[EDITORS' PICK]
Joyce Blackbird is a bored aspiring writer who just entered her adult years. The world around her frustrates her and disrupts her inspiration to write.
Chase Journey, musician, is the first person she's interested in. Through the cl...
She walked back home. It felt like a lifetime since the last time she'd been there. As she turned the key, the pit of her stomach fell.
Nobody in the hallway. Absolute silence all around the apartment. She tiptoed toward Kuni's room, the door was shut. Her heart drummed. She raised a shaking fist and knocked. Her mouth turned dry.
A few seconds later, Kuni came to open the door and stepped out of the room, shutting the door behind her back.
She was dressed in nothing but black. Her eyes staring daggers through her. "What do you want?" she snarled, gnashing her teeth.
"I was hoping I could talk to you," Joyce said, her voice coming out raspy.
"I have nothing to say to you. Oh, except I want you to leave the apartment. You have fifteen days," she said.
"Kuni, please, listen to me for just a second," Joyce pleaded.
"What do you want to say, huh? That you're sorry? That you're going through a tough time? That you don't know what came over you?" she mocked.
Joyce found herself at a loss for words.
"Save it, Joyce. I don't want to hear it. You know, you're such a selfish bitch," she kept accusing.
"Selfish? Kuni, look, I— I'm sorry, I really am. I don't know what I can do to make you forgive me."
"I, I, I, forgive me, it's all about you, isn't it? You are selfish and you don't care about anyone around you, and I'm done playing by your rules. I want you out of the apartment and out of my life."
"Enough, Kuni," she shouted and instantly regretted. "You know, I could try to be good and selfless, but what does that ever get you? It gets you stabbed in the back, time and time again. So I'd rather say screw it and do the stabbing myself, in the front," Joyce said through her teeth.
"That's a wonderful personality you have there. Too bad I don't want to be a part of it. Fifteen days, that's all you've got." And with that, she slammed the door in her face and locked it from inside.
Joyce went to knock again, but stopped before she could do it.
She looked at her phone. No notifications. She bit on a fingernail.
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Her room was just as she left it. All it reminded her of was that day she brought Toru in it. She fought back some tears.
She lay on the unmade bed and grabbed the book she'd started reading before all this happened. She tried to lose herself in the fictional world but couldn't concentrate on the words. She slammed it shut and threw it down.
She checked the phone again. No notifications. She went on the messages app. The last text was from Dad: Call me when you can. Love you.
She slammed the phone on the bed by her leg, brought her hands to her face and bit back a scream. There had to be a way to distract herself without The Wave. She thought and thought until she sat up.
