Chapter Thirteen
There was something to be said about the trivialities of five friends huddled around a cramped booth in a club, the complete and utter normalness of such an act, and yet the triviality of it all was exactly the reason as to why Lee had elected to invite her closest companions alongside Morgan to Physik, a nightclub at the far end of town, following the morning at the station.
She had work tomorrow, as did Morgan, but any excuse to get out of their apartment after previous events of the murderous variety were deemed welcome.
Her closest friend, Natalie, cackled through her own joke on the opposite side of the dilapidated booth whilst she spilled vodka soda down her mint-colored dress. “You guys get it, right? They couldn’t find the camo pants.”
Natalie was peacocking again, as Morgan liked to call it, signaling all of the attention to herself and herself alone.
It was no secret to the rest of the attendees at the club that Morgan housed a particular distaste for Natalie.
It’s not that I hate her, she’s just so fucking loud.
Lee tried not to smile at the recollection of both herself and Morgan sitting in Jerry’s Diner for the first time, forcing her newly acquired girlfriend to tell the truth about her friends.
“Yeah, we get it, Natalie, we’re all in stitches over here,” Morgan commented.
Another one of Lee’s friends, Sienna, stared through to the bottom of her glass, as if she could hide behind it as she sucked the liquid through the straw, attempting to avoid eye contact with Morgan after her less than subtle remark.
In fact, the only one oblivious to Morgan’s distaste for Natalie was Natalie herself.
Natalie leaned forward, her blonde hair falling effortlessly around her face, framing it, as she propped her elbows on the table, setting her newly emptied glass down.
“So…how was your anniversary? I want all the details. Leave. Nothing. Out,” she said, tapping the sticky table with a finger at the last three words as if attempting to communicate via Morse code.
Leaving nothing out would no doubt result in three terrified women running to the closest police station in high heels wielding a smashed cocktail glass for a weapon.
Lee would leave out as much as possible to avoid such events occurring.
“It was lovely, thanks. We had a quiet night in, cooked dinner,” murdered and disposed of a body, “nothing out of the ordinary.”
Lee’s eyes shifted towards the left of her as she observed her girlfriend, Morgan, seemingly texting underneath the table.
The behavior would already be considered odd, by any standards, and yet, now, all things considered, her mind diverted into two separate areas—one in which Morgan was cheating on her with another woman, and another in which she was texting a potential victim to lure back to the apartment for round two. Both options seemed less than idyllic.
Natalie leaned back in the booth, placing a hand over her mouth in the act of committing to a fake yawn. “Sorry, I just nearly fell asleep listening to that.”
Lee jumped in her seat, stifling a gasp as she felt a kick underneath the table, prompting her to look at Morgan’s phone as discretely as possible and read the text, which she now realized was her Notes app, on the screen.
CAN I KILL NATALIE PLEASE?
Lee suppressed a smirk, hitting Morgan back underneath the table with her foot. All things considered, she wasn’t sure if she was ready for murder jokes just yet, but with the way that Natalie was acting, combined with the amount of alcohol in her system, she had to admit it was rather funny.
So long as Morgan was joking.
She also couldn’t deny the sense of power that was continuing to course through her body.
Sitting here, in this booth, bathing in the normality of conversation, whilst knowing an underlying truth others weren’t privy to, felt like understanding the world differently to everyone else.
It wasn’t that she deemed herself better than anyone, her friends included, because of her newly acquired knowledge, she simply felt dissimilar.
Her legs, in close proximity to Morgan’s, were magnetized to the feeling of being beside her.
A feeling she had experienced many times before, and yet this was seemingly laced with something new.
Something toxic. Something…enticing. She shook away the thought immediately, reminding herself of the promise she had made upon the fire escape. She would not indulge.
“We made love until the early hours,” Morgan chimed in, taking a sip of her whiskey and coke as she let out a contented sigh into the glass. “It took three jars of peanut butter, a cucumber, and a fitness DVD from the 1980’s to make it truly magical, but overall, it was a success.”
Natalie seemed less than impressed whilst Sienna and Lee’s other friend, Kat, giggled over the bass that blasted through the speakers within the nightclub. “Fine, don’t tell me,” Natalie conceded. “But Lee will just give me all the gory details when we’re alone, anyway.”
