Page 89 of Relapse

Instead it settles low and heavy in my chest like something dangerously close to comfort.

By the time I finally step back out into the apartment wearing black shorts and an oversized hoodie, my damp split pink and purple hair hanging down my back, the apartment smells strongly like coffee and cigarettes again.

Mina’s already there, and Noir is back too.

She’s sprawled across the couch beside him like she’s lived here for years instead of thirty seconds, one leg tucked beneath her while she aggressively button-mashes a controller in ripped black jeans and a tiny grey top that keeps slipping off one shoulder. Her dark hair hangs down her back in a thick braid nearly to her waist, slightly frizzy from the rain outside.

Street Fighter flashes across the TV screen in violent neon bursts while Noir leans back beside her cigarette dangling loosely between his fingers, somehow playing one-handed and still absolutely destroying her.

“You cheating bitch,” Mina accuses immediately.

“You just suck.”

Then Mina spots me stepping out of the hallway and gasps dramatically. She immediately launches herself off the couch and into me, hugging me hard enough to nearly knock me backward. She smells like vanilla perfume, rainwater, iced coffee, and whatever expensive lip gloss she’s constantly reapplying every twenty minutes.

Then she pulls back just enough to study my face carefully.

Her expression softens slightly.

“You look better.”

“That’s because they’re force-feeding me and emotionally imprisoning me.”

“Good.” Mina glances between both men casually. “Honestly, one of you probably should’ve locked her in a room weeks ago.”

“Excuse me?” I gasp.

Dagger snorts quietly into his coffee.

Traitor.

Mina curls up beside me on the couch while both guys hover nearby pretending not to listen to us.

At first the conversation stays light.

Festival drama.

Bad hookups.

Some girl who apparently got banned from a club for trying to bite a DJ.

Then Brynn comes up.

Not suddenly.

More like a ghost drifting quietly into the room.

Mina’s smile fades slightly while turning her coffee cup slowly between both hands.

“She got weird near the end,” she says quietly.

The apartment stills instantly.

Even Dagger looks up from his phone.

“Weird how?” I ask carefully.

Mina hesitates.