Keith awoke not knowing where he was and hot as all hell. His head spun as he opened his eyes to daylight and looking at a ceiling where fan blades spun slowly. Not enough to even feel a breeze. As his mind began waking, he became aware that someone lay in the bed with him.
He turned slightly and saw black hair. Leti still slept, her slow breathing making that observation fact. Details began fading back to him from yesterday.
He remembered going home with her after their backseat copulation. The entire time they talked and he recalled her telling him many things, but only her name stayed with him.
Leti had been hands on the entire ride. It was only late into the night that Keith remembered the ring had been turned on. She blew him in the driveway, which started their continual tryst as he moved the television inside.
At some point his boss had called to ask what he was up too. He got the impression she hadn't even realized he had left work early. Somewhere into the night, they began drinking, which explained his headache. And his cotton mouth.
Keith got up and looked at his hand. The ring was still turned to be active. He left it on for now, in case she woke. Last thing Keith wanted was to awake Leti and she not recall him at all. They did drink a lot and he had no idea if the ring did anything to memory.
Moving to the bathroom, he relived himself and looked himself over in the mirror. He looked worse for wear. Eyes sunken and looking exhausted, he needed something for his sore body. Keith, not wanting to waste anytime, quickly found his things and left Leti's home.
The daylight burned his eyes and he swore in pain. Never one to give up, he began walking though, but not before he turned the ring off. Worse thing would be running into someone on the street and falling to its influence. Noting to himself to be more careful, he wandered clumsily until his phone went off in his hand.
"Hello?" he answered.
"Where you at man?"
It was Garfield, one of his buds he regularly hung with after work at the bar.
"I actually don't know," he replied. He stopped on a corner and read off the streets. "Can you pick me up?"
"Where?"
Keith looked around until he saw a street sign.
"Corner of Gamby and Roth."
"That's on the other side of town," Garfield protested.
"Come on man, I'm stuck."
"Alright."
Garfield hung up the phone, never even telling Keith what he had called for. Feeling woozy, Keith sat down in a yard on the corner waiting. No traffic came for what felt like an eternity. A small truck drove by, not even slowing down to take a look at him. The next vehicle came fifteen minutes later and it happened to be Garfield.
"Dude, what happened to you?" Garfield asked as Keith settled into the seat of the small Chevy Aveo.
"Long night," he replied with a groan. His arms hurt and so did his hips. If he did remember correctly, the Latina had been insatiable in bed. A symptom
"Fuck's sake man, I can tell," he said before the car accelerated. "What did you get into?"
"Latina girl," he said smirking while saying it. Keith felt free, even though his body ached and he felt dehydrated. "I need something to drink."
"Not now, we got issues," Garfield said.
"Oh yeah you called me. What's up?"
"Something happened to Frankie."
"That sleeze-ball?"
The look Garfield gave Keith let him know that the situation was more serious than he thought.
"Look Keith, you knew Frankie was a creep, but he's one of us."
Frankie happened to be someone Keith honestly had major issues dealing with being friends with. The guy made inappropriate jokes, hit on women uncomfortably and was generally too obnoxious to be around for long.
"Okay, so what happened?"
"He was found dead this morning in his apartment."
"Really?"
"Yeah, torn to shreds."
They rode in silence for what seemed to Keith an eternity.
"They know why?" Keith asked after they stopped at a light.
"No, but they said it was extremely grisly."
"So what are we doing?"
"Well, most of the group is at the bar already. No one can get ahold of Dave, but the rest of us are gathering to discuss what we can do."
"He lived with his sister right?"
"Yeah and I have no idea to handle what she is going through?"
Keith knew that Frankie had provided much of the fund that he and his sister lived off of. It was then though, that his eyes spied over the clock in the car.
"It's really past three?"
Keith hadn't missed work as he was off today, but he couldn't believe that he awoke so late in the day. He mentally shrugged to himself surmising that the night before he had lost track of time. The two of them rode in silence for the rest of the trip.
During the ride, Keith wondered what could have really happened to Frankie. Something didn't sit right with him about the situation, but he couldn't figure out what it was.
Molly's Bar a prominent spot for the group, was pretty empty. Samuel and David were there, waiting at a table and already sipping on some beers.
"What's up fellas?" Keith asked sitting down in one of the empty chairs.
Samuel looked terrible. Barely holding his head up. David still had on his necklace, leaning back in his chair.
"Frankie ain't here no more," Samuel said.
"I heard, has anyone talked to his sister?"
"I did earlier, she was worked up pretty bad," Garfield said with a sigh sitting down.