AllFreeNovel
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“You were really tired,” I mention. “You had to pick yourself up too many times.”
So softly, she asks, “She went through a lot, didn’t she?”
“Yeah.” My throat tries to close. Maybe hers does too because she sips the alcoholic drink. Don’t think she’s supposed to have too much alcohol right now with her injuries and pain meds, so I’ve been downing bigger gulps when she passes the can to me.
Just when I’m about to pressplay, her phone buzzes. Reminds me that I need a new phone. Stat.
Luna checks her cell. “I have an appointment with the neuropsychologist tomorrow morning.” She types out a text. “Will you come with me?”
“I would, but I gotta check with security.” It also might be better if she goes on her own. Her infatuated attachment to me could be a bad thing, and I wouldn’t know.
She’s on her phone for a hot second longer.
“Watcha looking at?” I ask, concerned.
“I just don’t understand.” She growls in frustration, practically fisting her phone. She types feverishly again. “It’s not working.”
“What’s not?”
“My Fictitious password.” She slams back against the headboard in a huff.
I ease an arm over her shoulders, and she expels a calmer breath. Putting the cigarette between my lips, I nod to her phone. “There’s a reason for that.”
“You know the password?”
I take a drag, blowing smoke away from Luna. “You deleted your account.” Having to retell a heartbreaking history isn’t so easy for me, but I’m doing it for her. In as many necessary words, I recount how her fics leaked recently. Spread on the internet. The blowback from media and people online, all of it.
I’m bracing myself for a round two of Luna breaking down. I’m prepared to hold her, comfort her, anything to make this better—except, she’s not sobbing.
She’s not frozen in shock either.
“The manuscripts in your closet?” she starts to ask.
“You gave them to me to hold on to.”
“That’s all that’s left?”
“Yeah.” I pause. “If you wanna read your stories, that’s where they exist. You didn’t get rid of ‘em completely. They’re not online or in your computer, only printed.”
Her face pinches, as though examining the puzzle of her life. With my arm still around her, she touches my hand that’s hanging near her bicep. She traces a vein with her thumb, the soft touch flooding my lungs.
“People were shitty,” she says quietly. “Areshitty, I’m guessing. They’re calling me what…afreak?” She frowns. “Luna the Tentacle Smut Lover?”
“That’s what I call myself.”
She smiles over at me. “You love tentacle smut?”
I suck on my cigarette, nodding. Blowing smoke at the ceiling, I say, “It’s a favorite. I love yours.”
Flush creeps up her neck, but she’s interlacing her fingers with mine and turning more towards me on the bed. “I can’t believe she let you read our smut.” Her smile widens. “I kinda love her for it.”
“Ditto.” I’m drawn into her emerging effervescence. Big word,effervescence, I know. It’d shock the pants off my dad, but I do read.
Luna rolls onto her knees, sitting more in front of me. I spread my legs open so she’s a bit closer, and after she passes the Four Loko to me, I say, “You’ve been crushed about the leaked fics.” I explain her absence at college, holing up in the penthouse, and avoiding the public.
“This is all recent?” she asks again.
“Yeah.” I sweep her reaction. “You’re not torn up about it?”
