A Little Death

XXIII

'Hh-what-how do you know my dad?' I try to keep the urge to scream out of my voice. 

'I'm his gymbro!' My dad tells me.

'Dad- you- what?' Joshua stands next to him, smiling like an idiot, but a hot one with all that blood covering his white t-shirt, cargo pants, and hands, blue veins contrasted with the deep red liquid.

'How do you know Joshua?' Dad asks me. 

'Uhh, we met in a-'

'Nevermind that, let's talk later, it's been a long time since I've been home.' We get in the car and drive back to our headquarters. We walk to the building lobby. Dad speaks after a long silence through the drive. 

'Kylie, since you're back now, why don't you move in again?'

'Dad, I don't kn-'

'Great! I'll arrange the top floor for you! Your penthouse is clean' He tells me.

I nod at him. Then, he looks at Joshua, 'Joshua, you can have the penthouse next to hers.' Dad grabs a key from the keys hung on the board and gives him they key for penthouse 9502. 

'There's no need! I'm good with my own apartment.'

'You helped me break out, EVEN though I could've made it out myself in a few more hours. But, I'm still grateful and I owe you. I insist.' 

Joshua nods at him. 'Alright, then.'

We reach the 94th floor and my dad walks out. 'Meet in my penthouse in an hour, okay?' I nod. The doors close and the elevator reaches the top floor, the 95th floor. Joshua and I walk out. I rummage my purse for the keys to my apartment and unlock the door. I walk into it and start going through my clothes, the ones that I hadn't taken with me when I left. I decide on some of them and enter the shower. I let the warm water wash the blood off of me. My cuts sting as I rub soap on them, I run my fingers down the cut from my ear to my shoulder. It's pretty deep. The blood had frozen on the ride home, it hurts to move my neck. I finish up and put on a tank top and some shorts and walk out in the thick steam that's formed outside the shower too.

I nearly have a heart attack. 'I think you look better without those clothes.' 

'HOLY SHI-, Joshua, you can't be pulling this shit here.'

He gets off the stool in the corner he had found to sit on and walks towards me. 'But you still look pretty breedable like this.'

'Thank you.' I tell him.

'For calling you breedable?' He thinks for a while, his eyes piercing my soul. 'Skye, this isn't a favor I'm doing you, you don't need to thank me or be grateful, or worried. I'm fighting for myself and you need to understand that, okay?' 

I nod and he pulls me close. I put my hand on his naked chest over some casual sweatpants. 'You remembered to lock the door when you came in, right?'

He smirks, 'Why, what do you wanna do?' I roll my eyes at him and walk out of the bathroom. 

'What do we tell my dad about how we know each other?'

'The truth?'

'You want me to tell my dad that his gym buddy is-' I falter.

'Fucking his daughter?' He suggests. 

'Uhh'

'Rearranging her guts?'

'Yeah, yeah, I get it.'

'Making her scream my name so loud the entire building can hear he-'

'LET'S MOVE ON, YEAH?'

'Except for the part that I'm railing you on a daily basis, tell him the truth.'

'Wow, it's not really a daily basis-'

'Skyler, what are we?'

'Amn't I supposed to ask that?'

'Are we engaged?'

'Not ye- Uh, no not really...'

'Are we fuck buddies?'

'What?'

'So we're dating.'

'Without the actual DATE part.'

'I'm your boyfriend.'

I suck my teeth. 'Are you though?'

'Boyfriend it is.' 

'I guess.'

'That means I can fuck you whenever I want.'

'That's not how it works.' But before I can say anything else, he grabs my hips and picks me up, putting me against the wall, but then the doorbell rings. Joshua lets go of me and I fall on the floor. He opens the door. 'Kylie?' It's Clarisse. I yelp and run at her. She looks at me, smiles and accepts my hug. 

Clarisse is basically the person who raised alongside my dad. She's my mom's sister. My aunt, but I've only ever called her Clarisse. All the stuff my Dad couldn't handle, Clarisse did. My first breakup, puberty. She's seen the ugly side of me but she loves me. 

She's like a mother figure, she was my caretaker and my aunt all at the same time and I couldn't be any more grateful to her for bringing me up like my mother would.

'It's been so long! Don't you ever dare leave without telling me again!' She scolds me.

'I won't, I promise.' Her serious face turns into a warm smile.

'Come talk to me after you go have dinner with your dad, ok?' She eyes Joshua suspiciously. 'Put on some clothes.' She frowns and closes the door behind her as she leaves.

'You SHOULD put some clothes on, you know.' He plucks my forehead and goes to his own penthouse. 'I'll be waiting for you outside.'

Joshua's POV

'Why do you smell like cologne?' She speaks from behind me.

'Yeah, I should've gone easier on it.' She puts her head on my back, 'No, I kind of like it.' I smile.

'You've gone soft, mafia girl.' I tell her, still facing the elevator doors as she nuzzles her head silently even closer into my body, her arms going up my shirt.

The doors open and Frank is standing right there.