Misery Loves Company

Track 50: An Unknown Enemy

Misery Loves Company

By: theinkslingerr

Track 50: An Unknown Enemy

Finding out Rocco's dad was Niccolo Segreti from Hazardous Materials had been crazy.

Watching the girl who'd rescued me from the wild mob that had surrounded me in front of the Iron Barrel waltz into Enid's room and address Rocco was somehow crazier.

Probably because she and Rocco existed on opposite planes of my life and them being in the same room, much less her talking to him like she knew him was surreal. It disrupted my reality.

This friend who I was just beginning to trust had broken the glass separating certain parts of my life and stepped over the shards into this moment.

All eyes were on Sage and Nic, including Paula who looked more dubious by the second. "You do know her, right mija?" she asked.

Enid stuttered, wide-eyed, "I-I do, but—"

"What're you doing here, Sage? How'd you— I thought you were in Jersey now?" Rocco managed to sound shocked and angry all at once. His face was pale, a study in hard lines, sharp angles, and stress. I stared between them, mind-blown, trying to come up with reasons for how this could be happening.

"I moved back to Philly a few months ago," she replied, hiking Nic up her hip. She lived in Philly? The first time we ran into each other at the coffee shop, she told me she lived fifteen minutes away.

She'd been lying.

What else had she been lying about?

The room lapsed into an uncomfortable silence. The key light hadn't been dissembled yet, and ironically, it faced Rocco, highlighting the sheen of sweat gathering at his temple. He stood there tense and disbelieving. Paula was still bent over the railing watching everything unfold; her daughter's face no doubt a confused mirror of my own. The rest of Blue Vendetta, Ji-Hyun, Sienna, Ackerman and the crew were cautious onlookers.

"I knew it was you." Rocco shattered the silence. "That night...in the crowd at the Iron Barrel."

The night he'd stopped playing mid-song and stared out into the sea of faces in horror. It looked like he'd seen a ghost, and I guess he had. Sage was a ghost from his past, and now she was here to haunt him. But why? Who was she exactly? What did she want? Why didn't she tell me she knew Rocco personally?

An answer formed very quickly, but I couldn't accept it. It was just too cruel, and the Sage I knew was anything but cruel.

Ji-Hyun moved next to Rocco, clearly in protective big sis mode. "How'd you even get his number, you psycho?"

Sage bristled. "You always were melodramatic, Ji-Hyun. I didn't get it off the dark web or anything, so you don't need to try and paint me as the crazy ex-girlfriend. I got it from a mutual acquaintance of ours. If Rocco had just picked up the first time I called, I wouldn't be here right now."

Ex-girlfriend? My stomach knotted up. They'd dated. Rocco and Sage had dated, and she'd never told me. In fact, she'd gone out of her way to hide it. I felt nauseous. Especially once I started thinking about the phone calls. When had they started? I sifted through the tangled web of my memories anxiously.

After my date with Dom.

Rocco had picked me up from the side of the road in Ackerman's fancy car, taken me back home, and made pizza rolls with leftover pizza. He'd gotten a call while we were eating and answered, thinking it was Dom with a new number. When he realized it wasn't, his eyes hardened and he'd told the person never to call again. I'd thought it was a stalker, a crazed fan that had somehow gotten his number. Not his gorgeous, older ex-girlfriend.