Careful what you wish for, Lee thought to herself, grateful to be hiding behind her own drink of choice, a pina colada with a pink umbrella sitting delicately at the top.
When the booth had dulled to an awkward silence, and only the sound of repetitive dance music remained, Sienna stood up to excuse herself from the table, her phone wrapped firmly in her fingers. “I need to sort something out. I’ll be right back.”
Kat sighed and rolled her eyes in unison with her exhale.
“We all know that the something she’s referring to is Dylan.
I don’t know what she sees in him. I know, I know, I shouldn’t be so negative,” she held up her hands, as if nullifying her own remarks the moment they left her lips.
“I just think she could do better. That’s all. ”
“By better you mean…you, right?” Natalie commented, cackling over the speakers once again whilst Kat stared directly into Lee’s eyes, silently begging for a way out.
Both Lee and Morgan had known for a while now exactly how Kat felt about Sienna, and just like Natalie was oblivious to Morgan’s own distaste for her, she was also oblivious as to Kat’s true emotions.
Kat was an odd one, Lee had deduced sometime back.
She couldn’t necessarily be pigeonholed into a personality category.
Her small frame housed dozens of tattoos and a lip piercing, and her mouselike quietness didn’t match her aggressive tastes in heavy metal music.
And yet, when the pair of them met, Lee knew within minutes that she was going to like her.
Following that minute, she decided an hour after meeting her that she would defend her for as long as she still had breath inside her body.
“That’s not funny, Natalie. Maybe you should go and check on Sienna. ”
Natalie huffed. “Fine, but just so we’re clear, I was only joking.”
Morgan leaned forward within the booth, moving her drink out of the way so as not to spill it, placing a hand on Kat’s tatted one. “Are you okay?”
This was the side of Morgan that Lee had fallen in love with.
She didn’t always wear her heart on her sleeve, but she always showed empathy when it mattered.
Morgan had been correct during their conversation in the bedroom—good people do bad things, and bad people do good things.
At present time, much like Kat, her girlfriend couldn’t be put into a category, certainly not one as simplistic as virtuous or evil.
Morgan simply…was. Just as Kat simply was. Just as she was.
Natalie returned with a swift thud to the table, leaving the question lingering in the air and Kat’s emotional stability up to debate. “We have to leave. Sienna’s having a panic attack outside.”
Morgan grabbed her jacket on the back of the booth, taking Lee’s handbag with it in order to speed their departure along as much as possible. Kat was already out the door before Lee could even set down her glass.
The bitter air pricked at Lee's eyes as they stepped outside, and she came to the rapid conclusion that the alcohol inside her was not nearly enough to keep the evening chill at bay.
Alas, there were far more pressing concerns at present time, as the group huddled around Sienna, whom of which was currently gasping for breath.
Kat was now standing on the right side of Sienna, a small, pale, wiry arm holding onto Sienna's own tanned one.
Lee Holmes replicated the action on the left hand-side of Sienna, offering a supportive squeeze simultaneously.
Meanwhile, Morgan, still holding both her jacket and Lee's handbag, walked directly in front of Sienna in order to face her, before nodding towards Lee and Kat as if to silently indicate that they back away for just a moment.
“Here,” she said, wrapping the bomber jacket around Sienna before holding out Lee's handbag in order for someone to take it.
“Could you try and tell me three things you can see right now?
Anything at all. I'll start. I can see the half-broken lights of the Physik sign outside the club.”
Sienna locked eyes with Morgan, desperation painted on her face as she held a fisted hand over her chest. “The…” she said, pausing for a moment as she tried to gain any ounce of breath. “The trees…behind you.”
Morgan Finch nodded, offering a calming smile in the process. “That's perfect,” she said. “Now just two more,” she emphasized with two fingers as she held them up, the other hand supportively rubbing Sienna’s arm.
With Sienna's eyes no longer on Morgan, she gazed around at her surroundings, her breathing ragged as her head tilted from left to right. “The red…car parked on the curb,” she said, locking eyes with Morgan once again. “A man with a bowler hat smoking a cigarette.”