With my chest heaving I looked around at the destruction.
It was normal for my apartment to always be in some state of chaos. Be it because I was creating what I believed to be a masterpiece or I was just on a drunken binge. Clean was not the word anyone would ever use to describe this place.
I knew I should do the ‘responsible’ thing and restore it to order, but frankly, I didn’t give a fuck.
Grabbing a bottle of liquor—I wasn’t sure what kind since the label was gone—I screwed off the lid and brought my lips to the neck.
The burn and fog brought upon by the strong mixture was what temporarily cleansed me of my sins. That haziness cocooned me in a protective shield that I reveled in. I sat on the couch, swallowing down the rest of the liquid. I fell to the side, closing my eyes so that I was unaware of the destruction. I began to hum, letting the sound and alcohol now permeating my bloodstream block out everything around me.
Nothing else existed.
Not even me.
???
Sutton
I decided I liked working the night-owl shift. I’d suffered with insomnia since I was a child, and that shift gave me something to do during the endless nights. Plus, Emery always seemed to work with me, and he was fun to have around.
Tonight, unfortunately, was one of the nights he wasn’t working. I was stuck with Angela. The girl was nice enough, but she didn’t really like to talk, so it made the long shift boring. While Emery and I joked around and had fun, Angela was all business.
“Customer!” Angela called to me, from where I’d snuck off in the back to check my phone. She acted as if I couldn’t hear that annoying bell hanging on the door and I didn’t understand why she couldn’t tend to the customer. She knew how to work the register. Bitch.
I made my way to the front and stopped in my tracks, the door smacking me in the butt as it swung on its hinges, and I found myself face to face with Caelan.
I was shocked to see him there. I’d worked at Griffin’s for a few weeks now and not once seen him set foot inside.
He smirked, chuckling under his breath. “I d-didn’t know you worked here.” His words were slurred and he swayed slightly to the side.
“I didn’t know you came here,” I countered, squaring my shoulders, and blatantly ignoring the fact that he was drunk.
His smile widened and there was nothing nice about it. “Are you going to quit now?”
“What?” I was taken aback. “No. Why would I do that?”
His smile faded and his hazy eyes narrowed on me like a laser beam zoning in on its target. “Because I frighten you.”
I let out a laugh that I couldn’t contain. “I hate to break it to you,
but I’m not afraid of you.”
“You should be.” He stated, bracing his hands on the counter to keep from falling over.
“But I’m not.” I placed a hand on my hip, tilting my head to the side. “Now,” I said slowly, “is there anything I can get you?”
He ordered an iced coffee and a blueberry muffin. I couldn’t help laughing under my breath at Caelan ordering such a girly drink.
I didn’t comment on his order as I made it and brought both items to his table. He sat in a chair with his head propped against the wall.
I knew better than to ask if he was okay. He wasn’t.
“Here’s your order,” I said softly, lest he have a raging headache from his drinking binge.
He nodded in acknowledgement and I backed away.
I wanted to ask him about what I saw this afternoon, with the man in the car and why it had made him so angry, but I knew he wouldn’t take kindly to my spying. I couldn’t help it though. Caelan fascinated me. He wasn’t the type of guy to spill his secrets. I would have to unravel his many layers of protective armor to figure out what kind of life altering experience could shatter a person so completely. I knew the bit I’d managed to get out of him this afternoon when I basically broke into his apartment—much like he had done to me the day I moved in—was only one layer of many.
Hours later, it was time for me to head home. Caelan had passed out with his head on the table and his mouth hung open. There was even a little bit of drool dangling from the corner of his mouth. It would have been funny if it wasn’t so heartbreaking.