If you missed out on part 1 and 2 of the prologue you can read it here
and here
If you want to read chapter two click here
Chapter 1
When Lissa woke the next morning she was alone in the bed and breathed a sigh of relief. Tyler was already downstairs... damn, it had to be late. She bolted upright with the thought, diving for the night table and pulling Tyler’s shirt off the alarm clock. 10:10. Phew. She didn’t have to leave for work for nearly two hours.
She got ready at a leisurely pace, taking a long hot shower, and by the time she came downstairs she still had forty minutes to kill.
She tried to contain her grimace as she passed through the living room where a number of Tyler’s buddies and their flavors of the week were hanging out drinking beer and doing lines.
“Hey babe, when you gotta work?”
She turned toward her boyfriend and kept her tone light. “I have to leave in forty minutes.”
“A’ight,” he crumpled the beer can in his fist and tossed it towards the wastebasket, missing it by a mile.
“Shiitt, your aim is serious off bro, thinkin’ you need a few more of them brews!”
Tyler tossed a pillow at the source of the comment, missing him by a mile as well, causing the kid to break up in a fit of hysterics.
Lissa escaped into the kitchen. Another week, she thought, seven little days and I’m out of this shithole. She poured her coffee, mentally blocking the voices in the other room.
“Babe, grab me a beer!”
She grimaced and pulled open the fridge, staring at the contents. It was packed almost solid with cans and bottles. She’d given him money for groceries the day before and apparently groceries computed into nothing but liquid bread. She sighed. Didn’t matter, there was no longer any reason for her to bitch, it would only lead to an argument and just the thought of that was exhausting. If she wasn’t planning on leaving it would be a different story, but as it was…yeah, it didn’t matter.
She walked into the room and tossed him the beer, taking a sip of her coffee.
“Hey, c’mere,” he told her, patting his leg.
She crossed the room and sat down, letting him slide his arm around her middle, flinching when he squeezed her boob.
“What’s up with you?” He grabbed her chin and turned her face toward him, his eyes narrowing. “You’re acting weird lately.”
Just now noticing, huh? Observant aren’t you. “Am I?”
His fingers dug into her skin, “You know I fucking hate sarcasm.”
She forced a look of apology. “Sorry. It’s not you it’s work, just thinking about it puts me in a bad mood.”
He relaxed his grip. “Oh yeah? Why, what’s going on? I thought you liked working there.”
“I used to, but some of the new waitresses are lazy and catty. So I have to deal with petty shit on top of doing extra work.” She was lying through her teeth, she didn’t have a single problem with any of her co-workers.
“Damnnn that sucks,” Corn-row piped in, “no wonder you’re trippin’.”
Tyler relaxed and patted her knee. “Well, maybe you should start putting applications in elsewhere, you shouldn’t have to be miserable.” He smiled as she nodded then his lip pulled down slightly. “Just make sure you don’t quit until you find a new job.”
“Of course.”
He pulled her head down and kissed her, his tongue plunging deep in her mouth while his other hand snaked under her and squeezed her rear.
She kissed him back hoping he couldn’t sense her revulsion.
“How long before work?” He asked again, squeezing her ass harder.
“I wish,” she lied. “Later.”
“A’ight, later then.” He smacked her thigh and she stood, taking her cup back to the kitchen.
Later. Yeah right, not if she could avoid it.
Her shift went by quickly, a little too quickly. She wished someone one would call in so she could pull a double. No such luck. Ah well, she’d done well in tips for a Thursday, one twenty-five. She tucked thirty of it away, thinking that if the pace kept up through the weekend she might hit her mark as early as Tuesday.
She clocked out and walked towards the mustang idling at the curb. Tyler was drumming his fingers on the steering wheel, wearing what he thought of as his “cool” expression. She’d once thought of it that way too. Of course that was before he’d started lying and cheating. Also before he’d crashed her car and started taking her money.
She climbed into the passenger seat and forced a smile for him, leaning in for a quick kiss.
“So how was your day?” He asked, gunning the car away from the curb.
“Long.”
“I hear you. You don’t have to go back ‘till evening shift tomorrow, right?”
She nodded.
“Cool, you can party then.”
“I don’t know, I’m pretty exhausted.”
He turned to her and scowled. “What the fuck Liss, it’s like you don’t want to spend time with me anymore.”
She folded her arms, “I fail to see how getting drunk and high with your friends qualifies as spending time with you.”
