Page 98 of Sing For Us

Nobody has ever called me adorable. Murderous? Yes. Handsome? Yes. Smart? Yes. But ‘adorable’? Never.

Our quiet moment is interrupted by a notification that someone is at my gates. I check it, and I see that it’s Sara.

No Adam, just Sara.

I buzz her in, and after a couple of minutes, she walks through my door.

I get up and hug my friend by the door. She looks over my shoulder and glares at Lana. My best friend isn’t holding on to a grudge; she’s just protecting me against further heartbreak.

We walk to the kitchen and take a seat on the high chairs. And the tension can be cut with a knife, with Sara not taking her eyes off Lana and my ex staring right back.

“So–”

I’m interrupted by Sara’s low voice, aimed at Lana. “You might fool everyone with your good act. But you won’t fool me.”

“I’m not acting. I want to take Dario down.” Lana fires back.

“Fine. But if you so much as blink in the wrong direction, I’ll slit your throat and bathe in your blood.”

“Whatever.” She gets up and goes upstairs.

I put my hand on Sara’s shoulder and squeeze it. “You are feisty today.”

“I’ll never let her hurt you. You know that, right?” The only response I can give her at this moment is a hug. She returns it and playfully pushes me away.

We talk about all the banal things in life—the weather, books, movies, and how we’re going to move forward after this. Talking to Sara made me realize how much I miss talking like this with my friends. The little things in life get overlooked and are underappreciated. Normalcy isn’t something warranted in my world, and that’s a damn shame.

“What are your plans with Adam?” I ask her as I take a bite out of the eggs I made.

Her smile is infectious. “We’re trying for kids.”

“That’s amazing. Is Adam ready to be a father?”

“Who’s ever ready?” She makes a fair point, and we eat the rest of breakfast interspersed with small talk.

“What do you want to do?” That’s a question I haven’t thought about for a while. I stop eating and look down at my plate. I’m drawing a blank on what I can do in the future.

“Noa?” Sara asks tentatively.

“I don’t know. I had this whole life planned once I…” My words get lodged into my throat, and I don’t have the strength to finish that sentence.

“You’ve been hurt, that’s a given. For what it’s worth, I think she still cares about you.”

I whip my head up so fast I get whiplash.

“She literally tried to kill me multiple times,” I say to Sara.

She shrugs her shoulders. “So what? I tried to kill Adam as well.”

“Fuck me.” I forgot that my best friends are as unhinged as I am.

Sara understands what hurt and betrayal mean; her dad tried to marry her off to an idiot. To top it all off, he was never planning on giving her the throne as the head of her his organization, just because she’s a woman.

I wish all misogynists would die.

After an hour, the rest of our friends arrive. Adam walks in the door with his gym clothes still on, and Josh, Oliver, and Hana are decked out in spring fashion.

“Who’s ready to take down a misogynistic asshole?” Oliver throws his question in the group, and we point to ourselves.