an apartment this size, it was two strides from where she'd been sitting. Stepping over, she handed it to me. Frosted glass, with raised black writing like stretched out spider legs. Clear liquid sloshed inside.
That spider print said "Chopin."
I handed it back. "No thanks, I don't drink."
She popped the cork and took a swallow, then put the bottle back. "I do."
"Ok."
I decided.
I stepped over to her and when she straightened, I was close enough to feel her ambient body heat. Amy didn't move away, just stood there, breathing harder as she looked me up and down.
"You're pretty dressed up for a random guy coming over later at night," I said with a smirk.
"Wanted to put my best foot forward." Her voice was suddenly breathy, like she'd been running. Her throat moved as she swallowed hard, and I had a vision of my hand around it, seeing it up close as I kissed my way down it.
"You sound scared."
"Just waiting for you to make the first move."
"Me?"
"Yeah. You have a girlfriend. I don't want to presume."
Cady. I should be with her tonight.
I shouldn't be with her tonight. I shouldn't infect her with the violence I'd found inside myself. Something that good should remain pure. I couldn't poison that relationship. I COULDN'T.
"Do you want me to presume?"