18.98: An ONC 2023 Thriller

Chapter 5

THE PRESENT

By the morning, Liv had done what Liv did best, sifting out memories like an Instagram model filters out cellulite and laugh lines. The night before, she'd gotten high with Graham, they'd shared some laughs, he'd become agitated, she'd called it a night. No deep dive needed, and as for introspection, it could go fuck itself.

She opened her bedroom door, nearly colliding with a blurry-eyed Graham. He held out a wicker tray loaded with an assortment of bakery and a cup of steaming black coffee.

"Holy shit, come in," she said sliding the door open wide. "Bring the caffeine and carbs with you."

"I didn't know what you like so I gave you choices." He placed the tray on the sideboard near the door and took a seat on the edge of her bed. "There's a chocolate croissant, a blueberry scone, and several kinds of fruit-filled Danishes."

Liv picked up the croissant and coffee cup, alternating between bites and swigs several times before speaking. "Thanks, this is perfect."

"Sure." He ran his fingers through a tangle of curls. His eyes darted around the room, gaze landing anywhere but on Liv. "Um... about last night."

"Last night I was pretty trashed," Liv said before he could elaborate, wiping powdered sugar from her chin with the sleeve of her shirt. "My memory tends to be selective. Did we sleep together?"

"Of course not!" He jumped off the bed like he'd developed a deadly allergy to it. "Why would you think that?"

"Maybe because you're acting weird and awkward."

"By bringing you breakfast?"

"By bringing up last night." Liv punctuated each word. "Some things should be chalked up to drug consumption. That's it. No need to analyze them, or think about them at all, especially given what we need to deal with today. We have Helina to find, right?"

He seemed to catch her drift. "I... guess? For the record, though, if we had slept together, it's not something you'd forget."

"See what I mean?" Liv took another bite of the croissant. Warm chocolate coated her throat. "Totally awkward."

A full cup of coffee downed and a second pastry consumed, Liv and Graham performed the herculean task of crossing the hallway and opening an unlocked door.

Once they were in, the room wasn't entirely what she expected.

To the left of the entryway, a closet without a door contained an exploding pile of half folded laundry. Behind the clothing, square cardboard storage boxes had been stacked to the ceiling. Beyond the closet was Helina's bed, which had been shoved into a corner to provide more floor space. A teal yoga mat leaned up against the wall. Unlike the mess of a closet, her bed had been neatly made, with corners of a beige comforter neatly tucked, and forest green accent pillows stacked in a neat row against a rattan headboard.

None of this felt jarring to Liv—Helina had always embraced a chaotic mix of organized and messy. One day, she'd brought home a label maker and labeled every drawer and cabinet with a list of their contents. A week later, she pulled out from under her bed a years' worth of school papers and notebooks, piled them up in the hallway, and declared them to be too much for her to deal with. She proceeded to ignore them for the next three months until Liv finally scooped them up and deposited them in the recycling bin.

The uncontrolled laundry situation and the tidy bed—none of it stood out to Liv as out of character, but when she brought her attention to the opposite side of the room, she had to step back just to take it all in.