Page 165 of Isolation

-----------

Reid

“What are you going to do?” I ask as I refrain from rolling my eyes.

“I will figure it out, I always do,” Raven says with a wave of her hand, casting me her usual nonchalant glance.

“This is ridiculous.”

We are at Raven’s place. It’s in a shitty neighborhood and she shares the apartment with two weirdos.

I hate that she lives here. No matter how many times I have asked her to, she refuses to move back to our family house.

If I hadn’t already signed with my dorm for the year, I would have got an apartment with her.

My irritation is rising but I decide that a positive attitude is more productive in this situation.

My optimism quickly dissipates as I look around. Raven is sorting through the mail on the table. One of the dining table chairs is broken. The smoke alarm is hanging off the ceiling. The paint on the wall is chipping off. There is an open electric line.

I can’t help the pang of pain I feel over her staying in this disgusting hole in the wall that she passes off as home.

I had no choice but to suck it up and let her go through with this. Raven is stubborn as a mule. She refused all of my offers for help. She won’t take money from me because Milo is my source of income. She threatens not to talk to me even if I buy her groceries.

However, I am not holding back anymore. One way or another I am taking her away from this shithole. She is going to move back home with me.

“Rave, I am moving home too. Move back with me. I don’t understand the problem.”

Raven smiles again. “Reid, there is no problem. I am fine.”

“You just lost your job.”

“I have savings.”

“Rave, we both know that’s a lie. What is the big deal anyway? I will be there. Stay with me. Rave, just move back home.”

“This is my home.”

“This is not your home. Plus, you don’t even have a source of income anymore. You won’t be able to pay rent. What logical reason could you possibly have to keep living here?”

Raven is quiet.

I continue my rant. I have to make her see reason. “You have no financial support coming in and you have debt up to your neck. You are barely making rent and groceries as it is. What do you plan to dowithouta job? You won’t take money from me because it’s Milo’s money. And unlike Milo, I won’t come into my trust fund till we are twenty-two which is still two months away. I can pay off your debt then but what do you plan to do in the meanwhile. You are a rational person Raven. Give me a rational answer.”

I know I am being harsh but Raven is being impossible. I don't know how else to get through to her. Why is she being so unreasonable?

Then it hits me.

Milo.

That’s why she doesn’t want to move back home.

Raven never went into details about her “relationship” with Milo. I don’t know the extent of their affair. As far as I am concerned, they had a one-night stand after which Raven left for Paris.

That visual alone shut down everything inside of me for years on end. I can’t even consider the possibility that they might have shared anything more than one night together.

“Is it because of Milo?” I ask suspiciously.

“What?” Raven tenses.