“Aw, don’t start that shit.”
“I wasn’t trying to start anything, you’re the one who started it. I wasn’t telling you not to party, just saying….” Why the fuck am I doing this? She thought, just shut up mouth!
He glanced at her and sighed. “A’ight, I get it, I do. You want some alone time with me and you’re right, it’s been awhile. You’re off Monday right?”
She nodded. Shit.
“We’ll do something then, just you and me.”
“Okay.” You have no idea how awful I find that idea.
“So tonight you can hang with me and the homies.”
She opened her mouth to argue and he dropped a hand on her leg, shaking his head. “No, that’s not a request, it’s an order. We’re gonna party, then we’re gonna fuck. Been thinking about getting inside you all day.”
She bit her tongue to keep from replying as his hand snaked up her thigh and reached between her legs, massaging her through the light black material of her work pants. She put a hand over his. “Not now, I’m disgusting, I need a shower.”
He put his fingers to his nose causing her insides to shrink.
“You smell good to me babe, I don’t mind a little salt on the taco.” He laughed uproariously, then squeezed her knee in what he must have imagined was an affectionate gesture.
She managed a wan smile and was relieved when he turned up the radio.
After a very long shower she had an inner debate about what she should do. Go to bed where he might crawl in with her and do things she could no longer bear, or go downstairs and get rip-roaring drunk where she might pass out and either avoid those things or be semi-conscious for them. She sighed and decided on the latter. After all it was possible he might crawl in bed with her now and still drag her downstairs anyway.
When she reached the living room it was so crowded she had to push her way through it to the kitchen. She grabbed a beer from the fridge and cracked it open, drinking half of it in several long swallows.
“Hey, there you are babe!” Tyler threw an arm around her shoulder and she drained the rest of the beer.
She belched loudly and declared she needed another causing him to shriek with laughter.
“Hell yeah, that’s what I’m talking about!” He grabbed one and cracked it open for her, grinning. “I was wondering where my party girl had gone, looks like she was just taking a break!” He steered her into the living room and pulled her down on the couch with him. He pulled something from his jacket pocket and she watched as he crushed it up and set it on a small mirror, then held it out for her.
She eyed it warily. “What is it?”
“It’s fucking awesome, come on babe, try it.”
She started to shake her head and he grabbed her chin like he’d done earlier. “I said try it.”
She stared at him, wondering how he’d gone from jovial to dead serious in two seconds flat. His gaze didn’t waver and she thought, what the hell, why not. She’d be gone in a few days, might as well keep him happy until then.
She nodded slightly and he let her go, his smile returning. “Thatta girl!” She leaned down and sniffed it up her nose, wincing at the burn.
A few minutes later she had no idea what her objection might have been, he was right, it was fucking awesome.
The night passed in a blur of insane hilarity, between alcohol and frequent sniffs of whatever it was Tyler was crushing up. She was dancing and laughing and Tyler’s hands all over her seemed right, good, her earlier disgust forgotten.
It was nearly three a.m. when she flopped down on the couch, her head spinning. One of Tyler’s buddies sat down beside her and held out a mirror of white powder.
“I think I’m done,” she slurred.
“Nah, this isn’t the same shit you had earlier, it will give you a boost, clear you up.”
She stared at him through blurry eyes. “Yeah? What’s it, err what’s….
“Just try it girl, you won’t regret it.”
She leaned in and sniffed.
“Oh shit, oh shit, what the fuck Chaucer! What did you give her you fuck, what the FUCK!! Call a fucking ambulance! Baby, baby, stay with me, stay with me, stay with me, come on....”
Floating. Lissa watched the scene unfold with a vague sense of irony, hovering above them all. Tyler was leaning over her, his face filled with panic. She wondered idly if he was truly afraid for her, or if he was just worried about repercussions. She floated farther up, through the roof of the house and suddenly she was rushing toward something….her life. She was rushing toward her life, watching it go in a slow motion rewind. Friends marched past, her mother, Caleb’s father, Caleb. Caleb, she stretched her hand out to him. He was nineteen, his eyes glazed over. He was sixteen, his heart on his sleeve. He was thirteen and angry at the whole of the world except for her. He was ten, in a fit of extremely rare hilarity. Her eyes burned as the pause button hit when he was eight years old and they were running hand in hand towards the old barn…and then she was gone.
Logo made by the incredibly awesome @papa-pepper