Playing Pretend

32| Deal with the Devil

I stared at the mess of my room, feeling overwhelmed by the clutter but lacking the energy to do anything about it. I sighed heavily, letting my head hang over the edge of the bed. "My dad still hasn't given me my car keys back, so I can't even get out of here if I wanted to."

"Why don't I come pick you up?"

I rolled over on the bed, smirking at his offer. "Zeno, what part of being grounded don't you get?" I chuckled softly, remembering all the moments we'd shared. "You really want to see me that badly?"

"Of course, I wanna see my girl." he said, his voice carrying that familiar smirk, I could almost see it through the phone.

I let out a small, excited squeal and started rolling around on the bed, unable to contain my happiness.

"Hello?"

"Hm? Yes, I'm still here." I cleared my throat, trying to regain my composure.

"Crystal!" My dad's voice boomed from downstairs. "Come help with these groceries!"

I groaned, reluctantly pulling myself from the bed. "I've gotta go,"

he sucked his teeth, "I'll talk to you later, ight?"

"alright, bye."

I lay back down for a moment, the guilt creeping in. I felt like I was slipping into a version of myself I didn't want to be. I wasn't dating Zeno; we were just messing around, and he never seemed interested in a relationship. It was just sex.

But still...

"Crystal!"

oh my fucking God!

I shot up from my bed and rushed out the door and down the stairs. "Sorry, I was doing something." I grabbed the bags out of his hands. "Theres no more in the car." He shut the front door annoyed.

I rolled my eyes. "I said I was sorry okay." I placed the bags on the table.

"I didn't say anything." He muttered, grabbing a water bottle from the fridge.

"You didn't have to say anything, its all over your face."

He went to say something but he just took a long sip of water.

"Can I have my keys back?" I questioned.

He shook his head. "Not until you become responsable."

"Responsable? I am responsable." I scoffed. "Who was the one taking care of the house and you while you were a drunk alcoholic? Me! Who was the one making money to at least pay some bills because you were too busy PRETENDING to go to work, because they fired your ass because you were drinking on the job. And I'm not responsible?!"

"Why are you doing this? You are making a problem out of nothing! How long are you going to hold that over my fucking head?! God FUCK CRYSTAL why do you do this? You do something wrong and you have to DRAG everyone down with you! Why can't you just take responsibility for your actions. You're not getting your fucking keys back, I'm done."

He stormed out of the kitchen and out the front door. I slammed the cabinet shut and ran upstairs, shutting the door behind me. He doesn't get any fucking thing.

I yanked open my drawer and pulled out the bottle of pills I'd swiped from Zeno. I emptied the container into my hand and saw there were only four left.

I popped one into my mouth and washed it down with a gulp of water from the bottle on my nightstand. The rest of the pills went back into the bottle with a soft rattle.