☁️: if time could be measured like length, the time it took for me to publish this would be the length of my figurative dick. meaning... sorry i took so long. it's been rough, BUT i saw harry in austin and lost every organ imaginable. that was sick as fuck. love that man, and i can't wait to pay his rent next year all over again mwa. UM NOT PROOFREAD BTW
*warning* this chapter contains mentions of domestic and sexual abuse. there is also depiction of a potentially dangerous situation.
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Betrayal always felt bittersweet. In the sense that the bitter part encapsulates it all... the finding out, the freaking out, and the falling out. The sweet part was the aftermath. The healing and the feeling like air was less heavy.
Minnie had to wait for the good. It's no secret that being alone is not all sunshine and rainbows. The first two weeks were the hardest. She stirred in every night of sleep... she wasn't usually one to be alone for those hours. But it was nice, waking up with her thoughts and no one else's. Her quiet perceptions of the world were kept all to herself.
The end of the second week brought upon a challenge. The hotel room she'd been sulking in had lacked nearly all of her belongings. Her store runs were keeping her afloat but what was she without her possessions? The possessions that were most assuredly collecting dust in Shawn's house? What was so entirely hers almost became theirs... it's a terrifying thought that encroaches her mind here and there. She was thankful to have escaped.
But, of course, Minnie couldn't have three weeks of comfortable silence, no, she needed to enter forbidden territory one more time to retrieve her beloved belongings.
She'd gone when she knew Shawn wouldn't be home; a Sunday he usually reserved for the marketplace. Aside from the fact that she'd grown so aware of his schedule, the absence of his presence had affected her in ways she wished it hadn't. It was heartbreak in the form of losing a sense of home in a time where she didn't have one. It was heartbreak in which she saw a true friend in him, and he threw it away for a night of fun. None of it was worth it, and such a large part of her believed it was.
She parked down the street for precaution. His car wasn't in the driveway, but then again it never was, usually hiding away in the garage that Minnie would have to remind him to close on multiple occasions. So very rarely was it closed upon his own accord so... good for him and his independence, I guess.
Minnie had her key, but the front door was unlocked. She didn't decipher why until she entered to find hardened rose petals scattered across the entire entrance. They hadn't been cleaned since the night Shawn proposed and had, upon observation, spent weeks being carelessly trampled over. She wanted to clean, she did; clean up the mess that he'd made. What she'd always done in the upkeep of his very own home. But it was his mess. He made his bed and he shall lay in it... without Minnie.
She had a few duffel bags and a dream. A dream that saw her with her belongings back in possession. She would do whatever she could to ensure that dream came true.
The living room was a mess. The coffee table had bottles of unfinished alcohol, glasses, and soda cans hanging off the edge at the lack of space left. She checked the fridge. It was empty besides a head of lettuce. She checked his kitchen cabinets... no cereal either. He was barely living, and she felt so fucking bad about it. Gladly, it was Sunday! It was marketplace day! There wasn't any indication that she was the reason why he was potentially starving himself. Right? Right??
Upon entering the bedroom, the sheets were unmoved. They were made, and she could swear by this, identically to the way she had done the morning of the last day she spent in this house. It would be ridiculous to assume he hasn't been sleeping... hah.
