Salted Caramel Coffee (COMPLETED!)

Chapter Six} Thørñ

I lay on my hard ass bed, staring up at the ceiling. Outside it's completely pitch black. The glow from the streetlights are too faint to actually make a difference in my room, and the lightbulbs in here are smashed out for some reason.

What would be considered to be my "room" is really Black's attic. Even in the dark, I can clearly see the cobwebs swaying in every corner of this cage. It has a strange smell to it, almost damp or moldy. It takes everything in me to keep myself from throwing up.

It's nearly three a.m., and I show no signs of fatigue.

Maybe you should write- that'll put you to sleep real quick, I think to myself. As if.

I pick up my phone, the bright light nearly blinding me. Squinting through it, I hold the microphone to my lips.

"Siri, FaceTime Jess."

The phone rings only twice before Jess' bubbly face appears on the screen. "Hey, Wolfe! How's life?"

"Why are you awake, Thorn?" I ask jokingly, running my hand through my tangled brown hair. I notice that my voice sounds more rough than usual- grainier.

"Why did you call if you didn't expect me to pick up?" Jess rolls her eyes. She sets up her phone on her desk, the rustling noises coming in even louder than her voice.

"I don't know, man."

"Well I don't care, so it matches up perfectly," Jess says. "Anyway," she sighs dramatically and places her chin in her hands, "what's been going on?"

I bite the inside of my lip, looking away for a moment. It's hard for me to put to words what happened these last few days. "Well, you know how I'm sort of... difficult with my mother?"

"Always."

"Well, this time she snapped."

Jess sticks out her bottom lip in a pout that may as well be fake. "Aw shit, what'd she do?"

I cringe at myself. "She sent me to Nebraska to live with this lady named Black who's like, barely out of college hoping she'll hypnotize me to be a writer or some shit. No joke, Jess, this woman is the definition of a human wreck."

"Emma?"

"What?" I snap. I'm quite disappointed with her reaction, honestly. I kinda hoped she'd agree that my mother is insane for this.

"We're the definition of a human wreck."

I roll my eyes, groaning. "I don't want to be stuck with this lady for another six days. I'll die! If I do, the autopsy will show that I've been killed by the immense amounts of iced coffee in my bloodstream." Jess giggles at that, a small snort escaping her.

I would describe Jessa Thorn to be a the reverse version of a chocolate covered marshmallow. Instead of having a hard exterior- intimidating and icy, she's soft and bubbly to the naked eye. But if you get through the light marshmallow, you will find that she's different at heart. Jess appears to welcome anyone as her friend, but she doesn't truly trust them, or even like them, until they have proven themselves. But even so, she's sweet through and through.

     I, on the other hand, am a solid bag of potato chips. Kinda salty, and it'll burn if you get too much of me. And that's all I've got to say about myself.

     "Who names their child Black anyway," Jess laughs, "that's just cruel."

     I chuckle. "Her name is actually Marlee, but she says she doesn't look like one. Black is her last name. Personally I don't think she looks like a "Black," but whatever. I've got a million things to argue with her about, and her name isn't one of them."