Chapter Ten #3
“You’re not sick because I didn’t give you a response earlier, are you?
Because that’s just fucking embarrassing on your part, and I might just change my mind and say no.
I’m not about to be dealing with this shit every time we fight.
” She said for only our ears, “And we’re going to fight every time; I’m a fucking handful.
I’m not above stabbing or shooting you in the foot even though you make me feel all mushy inside; I’m a crazy bitch. ”
I groaned.
“Yeah, that’s right, groan all you fucking want; you’re stuck with me now, Dad.”
“Please…” I fought out of my dry throat. “Shut up.”
“You know exactly what to do to get me to shut up. Get well right now and go back to being healthy because you scared the shit out of Devil, and I do not like a panicked Devil; it makes me panic, and I hate panicking. Why the fuck didn’t you call me?”
I cracked my eyes open slowly, catching her frown almost immediately. “You blocked me,” I told her.
“I didn’t—” She stopped, then her brows went up, eyes widening.
“Oh, shit, yeah. I did that a while ago because, you know … I wanted to be the one to do it first before you did it. You know? Always get the upper hand, which by the way, I have the upper hand in this relationship, and I have all the control, and you don’t have shit.
I am running this whole game, this whole fucking show, me.
You don’t get a say, you get bupkis out of this, zero, nada. ”
I slowly blinked at her.
“Hold on.” She lifted herself a little but held the side of my head steady as she settled back down, her phone in her hand.
Her fingers worked the screen.
“There, unblocked. Not sorry. I can be petty sometimes, and I own my pettiness.” She cleared her throat. “That’s also something you’ll have to get used to.”
“Just say no … it’s okay.”
“I already said yes. And I told Street. Too late to back out. If anyone is backing out of this relationship, it’s me; you don’t get to call things off, only I have that right; if you ever feel like you’re tired of me, tell me subtly, and I will end the relationship.
For now, I’ll just give you a set of things you should look out for. ”
“Zahra—”
“Hide your credit cards … just hide them … No matter what you do, keep them away from me. I’m a thief, and Aladdin has nothing on me.
Also, you should always respond to my texts to avoid me blocking your number again in the future.
Always pick up my calls, and be kind to me, or I might just end up killing you …
by mistake, and I won’t regret it because let’s be honest, I don’t really like you that much. ”
“Okay.”
“I’m not done. You can’t fall sick; you can’t ignore me or whatever that shit you did this morning was. You should talk to Devil; you should make Cassie stay away from me; you should keep Angelo’s fucking cat away from me; you should—”
“Kiss me.”
“That … was not what I was gonna say.”
“I know. I’m asking you to kiss me.”
“Oh.”
“Hm.”
She shook her head, turning it briefly toward the kitchen before looking back down at me, bringing a hand to the side of my face as she leaned down and softly pressed her lips to mine, her hair tickling my ear, falling on either side to frame my face.
The life force in my chest responded almost immediately when her lips closed around mine. I felt her somewhat panicked breathing calm down; I didn’t know she was on edge before her whole body relaxed. She was giving in to me, to this.
She broke away. “Fuck—I think we would need a written agreement on this control shit.”
“If that’s what you want, I’ll arrange it.”
She kissed me again, letting it linger a moment, but then broke away. “You taste like alcohol.” Her finger brushed my chin. “How much did you have to drink?” she asked, concern lining her brows.
“A lot.”
“Why?”
“I wanted to sleep. It’s getting so hard to … to sleep these days.”
She nodded, her hand feeling my neck. “Hopefully, whatever Upper gets is strong enough to knock you out, or I could just … knock you out. A quick blow to the side of your head, you’ll be out like a sack of—”
I raised my hand, palmed her face, and pushed her head back away from me, closing my eyes and muttering, “You are terrible at this.”
She chuckled, removing the cloth from my forehead and pressing it back again.
“Hey,” I called, my eyes still closed.
“Yeah?”
“You told my brother about us.”
“Yup, I told everyone.”
“Then why is he here?”
“You called him.”
“I know. He doesn’t … hate me enough not to answer?”
She sighed. “He came running here as soon as the call dropped and had us all panicked for a minute. Had me worried ’cause I thought someone had tried to kill you or something—with the way he reacted … and well, maybe I, uh—asked him to talk to you?”
That had me opening my eyes to regard her. “Why?”
“There was so much unnecessary animosity between you two. And I had a part to play in that, but aside from that, you’re all each other has.
I would kill to have my own family, like blood relatives who are actually related to me by blood in a not-so-fucked-up way.
You two have that; I just tried to open his eyes a little so it wouldn’t be hard for you to …
to talk to him. I was going to come back here after some party we were at and try to talk to you, too, even though I know it’s not my place to do that—”
“Thank you.”
She nodded slowly. “Yeah, sure.”
“No,” I said, feeling a calm wash over me. “Elia is the most important person in my life … I will forever be indebted to you, Zahra, for talking to him, for being there for him when I wasn’t.”
Her lips thinned in a close-lipped smile. “Yeah … of course.”
I stared at her for much longer, unable to shift my gaze.
Barely satisfied, I closed my eyes again, relaxing into her warmth before letting drowsiness retake me.
I was woken up a moment later, my state of mind a blur, as I was forced to sit up and drink whatever concoction Dog had prepared. It had me sweating, even after I had taken the drugs Upper and Elia had brought.
Elia had spoken directly to me, asking how I felt, and I responded with a nod, to which he let out a relieved breath.
A moment later, someone suggested putting on a movie.
Something called Titanic, and there was a little argument about it.
I didn’t really pay any heed to it; I was trying to relax and sink into the feeling of Zahra distractedly and discreetly drawing circles inside my palm while she hurled insults at Dog, insults that sounded so crude I wanted to shield my ears.
“How the fuck do you watch Titanic while you’re kind of in the middle of the ocean?”
“It makes it feel more real.”
“No, that shit is scary.”
They were all bringing back my headache with their back-and-forth, but I kept quiet.
There was junk everywhere, the room wasn’t empty; I could no longer hear the loud quiet. It was no longer lonely, and when they all agreed to watch the movie, it was quiet again but comfortable.
I don’t know how long it was, but it was a long time because the big screen began to display a sinking ship; everyone had a solemn look on their face, including Zahra, who had a sad frown on her face.
Me, I did not like what I was watching on the screen. I did not like the chaos or the screams from the actors; I did not like the music in the background. I did not like the death and the hysteria.
My vision blurred, and in my head, all I could hear, all I could see, was the fire, the screams from my siblings and my mother, the chaos.
I closed my eyes, relaxing back on the couch and letting my head rest on Zahra’s shoulder, begging for sleep.
But for once, I didn’t really have to beg; it came … though it took its precious time; but with the quiet noise in the background, the warmth from Zahra’s shoulder and her hold against my hand, I drifted off to sleep, and allowed the day’s trauma to slip out of me.