The Beginning

Nicky

"You said you were taking me home." Tess and I watched her apartment disappear from view.

"Yeah, my home." I informed.

"I should check on Lexi. We left on bad terms and then this happens? She's probably worried sick."

"Call her." I handed her my phone. "Oh-One-Two-Eight." I gave the password.

"She might have also drank herself sillier than she was when we left her."

Tess was the one in an accident and she still felt the need to look after Lexi.

I wanted to argue with her. "Alright." I took a right on the next street to double back.

"You don't have to come up. I know all of that was weird for you."

"It should've been weird for everyone." I replied off-handedly.

"I'm sorry that I didn't put a stop to it sooner. I'm just used to the guys going with it and Lexi getting her way. I thought—"

"Have I been unclear with you?" I thought back to our previous conversation. The tone I presented, the speech I'd given. Was there anything that indicated an interest beyond Tess Bowen?

"You weren't." She replied. "I'm sorry."

Her apology was the result of her past, not a genuine need to atone.

My hand moved from the gear shift to her thigh. My fingers searched for her hand in her lap. "You don't have to apologize." I knew she understood there was no need to ask forgiveness. She didn't need my approval. She felt that if she didn't say it, there may be bigger consequences. "Lexi is her own character. I don't blame you for the things that she's done."

"I do. Sometimes." she admitted. "Lexi's the youngest of us all and I thought it was an annoying little sister anomaly, but with you, she was so desperate. She didn't try to hide anything at all."

I could still feel her sticky, grubby fingers suctioned to my body. We pulled up to her apartment. I parked where her car usually sat.

"You want to wait here?" A question with only one answer.

"No." Regardless of her creepy roommate, I'd help her pack what she needed. She was coming home with me regardless of what Lexi had planned for her.

I assisted Tess into the elevator and to the top floor, where we stopped at the front door.

She withdrew her keys and unlocked it. Her sharp gasp caught me by surprise.

Inside the apartment, everything had been overturned. The sofa had flipped over and fileted. Every drawer had been yanked open and dispensed on the carpet.

Tess tried to push around me.

I grabbed her harder than I meant and pulled her back. I withdrew the .22 I sat on for the last few hours.

"What the fuck?" Tess barked.

"Stay behind me." I directed.

"You just carry that thing around?"

"Tess." I warned. If there was someone inside an argument was the last thing on the agenda. "Later." I assured her.

The barrel of my gun entered before I did. Broken glass and porcelain crunched beneath my feet. Tess's bedroom door, to my left, had been swung wide open. Dresser drawers had been scattered as if they'd been sneezed across the room. Her clothes had been strewn about. Even her makeup and hair products had been opened and overturned.

"Do you see her?" Tess's whisper sounded directly in my ear.

"Not yet." I replied, moving those few feet to Lexi's closed door. I opened it to a darkened room. A sliver of daylight beamed between slightly parted curtains. "Lexi?"