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AUbrY

I trailed the Bells for five hours. Around the parents holding squealing, exhausted children.

Over the pavement baking everyone’s insides to a zesty parmigiana.

Always just on the other side, always keeping an eye and never drawing close until at last, as the festival is wrapping up, I catch them on the other side of a brick wall.

“Well?” That’s Red. A voice of gravel and never one for multi-syllabic words.

“I didn’t see him,” Green answers followed by a long slurp.

“Stop that.” Red must have slapped the drink from Green’s hand as it hits the ground with a plorp. Juice spreads across the ground for my feet, and I pull them in closer. “And wipe that damn shit off. What would the boss say if he saw you with a butterfly on your cheek?”

“That it’s pretty,” Green says.

I press my back tighter to the brick doing my damndest to blend in while listening to every word. People lumber to their cars, weary and complaining about sunburns or their lighter wallets. I have to hear if they’ve found me.

“We sticking around?” Green asks.

“Don’t be stupid. A fucking eggplant festival? He’s fucking with us. Again. First that one-way ticket to the Philippines, now this.”

“I’d go to a bell pepper festival,” Green says and gets another slap from his brother.

“We’re wasting time. If we don’t get his ass back to Mr. Ato before November…” Red leaves the threat unsaid. I don’t have a clue what Ato’s got hanging over their heads, but I can take a guess.

In another life, I’d have been the one to dish it out.

“We’ve got another lead. North. Let’s go,” Red declares. “And don’t lick that damn slushy off the ground.”

“But it was really good,” Green whines, their footsteps echoing down the alley.

So they think I’ve gone north. Or they knew I was listening and lied to throw me off. Red could do it, but not Green. Either Red didn’t tell his brother, or they don’t have a clue.

I’m risking a lot on a maybe. Still, it’s best to hunker down for a few days, then make a break for it.

A Cadillac roars down the alley, caring nothing for the people about to be wedged into its grill. I yank my cap and tilt my head down. There’s no reason to bother. It blazes past, horn blaring to empty the road, neither paying attention.

But as they shoot past me, Red yanks the eggplant from Green’s hand and chucks it onto the sidewalk. It lands at my feet, exploding into a mess of white flesh and seeds. My first instinct is to scoop it up as if I can stuff it all back together again and make it whole.

If I believed in the great Sower, I’d probably be even more terrified after the sins I’ve done. But some nebulous god of creation has nothing on the eternal hells being dreamed up in the mind of Mr. Ato. If I want to live to see tomorrow I have to get out of here. Now.

I rise off the wall, mentally running through the checklist of what I need to grab. A chirp from my pocket sends me spinning around. People stream past, grumbling about the out-of-towners that nearly killed them. I fish out my phone.

Sadie: Let’s do the Green Elephant.

There was no way I could get away from her and her friends without handing over my phone number. I just didn’t expect her to use it so quickly. Or ever. I’m amazed she didn’t clock me then and there using the Ferris wheel to keep an eye on Red and Green. The bouncer story. I’m an awful liar.

Or I’m not used to someone having genuine trust in another person. A good person.

She likes me. I’m stringing her along for what? Sex? Right before Red slits my hamstrings and Green drags me back by my bleeding, useless legs.

I should end this. She has no idea what I am, in any form. The polite thing would be to tell her I’m busy tomorrow. Just find an excuse. My cat’s sick…

I wince at possibly manifesting that into the world.

I’m sick. That’s much better.

My finger hovers over the button to tell her off. Warn her away. I’m a terrible man with a price on my head. You don’t want any of this.

But as I reach to start typing, my thumb glances against the auto-suggestion.

Aubry: Okay

I pause in deleting it and hit send instead. If they are watching me, then it’s better they think I’m making plans instead of fleeing into the night.

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SADIE

“Are you done in there?” My roommate bangs on the bathroom door.

“Almost!” I shout, towel at my waist, left breast in my hand, and tweezers on the final nipple hair. I pluck it without feeling more than a twinge and cover myself. A cloud of steam rolls out behind me as I open the door. “Bathroom’s all yours.”

Before I finish, she shoves me aside and slams the door. Most of the time, we keep to our sides of the duplex. I take the shower in the morning to try to avoid her tying it up in the evening, but tonight is different.

I have a date.

Maybe.

Lucy keeps insisting it’s a real date, but I’m not sure. I did offer to buy him food to thank him for saving me. Though there was the Ferris wheel ride. And he did grab that guy’s hand before he could touch me.

It happened so fast, I barely had a chance to think about what he did for me.

People don’t tend to protect me, especially men.

Masculine gallantry is saved for petite girls like Lucy or svelte ones like Ann.

I’m expected to grab my bootstraps and swing ‘em at anyone getting handsy.

