Page 99 of Kiss Slay Replay

“I can do yours.”

“I don’t have the patience. Is that your dress?” She points to the open wardrobe.

“What do you think?”

“Babe?” Luke from the other room.

Cassie looks at me, presses a finger to her mouth, and shakes her head. I mime zipping my lips.

“Oh, wait. Luke? Luke!”

He appears in the doorway. “Yo!”

“Do you have the…”

“Yep!” He vanishes for a moment, then comes back to hand her a canned cocktail. “Willa, you want one?”

“Don’t throw it! Don’t!” I hurry over to him. “No throwing.”

“Dude,” he says, passing me a can. “I have a great arm. Ye of little faith.”

“Thank you,” Cass says. Luke leans down and they kiss, and it lasts long enough for me to get uncomfortable. They were very into PDA in the early years, but that faded over time. I forgot what it was like. Cass pulls away. “Now go do something else so I can hang out with Willa.”

“Sure thing,” he says, making another attempt to moonwalk. “Almost! Almost got it.”

Cassie gets up and closes the door behind him.

“That was cute.”

She waves it off. “Have to take full advantage of the kid-free weekend. It’s been too long since either of us got off. Trust, we both need it.”

I open my canned margarita and take a long sip. “What I really need is…another Red Bull.”

“You’re going to die.”

“What?” I nearly drop my margarita and spill it all over myself. “What did you say?”

“If you drink another Red Bull, you’ll go into cardiac arrest,” she says, shaking her liquid liner. “End up on the news.”

“Oh. Yeah.” I set my margarita down on the bathroom sink and take a few deep breaths to settle myself. My forcefully manufactured bubble of optimism is in danger of bursting. The day is young. There’s still so much time for things to go wrong.

Tick, tock.

When will I know if I’ve made it out of the loop? At the stroke of midnight? Tomorrow morning? Never? Am I going to spend the next week, month, year, the rest of my life waiting for another monster to show up? Wondering what horror lurks in the shadows?

It occurs to me, that’s actually not so different from how I’ve been living. Preemptively experiencing misery. Ye of little faith.

“You okay, honey?”

“Water. That’s what I should be drinking.”

“I’ve got bottles in the cooler. And Liquid I.V.,” Cass says. “I’ll be right back.”

She drops her liner into her makeup bag, stands up, and crosses to the door. She pauses, turning back to me. “You’re gonna be fine. You know that, right? Better than fine. I already see it. You seem happier.”

“I’m on my way. Thanks, Cass.” I clear my throat, so my voice doesn’t break. “Only way out is through, right?”

“Right.” She nods and slips out into the living room. I yawn, stretch, shuffle over to the window, and draw back the curtains to let in some natural light, crack it open for fresh air.