Kee: So much that you can’t reach out? That you leave me with no explanation like your own personal Rapunzel in your tower? I don’t even know who you are.
Fuck. I earned that, but it didn’t make it sting any less. I crumbled the drawing and threw it on the mangled remnants of my sandwich.
You do know me.
A group of American tourists wandered into the sidewalk cafe, their twangy accents and loud talking announcing them a mile away. It was a family - a mother, father, and a pair of young girls, the unit sitting at the table beside mine, as they chattered about the sights they’d seen that day. The smaller girl loved the London Eye, while the preteen preferred Hyde Park, both parents listening with smiles. It was the idyllic upbringing I’d longed for, a family vacation I’d never had.
In Briar, heading to Portland for the day was a big whoop, and it was, as we’d never ventured more than a few miles from the town until our grandparents took us in. Even then, money was tight, two seniors on a fixed income suddenly faced with raising three boys that could eat them out of house and home. Especially Luke. I would be forever grateful for their care, but I longed for a mother’s touch. A father’s stern, yet loving, guidance. The way the Southern duo looked on as their little girls babbled about anything and everything. I’d never know the feeling.
Kee: Do I though? Really? I thought you were my friend. I thought you cared about me. This was your friend’s place, right? The one whose bathroom you were painting? Funny. Pretty sure that was blue paint on you. Every bathroom I’ve found in this place is white.
I sucked down what was left of my pint, wiping the foam off my lip with the back of my hand, eyes drifting to the happy family again, nothing but smiles and laughs around their table. Even my pigeon buddy abandoned me for them. I didn’t blame him.
I didn’t deserve him.
I didn’t deserve anyone.
Keely
Ethan never replied to me cornering him with the lie.
He never replied, period.
All I had were questions. Questions and a drawing of a vampire with a baseball bat of a dick. A drawing that made me laugh every time I looked at it. A tiny bandaid on the gaping wound on my heart.
I tried to bandage it further through cooking but every dish seemed to taste like ash, flavor as absent as feeling. Naturally, I attempted to patch the rest with junk food. Veggie burgers bigger than my head. Bean burritos. Death by chocolate cake. All delivered by the guards since Fort Ethan apparently didn’t allow takeout.
Lil and Jorge were my only contact with the outside world, our video chats keeping me sane in luxury solitary confinement. I wanted to smuggle Lil in somehow, but without knowing any door codes it was pointless. Besides, she might accidentally lead the paparazzi right to me if they were watching.
It’d been two and a half weeks, but there were still blips on the radar if I looked. An article about me. Another about my family. One surrounding the mystery man they believed to be Ever. The same man I’d let screw me blind, literally. Blind to his lies.
There were also endless comments online. Ones I couldn’t resist looking at, with nothing to do after pacing and watching television got old. Most were harmless. But a few slipped through the cracks that took my breath away. Ones that would vanish just as quickly.
Die bitch.
Can’t wait to slit her throat. Wonder if they’ll still be smiling when she’s dead?
How much if I take ‘em both out?
I’d seen horrible comments before, but nothing like the hatred that came in waves before disappearing in the tide. People wanted to hurt me - to kill me - for allegedly knowing someone.
At first I tried to tune them out, but in time, they were louder than the doubts about Ethan. The hole in my heart was joined by worry. Worry that turned to fear. Not for me. But for Ethan.
I was safe, locked away in a prison in the sky. Even if one of them knew where to find me, they’d have to get through steel barriers and armed men to touch a hair on my head.
But Ethan?
There was no telling where he was.
* * *
“And then I told him he can eat my ass if he’s looking for something juicy!”
I doubled over in laughter at Lil’s profanity-laced play-by-play of blasting yet another reporter that dared to knock on her door and interrupt her soaps.
“Who the hell do they think they are? He was banging on my door like he owned the place! I said, ‘honey, did you pay for that door? No? Then I suggest you keep those grubby paws off it!’ Pests! All of them!”
I wiped tears from beneath my eyes, not doubting for one moment that Lil let the unsuspecting paparazzo have it. “Did you answer in true fine-wine fashion?” I could only imagine what the guy was thinking when he was met with a smoking hot granny.
“Of course!” She rolled her eyes, the makeup surrounding them on point, as usual, as she sat with Stanley in her bed, already dressed in her negligee for the night. “I’m hoping to score some cuties off all this nonsense. I’ve been sleeping in makeup for crying out loud.”
I smiled, so ready to be home and sipping wine with her in my living room again. Life wasn’t quite the same without my daily dose of Lil. “Meet anyone?”
She scoffed, painted lips stretching to a sneer. “No one with a brain! All those morons think Ethan is Ever! I’m not letting any
