No Midnight Mercy ☾ (gxg)

9-pink

Genevieve had all of her belongings in one backpack that she carried on her shoulders up the stairs of Eden's apartment building.

"Do you think she was really being serious?" Eden inquired, glancing to her friend whose messy black and purple hair was pulled loosely into a bun.

The girl fiddled with the chunky silver chain on her neck, chewing her chapped lip. She had purple bags under her eyes, but that wasn't anything unusual. "No fucking clue." Her raspy voice echoed in the stairwell. "She wasn't even high."

Gen's mom, an addict whose marriage history had a high turnover rate, had kicked the girl out of the house. It was apparently because Gen was a spoiled brat, although even with her fiery attitude, the 19-year old had taken care of the house and her younger brother for her entire childhood and teenage years.

Eden was the first person that Gen called, which was right in the middle of Eden's shift at the grocery store. Luckily, Sean allowed Gen to sit in the break room until Eden was done with work and could take her back to her apartment for her to stay. Gen had refused Eden's offer the first fifteen times, but now there they were marching up to the third floor of her apartment building together.

But as they neared the top of the staircase, Eden caught sight of something peculiar sitting at the step of her door. "What..." she mumbled, causing Gen's attention to perk up, her eyes following Eden's.

"Holy shit," Gen chuckled as they neared the door and realized that what sat on the floor in front of it was a bouquet of pastel pink roses, their thick green stems bundled up in white ribbon with the thorns already cut off. "I'm guessing it's from Miss Cougar girl?"

Eden went to tell Gen to shut up until she realized that Gen was probably right because there was no other person who would bring Eden flowers except maybe the creepy old man who lived down the hall. Bending down, Eden carefully picked up the beautiful bouquet. Even in the harsh light of the dim hallway, the pink roses were such a pretty hue and looked fresh. She leaned her nose in and gently smelled their sweetness.

"There's a card, dumbass," Gen pointed out, grabbing a white card that was tucked into the ribbon and bringing it up to her overly-eyelinered eyes. She melodramatically recited the note on the card. "These reminded me of your lips. I will be at Mastro's at 7 tonight. I hope to see you there." She flipped the card around to see the empty backside of it. "There's no name."

"Believe me, I know who it is," Eden sighed as she took the card from Gen and stared down at the handwriting. It was cursive and neat, only a little sprawled. Warmth came to her cheeks, and the corners of her lips tilted upwards as she read the note over again.

"Miss Cougar girl?" Gen asked again with the bothersome nickname, leaning down and basically burying her nose into one of the roses and smelling it aggressively.

Eden rolled her eyes and snatched the flowers away from Gen. "Get back, crackhead."

☾

She was aware that Mastro's was an upscale restaurant on the other side of town and that someone like her had probably never even stepped foot in that place. That's why she could feel her palms burning with sweat as she left the stares of multiple men on the subway and was now walking the two blocks to Mastro's. That side of town was so much different than where she was from, and even though it was half as dangerous, she felt more nervous there than she ever had in the Southside.

Her blonde hair flittered in the cold wind as she pulled down the end of the frustratingly short maxi dress that she had borrowed from Gen. She wasn't sure why Gen had a dress like that, but she could tell it was Gen's style with the way it was black with glittering sequins and barely covered any of her thighs. The cleavage wasn't any less exposing, and whenever she pulled the bottom down to protect her modesty, it only made the cleavage slide down with it.