Arrogant Smirk (A Rihanna Fanfiction)

XXIII

XXIII

I spent the rest of my morning on the balcony, taking large spoonfuls of ice cream in the middle of smoking. The boys were still sound asleep. Harrison hadn't stirred, which I found odd but didn't think about it too much. I focused on the smoke, and how in awe I was as it faded into the rain.

"For fuck's sake Margot, quit, will you?"

I turned. It was Harrison, in a cotton shirt and flannel pants. "I thought you were asleep." I said instead of acknowledging the smoking comment.

"I was in the bathroom. You must've seen a pillow under a blanket. Must you smoke?" He sat down on the chair beside me, one leg over the other.

"Yes."

"It'll ruin your voice."

"Management ruined my life."

"So what? You think destroying yourself will be an appropriate revenge?"

"They've already destroyed me."

Harrison sighed, and looked down at his hands. "I've heard. But doing this won't solve any of your problems."

"How is your mother?" I asked, tired of the current subject.

"Comatose." He answered dryly. "It turns out she was actually bitten. They barely had any of antidote. She was delirious and admitted to provoking the goddamn snake into biting her. They medically-induced her to a coma so she could recover. There was a bunch of venom inside her, and all that doctor-talk stuff."

I eyed him carefully. "Wow. How do you feel?"

"Pissed. I missed a concert to see her deadbeat ass."

"She's still your mother."

"Not much of one, to be honest." Harry reminded me, and grabbed a plastic spoon from the bag next to me. He got a mouthful and stuffed it down his throat. "This is nice. Good shit. Where'd you get it?"

"From the lovely gas station across the street." I pointed to it. The lights flickered and the windows were clearly dirty, even from the distance.

He smiled lightly. "Why'd you go there? I didn't think we could leave."

"We can't." I said. I had found the guards groggy in the janitor's closet when I came back. Groggy but conscious. I had given them a massive paycheck for their closed mouths. They wouldn't be an issue anymore.

"So you went for ice cream and cigarettes in the rain?"

"Gave Robyn a ring."

"You're getting married this fast?!"

"No! No, no, no. I meant I called her. Pshhhh. I'm too young to get married. And I couldn't really anyways. She's far away and I can't leave the hotel for her and I have to date that Freddie character-"

He held his hands to stop my stammering. "Calm down. It was just a misunderstanding."

"Okay. Okay." The thought continued to make me uncomfortable in more ways than one. Marriage. Fuck.

"So you called her?"

"Yes. Wanted to make sure she was okay. She had a spare minute from the guards, and then she had to hang up when they came back."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

We spent the silence eating the ice cream. The sky still looked gloomy, the clouds not fed up with raining yet.

"I understand why you smoke now..."

He hugged me, and I welcomed his embrace with one of my own. We were both damned. We miss, we resent, we ignore. It's terrible. It's also the only thing to do sometimes when you just can't help it anymore. There was no point in a conversation of lives that sucked.

"Hey, Margot?"

"Yeah?"

"Give me a cigarette."

"Alright."