Assuming anyone believes creeps would get handsy with my cushions.

Sitting at my desk, I push away my light box and dig out my makeup before fishing for the hairdryer.

As the wet strands blow around my head, I stare at the dreaded curling iron sitting in the bottom drawer.

The last time I used it, I burned my neck and forehead, and the curls fell in a half hour.

My long black hair isn’t designed for all those pretty hairstyles the influencers pop on with a few quick edits.

I stare at my crusty eye shadow palettes. They’re probably okay, right? They don’t expire that fast. I tip back one with a done-up elephant on the lid and catch the date. Six years old.

Guys probably don’t dig the pink-eye look on a first date.

But I can’t go without anything, or he’ll know that I’m the absolute worst at this.

I’m not foolish enough to think someone like Aubry would date me.

I’m looking to be pinned between his brick body and the headboard for a few hours, nothing more.

But that requires dramatic eyes, red lips, and blush—all things that are expired or so old they’ve sealed shut.

Of course, he might not even show. Maybe it was all a joke. What if I stroll up in a dress and high heels while he’s just wearing a stained t-shirt and stares at his phone the whole night?

Okay, that’s every date I’ve been on for the past two years. Frankly, I already know more about Aubry Gene than any of the guys I’ve texted for months before he bought me a burger.

For one, he’s got an adorable cat. Two, he’s a complete nerd and seems proud of it. Three, he carries an Epipen with him to a bar. And four, he would have snapped that carnie’s arm in half if he’d touched me.

I lay my hand on my chest, my heart pounding. It’s not a date…but what if it is?

“Liv!” I shout through the house.

“What?” her voice echoes down the hall.

“I need to borrow some things.”

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AUbrY

“Don’t give me that look.”

I stare at my screen, reading nothing.

“Yes, I know what time it is.” Five twenty-five. I’m supposed to be meeting her in a little over a half hour. “I’m not going.”

Yellow eyes sink into my soul.

“You know why. If I’m spotted by anyone who reports to Ato, then it’s lights out for me. And you’re back to stealing food out of construction worker’s lunch boxes.”

Astin leaps off the back of the couch to land in my lap. Two feet strike my keyboard, closing my browser, opening my calendar app, and somehow starting one of the cat games. I don’t bother to move him aside, but try to exit out of the game.

A vengeful meow freezes me. He’s watching the ladybug scuttle across the screen, paw lifted to attack.

“Sure. Fine. I’ll spend the night watching you try for something you can never have.”

He attacks, swatting at the bug that keeps waltzing to one edge. Once it slips off the screen, Astin lunges like he’s gonna catch it on the other side.

“Buddy. It’s not there,” I tell him. He’s played this game for hours and still doesn’t understand that the bugs don’t come out the other end. Running my fingers down his back, I coax him to return to the screen. “Look, Parmie. There’s two more for you!”

I get a disbelieving look before he catches the twin crickets and lunges. This is my life now. Just me, sitting on the couch, watching my cat attack imaginary insects. It’s heaps better than what I had before.

Ignoring the exotic trips, the wild parties, and the women…

The last time I got laid was with one of the dancers to some show about rebirth. I don’t know anything about reincarnation, but the way she could bend her legs made my soul leave my body. That was…

I force myself to stop considering the flow of time.

I wasn’t exactly a manwhore before, but I wasn’t some celibate monk either.

Dating just didn’t happen in that world.

Getting to know someone was a liability that could end in her losing her heart—literally.

Better to keep things casual and easy. Any friend could betray you, any girlfriend sell you out.

Anyone but Astin, because he can’t talk.

“Though, you’d sell me out of a single Friskie, wouldn’t you?” I heft my malicious furball up. He flails at the game, claws out.

But as I tuck him into my arms like a baby, he pulls his paws to his chest. Oh, he glares like he’s going to chew out my eyes in my sleep, but he purrs as I rock him.

“We don’t need her. We don’t need anybody. We’ve got each other.”

Astin meows. Blinks at me. And, in one fell swoop, twists out of my arms. Lighting quick, he runs off toward the kitchen. Before the door has time to close, I hear a crash of something hitting the floor.

“Or I could leave you here,” I shout to the cat that knows he’ll be stuffed into his carrier, and I’ll drive with bloodied hands to our next safe house.

I don’t need her.

For her sake, I don’t need her.

My thumb hovers over her last text about how excited she is for tonight. I didn’t respond. The plan is to ghost her. Better to leave her wondering than asking questions.

Those thick thighs… And her tits managed to make a polo look good. The thought of those bouncing in my face as I pound her into the headboard…

“Astin.” I stand, dropping my phone and laptop to the coffee table. “I’m gonna take a shower.”