VIPER • the serpent princess

48

The next morning I pull up in front of my trailer to find Toni sitting at my door step. I get off my bike and walk over to her.

"Morning" I say blandly.

"Please, don't tell me you stayed with Malachai"

I laugh, shaking my head. But then realise I don't want to fake laugh, I want to yell my anger out.

"You told me to help him, so I helped Sweet Pea. I spend a night with Malachai, he doesn't touch him or fight" I declare.

"You didn't have to spend the night with him! Why would you do that? It's so low you're just making Malachai have more power over you-"

"Seriously Toni!" I shout, "You told me to care about Sweet Pea and help him! So I helped him, I saved his fucking life and if I had to sleep with someone to do it, I'd do it! What do you want from me? Would you rather me just let Sweets die-"

"I want to know what the hell happened with you two? You love each other! Then one day, you moved out and nothing has happened since" she argues.

"You want to know what happened? Sweet Pea came home drunk after the ceremony, the night of, and told me I killed our son" I confess, "He told me I killed him, that it was my fault!"

"Casey, he didn't mean it" she respond sadly.

"Oh he did, you weren't there Toni" I scoff, "But it's fine, he was right. I did kill the baby. Sweets wasn't carrying him, I was. It could only be my fault"

We stand in silence. I look away from Toni, feeling my emotions about to get the better of me.

"I've had a long night, I need to get some rest before my shift" I sigh, pushing past Toni, "And you know what Toni, stop fucking visiting me or whatever these talks have been. Don't care about me anymore, just stop. Leave, me the hell alone. I'm not your friend anymore, I'm not Casey. Just get over You're obsession to try and fix me alright?"

After that, I go inside, slamming my door shut behind me. As soon as the door is closed, I gasp, putting my hand to my mouth. I close my eyes and bit my teeth together, forcing myself to not cry. Fighting the tears as hard as I can as the flashbacks of the last time I saw Sweet Pea flood my head. Suddenly my door opens and I stumble forward.

"Shit sorry, didn't think you'd be against the door" Fangs apologises, poking his body into the trailer.

I sniff, then turn around to face my friend.

"Could've knocked" I note.

"You wouldn't have let me in" he scoffs, "Case, are you okay?"

"I'm perfect, Fangs. What you doing here? Another yelling? Toni first then you when I didn't listen to her?" I snark.

"I'm here to see how you're going. I know you're not okay-"

"I'm fine...how's Sweet Pea?" I ask.

"He's, a mess. Going out of his mind. But I'm with him, I'll make sure he doesn't get into to much trouble" he assures.

"Good, that's good"

"Yeah, it's good he lets me with him, he still got his friends by his side. Unlike you, who is pushing us all away" he notes, "You're all alone"

"I like being alone"

"No you don't. You've never liked being alone. You hate the feeling and it sends you into this dark spiral-"

"You know what I don't like Fangs? People saying how I should feel and who I am! I'm over it. So please shut up or leave"

"Well, I'm not going to leave so I'll just shut up. You wanna watch cartoons?" he asks.

"I don't want cartoons, don't have a TV"

"What do you do?"

"Smoke weed" I shrug, "Look I have to get some rest, I have work tonight"

"Okay, alright, just. Come here" he sighs and pulls me into his arms.

I don't hug him back, but just him holding me makes me feel so safe and warm. The tears start fighting harder so I push away.

"Bye, Fangs" I say blandly.

He nods, walking out of the trailer. I lock the door to stop any further interruptions, and take a deep breath, moving to my bedroom to sleep.

I wake up, change into my 'uniform', putting an old hoodie of Sweet Peas over to cover me (reaching just above my knees) and my Serpent jacket. As I open my door to leave for work, I am faced with FP.

"Jesus, I've seen more of you all in the past twenty four hours then I have the past fucking month" I chuckle frustrated and over these visits.

"Hello to you too" he scoffs, "You going out?"

"Work" I nod.

"So I've heard, about your new job"

"Yep" I sigh, "I gotta go, they don't like it when people are late"

I start to walk past him, but he grabs my arm strongly with his hand.

"You want out of this, you want help, you want to move in with me, just ask me, Casey. I'll do it all for you" he declares.

"What I want..." I look into his eyes.

I can see the hurt and desperation in his eyes. He still cares. He needs to not care about me. He needs to just leave.

"Is for you to stay away from me" I hiss meanly, then rip my arm free, rush to my bike and ride off to work.

I walk out of the dressing room, coming our with a lot less clothes on then I walked in with. Also a lot higher. The manager rushes to me, he's a prick, but he lets me work high so I deal.

"You have a customer. Requested you specifically for a lap dance. He's giving you two hundred dollars and me three. So go hurry up! Now!" he demands, "Table two"

I roll my eyes, not excited to give a lap dance to another old man. But when I get to table two, I see Malachai sitting at the table with his Ghoulie friends.

"You're fucking kidding me" I laugh, shaking my head, "This isn't happening, you had your one night Malachai"

"Oh it's happening, or I'm going to send my boys here to Sweet Pea's fight ring tonight, with there guns, and order them to shoot him right between the eyes" he grins evilly.

I look to the boys beside him who lift there shirts and show there very real weapons. I slowly walk over and then open my legs, sitting on Malachai's lap.

"You touch me, I'll break your hand" I warn, starting my 'work'.

"She didn't have a problem with me touching her last night" he chuckles, laughing with his boys.