I Look In People's Windows

Chapter 7

Fearless

I don't know whether I was more angry or frustrated sitting here still tied to this damn chair. The ropes hurt like hell and nothing I tried could make them budge. Even if I got those ropes untied, my legs were still tied together. Holiday Collection came back last night to give me food and let me use the bathroom and then she left again. Now I was stuck here waiting for her to come back.

“Good morning Fe!”

I wanted to choke her out and shut her up. Every word that came out of her mouth was filled with condescension. She came into the room with a plate of food and untied me from the chair, letting me stand up.

“Why are you doing this!”

“I already explained that yesterday.”

“We were friends!”

“See! That's exactly my point. You say 'were' because you know you abandoned me.”

“I didn't mean to. We just drifted apart and- ”

“Just stop talking! All of you - all of you just forgot about me. No calls, no texts, nothing. Why Fe? Why couldn't you pick up the phone? Do you know how much it hurts to be forgotten, feel unwanted? Do you know how many Christmases, how many birthdays I spent alone, crying because none of you gave a fuck about me?”

“I'm sorry.”

“No you're not. If I didn't do this to you, you'd still be lazing around, enjoying your petulant little life with the rest of those idiots although I must say, Evermore seems to be the only sensible one there. I haven't seen much of her sister yet but I'd assume she's the same.”

“We can work this out. Just let me go.”

“No, I'm going to ruin your life and you're going to sit here and do nothing about it.”

People drifted apart, things like that happened. I felt bad about the way things were between us now but she's lost it. None of this was something a sane person would do. I needed to do something to fight back. My name was Fearless and that's what I needed to be.

“You're pathetic! You're a sorry excuse of a person, desperate for attention- ”

“Shut up!” She slammed me against the wall, knocking the breath out of me, pinning me in place with her arm across my throat. “You don't get to talk back to me. I'm the one in charge here. I'm in control!”

Her fist connected with the side of my face and I spat out blood but she didn't stop there.

Evermore

My first day here was unexpected to say the least. Lorie was emotionally distraught and going through a real rough patch because of 1989. I thought about getting rid of her like I'd done to so many people who hurt Lorie's feelings in the past but I don't think that would be the appropriate solution this time. This situation was much more nuanced. I grabbed my car keys, intent on going to get something from the cafe for Lorie when Fearless came in through the front door.

“You were out early?”

“Yeah. I went for a walk.”

My eyes scanned her appearance up and down, she looked slightly dishevelled. There were some specks of red on her jacket.

“Is that blood?”

“Oh, I thought that came out. It got there a while back, I thought it would come out after I washed it.”

I was sceptical but I didn't bother to ask more. It seemed perfectly plausible after all.

“Right. Well, I'm going out if anyone asks for me.”