Stockholm Syndrome? ✔

S.S 17

I hadn't talked to Stella ever since Tuesday. She was obviously still mad at me. I couldn't fathom that she possibly didn't care anymore and so I went with her being mad. I wished she went with Clark and I to the club. It would be like when we went to parties during high school. I knew Clark was going to leave me alone at some point. He talked to everyone and anyone.

I didn't help that he'd suggested going to the club with his friends. I didn't know his friends much and they didn't know me. I couldn't risk making more people angry because even though during the moment I didn't care, I cared afterwards. It was almost like taking a drug to feel high and crashing afterwards.

Clark had suggested a gay club as our second and last stop. He didn't like it one bit when gay people flirted with him so for him to suggest being with me in a gay club was big of him. Clark always thought fun was a solution, something Stella would disagree with. They were so different yet so perfect for each other.

That Friday night I apologized to Alex. "Sorry about the mess the other day and the subsequent days" wasn't much of an apology but it was something. He nodded and tried to get me to talk about it but I bolted out of the room. I couldn't afford to think about Felix. I couldn't talk about him and that only increased my anger. At this point I was angry at him and myself.

He was going to kill someone. It could even be more than one person. He could have possibly been in prison at that moment and I had let him walk free. I kept wondering how many he'd already killed by then. It had been almost a week since I got the note. Maybe he'd killed 2, 5, 16? He'd said he didn't keep count. That only told me he was so good he lost count. I was an accessory to murder.

Maybe it was what made me drink a lot that night.

When I left my room I went to Clark's apartment. It was a short journey since it was in the same building. I was early, having bolted out of my room to avoid Alex's questions. I found Clark getting ready.

"You are early", he said as soon as he opened the door.

"Well, I don't have Stella doing my makeup", I said.

He chuckled as he opened the door wider. I walked in and he closed it.

"I'm just doing my hair in the bathroom. There's a bag of chips in the pantry, help yourself", he said.

I gave him a 'thumbs up' and went to the kitchen. He disappeared into the bathroom. Clark's pantry was full with junk. The guy had a snack addiction and he made sure to feed it. At least he shared, I thought as I picked out a bag of Doritos.

I settled on the couch and switched the TV on.

"Stella is worried about you!" Clark shouted from the bathroom.

I increased the TV volume. I'd escaped Alex to avoid those kinds of questions; although technically, Clark wasn't asking me a question.

"Archer!" I heard him in-between the TV's sound.

I opened the bag of chips on my lap and started munching. I wasn't concentrating on the TV, something that Clark noticed when he suddenly appeared next to me.

He took the remote from me and reduced the volume. "I can tell you aren't even listening to this", he said.

"Are you done?" I asked.

"Yes. So what were you trying to do?" he asked.

"Drown out your voice, which I achieved. I thought we agreed we weren't going to talk about whatever it is you guys think I'm going through", I said.

"Whatever it is...", he said making air quotes. "...is serious. You punched a guy".

I scowled at him.