𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐫 𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐞?

12

I always hated being wrong, it was a toxic trait of mine. Stubbornness coursed through my entire body and at one point I began to believe that I had developed a mood disorder. It wasn't ever a disorder, it was just my need to control things. I hated that I was so wrong about Chris, I had assumed that his attitude and bitterness was because of something that happened as a child, or a broken relationship perhaps. I was completely wrong, his attitude came from being a drug dealer for a majority of his life. His desire to control things was much higher than mine was, and I couldn't win against someone like him.

I hadn't spoken to Chris in nearly two weeks, I was so shook up by our last encounter that I hadn't wanted to see his face for at least another two. The worst part of this all was that my attraction towards Chris never vanished, even while getting to know someone as genuine as Patrick. My mind craved chaos like addicts crave a quick fix, and unfortunately Chris was my quick fix. I have been so stressed out, that I found coverage for my shifts last week due to the fear of going out alone. I was truly terrified that Chris or someone else may try to harm me, and I had a genuine reason to believe that. Rio and Chris had both put me in a horrible position, and frankly I couldn't decide which was worse.

Rio has been completely off the grid for weeks now, and I couldn't understand if he was hiding from Chris or someone else. Rio isn't the type of man who bolted from just anybody, so either Chris is genuinely dangerous, or Rio decided to leave this old life behind and start a new one. I tried to explain everything to Emily as best as I possibly could over the last two weeks, but I didn't want to fill her mind with fear, she didn't need this type of worry in her life.

Currently I was walking back to my apartment after getting a coffee before work,  I had been so sleep deprived after dealing with the craziness that I call Chris and Rio, that sleep had been the last priority of mine. The streets of New York were relatively quiet for the afternoon, there were the usual shouts and hollers of pedestrians who jaywalked across the street and nearly got hit by a taxi cab, the workaholics in a rush to return back from their lunch break, and then people like me, who were only out for a stroll in the busy streets.

My walk came to an end as I entered the doors to my building, stepping inside and greeting Amelia who always sent me the prettiest smile. After waiting for the elevator to bring me up to the third floor, I finally reached my destination safely. Safely was a bit of an overstatement actually, as I approached my apartment door I noticed that it had been left propped open, and Emily wouldn't have ever done something so careless like that. I take a deep breath and grab hold of my key, using the sharpers object that I had on me in the case of defending myself. I approached the door and instantly wanted to scream, regretting ever leaving.

I stood outside of the doorway and noticed that the figure of a man in a black hoodie was snooping through my ceiling tiles, searching for something that I couldn't make out. My breathing hitched, surely Chris couldn't have been stupid enough to send a gang member to search through my ceiling, right? I prayed silently as I wondered how the hell I am supposed to go about this situation.