Enzo (Jinx Tattoos 1)

“But does it sell?”

“Well, yeah,” he mumbled.

“Then you understand her decision isn’t because she wants to do you a favor. Snap out of it, Enz, you’re worrying me here,” she said.

“Why do you put up with me, Aibhlinn?”

“Because you’re my best friend, duh.”

He closed his eyes and hung his head. “I had a dream,” he whispered, unable to hold the pain in any longer.

“About your past?”

“Yes.”

“About your mother?” she whispered.

“Yes, about the time she got high and forgot she had me locked in the bathroom of our shitty one-bedroom apartment on the wrong side of town. There was no food, a toilet that had a habit of clogging up, no lights because the electricity had been cut, and only the water from the tap. At least, the first day. Then that got shut off, too.”

“Enzo,” her voice shook.

“Don’t. Just ... Now, you see ....why I’m fucked up in the head. Why I can’t be normal.”

“You are normal.”

“No, Aibhlinn, I’m really not. You have no clue what I was just doing.”

“Don’t,” she whispered.

He closed his eyes. “I invited Tracee over.”

“Did you fuck her?” Aibhlinn asked.

“No, but I would’ve if you hadn’t called.”

“Well, don’t let me keep you.”

“Please don’t hang up. I-I need you,” he begged.

“Funny, your actions say otherwise,” she snapped.

Don’t give up on me, Aibhlinn. You’re a constant I depend on. “What do you want from me?”

“You know, I think that’s a question you should be asking yourself.”

He could read between the lines enough to know they were talking about so much more than it seemed on the surface.

PAST

If you told him a few years ago he would go to the prom and enjoy it, he would’ve laughed. Yet, here he was lounging on the bed watching television in the hotel room he and Aibhlinn had rented. Their friends had started off partying with them before bowing out to retreat to their own rooms or head on home.

She was still dressed in the blush pink gown that hugged her curves, and belled out into a skirt that brushed the floor. He’d ditched his tux jacket, unbuttoned his top buttons, and rolled up his sleeves hours ago.

“We really are morbid, you know,” Aibhlinn commented.

“Why?”

“Watching Carrie on prom night,” she said.