I wasn’t a quitter.
“I’m sure.” Growing confident, I hung up. Somehow Grimm was able to straighten my spine and soothe my shaking hands in a few words, not even enough to chalk the exchange up to a conversation.
Sitting back down, I could see Oscar’s carefree expression tensing at all the edges. “Justice?”
“My boss. He just needed me to find a mask for his date to some ball.”
I was being casual when I sipped the wine again. I needed to be myself and stop panicking at everything Oscar did. That was how you ended up dead, body never found, and the killer still free to do his thing.
Faking a yawn, I needed to stroke his ego, “Thank you for today. I haven’t done anything that active in a long time. I’m so exhausted.”
Standing up from the table, he moved behind me, placing his hands on my shoulders and massaging. “Wanna crash here?”
“I have work tomorrow. It’s Sunday. I should probably be home. Lesson two?”
His hands squeezed my shoulders tightly before letting go with a laugh. “Lesson two is gonna be bigger waves, babe. You ready for that?”
No.
“Hell, yeah. I killed it today! Let me just pee quickly before we leave.”
“Down the hall.”
ABIGAIL
The ride home wasn’t as hard to pretend to be normal as I was fearing. His hand was glued to my thigh, but I didn’t fight it. I just wanted to get home in one piece.
Slightly used, not abused.
My heart was ready to rip through my chest, until I leaned against the closed door to the apartment, and I was safely inside. Jus poured from her room looking freshly napped and yawning.
“How was chilling with the enemy?”
Walking over to the island, I unlocked my phone and dropped it to the counter on the photo I snapped of his perv stash.
“Well, he’s really the enemy.”
She walked over to my phone that I pointed to for her to look at, and her eyes went wide when she picked it up to look closer.
“Holy. Fucking. Shit. What is this? Wait… is that you?!” I didn’t even need to contribute. She was animated enough as she moved through shock, confusion, and then landed on the realization he targeted me too.
“I found it in his bedroom… I’m freaking out.”
“How did he even get these photos of you?!” She finally set down the phone and took inventory of me post Oscar.
“I don’t know. I’m really freaking out. I’ve been having these nightmares, and I'm really tired, even if I sleep in. I don’t know how he got in here.”
Jus pulled me into her arms and clamped her arms around me. Her hand smoothed down my hair, and at the same exact moment, it felt okay to let the pressure of my tears release.
After the intimate embrace faded and my tears stopped pumping into my vision, she let go of me slowly. “I’ll sleep on the couch and keep an eye out. Go get some sleep. I was being nice, but you kind of look like shit…”
I wanted to laugh, but only a smile I wasn’t even sure was genuine spread across my lips. She was right. I needed sleep. Safe sleep. Uninterrupted by nightmares.
Leaving my clothes out in the kitchen, I didn’t care. I was already planning on tossing out everything, even the shoes. Nothing was salvageable but me, and that was still questionable.
Throwing on a big shirt, I crawled into bed, snatching my book off the nightstand before I settled against the headboard not planning on sleeping.
I couldn’t even if I wanted to.
Finding out your ex snuck into your room and took photos while you slept was a new kind of violation I didn’t know how to process. Bad pickup lines, grinding against me in a club, or even an innocent hand on my arm was something I could process away.
Not being aware of being violated? How do you process that when you don’t remember?
Taking a big gulp of my water before I flipped to my bookmark, I yawned, fighting off any ideas of sleep.
I woke up with my book closed on my lap, and I wondered if I even read one page before I fell asleep last night.
Thank god no one asked me to go on stake outs.
I still felt tired, but at least there was no nightmare. Maybe life threw me a break because my real life became the real nightmare.
As I made my way into the kitchen to grab my mug, I shouted towards Jus’s room, even though I felt the odd sensation that I must have been alone. It was too quiet.
“Jus? You want a ride to work?”
Pushing her door open, I found her bed empty, with no signs of her. My panic set in again. Texting her quickly with just question marks, I waited for the reply.
Pacing the living room, I felt the anxious waves crawl up my legs as I thought the worst. Maybe Oscar knew I was acting weird; he knew I found his perv stash; and now he was looking for retribution. He didn’t know about Grimm, and he wasn’t exactly anybody to me. The only person that publicly mattered to me was Jus.
Everything was making too much sense as I spoke it into existence to no one.
Still pacing, my phone finally buzzed under my armpit with my arms folded, preparing to brace myself for the possibility of my roommate needing me to strap on some heavy boots and play badass.
JUS: Came to work early. Didn’t mean to scare you.
ME: Mild panic attack not really avoided. No green smoothie for you, and I was going to switch it up to pineapple kale today too.
Jus was not a morning person and wasn’t exactly a good liar. Call it her moral compass sitting between the vowels of her name, Justice, that drove that trait home.
She was up to something.
If I knew my best friend at all, it had something to do with last night. She was probably hunting Oscar down with gardening shears and rope by now. Pausing, I Googled his name really quick to make sure the latest stories were still how much of a womanizer he was, new movie roles, or his parents hitting some red carpet… and not how he was missing.
If anyone was going to pull that off, it would be Jus.
JUSTICE
It was way before I was scheduled to be at the black tower with no logos or signs. You were just supposed to know it was the Clave.
If you gave enough of a shit, of course.
Who was looking at buildings when you lived in LA? That’s the real question.
I wasn’t here this early for my health. I was on a one woman mission to get some kind of justice, ironic I know, for my best friend who was so used to being strong all the time that she didn’t know how to be vulnerable enough to ask for help when she needed it.
Being the amazing friend I was, I could spot someone needing help a mile away. Proud activist, daughter of radicals who died in a car wreck together on the way to probably standing in front of a bulldozer, justice warrior, and sometimes bitch meant I was the perfect person to help.
This morning, I sent myself the photos as my evidence, which I was hoping that was all I truly needed when I walked into the office with the idea of finding Vic.
That quickly changed.
I couldn’t find Vic anywhere, just his secretary, who I wanted to hate, but her beauty stunned you into silence. I couldn’t even think of a jab. As soon as I turned around too quickly, I gave myself a head rush when I saw Grimm stalking to his office after days of being absent.