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“Do cats like to get wet?”
“No, I don’t think they do. Can we, um, talk about this later?”
Instead of answering or leaving, he opened the curtain and launched the cat at me. So here I am trying to cover myself, and he’s screeching in laughter, running away after tossing the poor thing at me.
Thankfully, I jumped out of the way and the cat landed on the tub, only scratching my leg in the process. Once my heart rate decreased, I was able to pick up the screeching thing and drop it out of the shower.
You’re laughing aren’t you?
Yeah, well, I hate you too.
I’m going to listen to the song again.
I don’t really hate you,
Nox
I stared into my mug,zoned out as I waited for the one friend I’d made since I’d arrived in Nashville to show up. Exhaustion didn’t even cover how tired I was today. Thankfully, it was my day off, allowing me a chance to sort out the mess my life had developed into overnight. Cheese on toast! What a doozy this was turning out to be. Slade’s words echoed around my head in circles, the truth he’d spilled ricocheting off the reality I’d come to know.
Blaze. Blaze. Blaze.
It was like whack-a-mole to get them to go away. As soon as one would stay locked in its hole, another would pop up. I was tired, and didn’t want to think about what they meant anymore.
There had been a small part of me last night that had wanted to let Slade and Simon stay at my apartment with me. But I knew I needed time to decompress the mess of everything or my head might explode trying to put the pieces all together. Plus, with both of them there, I’d be too distracted to sleep. Not that it mattered in the end, since I’d laid in bed staring at the stars on the ceiling all night thinking.
Where had everything gone so wrong? Could it all really be that simple?
Yet from the moment I started high school, my life felt like it had been sent off on a trajectory, the only direction, a crash course headed for disaster. Was the world out to get me? Or was I the maker of my own failures? Could it all be coincidental?
Questions and thoughts raced around my mind all night, and it was enough to make my head pound today with all the possible theories. My thoughts were a mess. It felt like all the drawers inside my head had been flung open, a strong breeze sent through and the papers scattered everywhere. None of it had any meaning and trying to find the one piece of information that would make it clear was impossible.
Sighing, I took another sip of the lukewarm coffee as I thought about what Simon and Slade had revealed. It all felt like a jumbled pile of goo, the lies a warbled mess of duplicity I couldn’t escape.
Si texted me this morning informing me they were staying in town for a few days. I didn’t know why it had surprised me, but I’d assumed they would’ve gone back to Kentucky having said their piece, running off into the sunset together. Of course, it wasn’t like we’d spent hours last night catching up. I had no clue what they’d been up to, too afraid to know if they were together. For some reason, that thought alone, of whether or not they’d become a couple plagued me the most.
I wanted to know… but I didn’t. Knowing meant accepting it.
When the booth jostled, I looked up from the mug and found a pretty blonde with sparkling emerald eyes smiling down at me. As usual in her presence, I couldn’t help but smile back.
“Hey, Darce.”
“What’s up, hot stuff?”
Shaking my head at her, I waited for her to get situated and we ordered before I started in on my drama. Darcie had been one of my first clients at Equinox Ink, and when she’d invited me out to go dancing with her and some friends, I found myself agreeing. It had been a fun escape from everything that was Lennox James.
“How did your set go last night? Sorry, I couldn’t make it, Damon called in sick, so I had to cover. I’m so gonna catch him lying one day, and then I’m going to ream his ass.”
“I think you just want to boink him,” I jested.
“Girl, no.”
“Uh-huh.”
Rolling her eyes at me, I noticed the smile that had tilted up slightly at the edges when she’d mention his name. Darcie could deny it all she wanted, but she wanted him. Smiling inwardly, I took another sip, wincing when I remembered its temperature.Yuck. Putting it down, I observed my friend as she attempted to avoid my discerning gaze.
Darcie was a manager at a line dancing bar, and despite her constant bickering about the place, I knew she loved it. She was too beautiful for her own good, though, always falling into bed with the wrong men. The fact she liked Damon but wouldn’t admit it told me how scared she was of dating a nice guy. Not that I had room to talk. Clearly, I had issues when it came to dating myself, and avoidance had always been my solution. Not that it worked, my current state was a prime example of how hiding got you nowhere. In the moment though, it always seemed like the perfect solution.
Ignore. Ignore. Ignore.
