Big shocker, it turned out we wasted our time. Our silent prowl past several blocks of copy-paste houses got interrupted by a phone call from Serena. Luckily, she called me, which meant I got to put it on speaker phone over what Charya would had done to hide—

Never mind. I wasn’t in a mood to rag on her.

I didn’t have the right anymore. After that shitty—shit. Shitty shit, real fucking eloquent of me.

“There’s a disturbance involving our suspect on the news,” she said, voice quick yet calm. “It looks like it’s spiraled into an altercation, but…oh, this doesn’t look good. Just get to the site and keep a safe distance! None of you are dressed for battle, and I’m sure no one wants to go to the ER with the news hounding you, riiight?”

“Sure, sure,” Charya said and waved a hand. “I meaaaaaan, we’re already running around with a serial killer? Sooooooo—“

Neblu stared her down. Charya shut her mouth and winked.

“Okay, sure.” Serena sighed between her words. “Please get over to the Atrait River. ASAP.”

She hung up, not waiting for a response from any of us. Not like she needed to; her instructions rung clear as day.

“I know where it is,” I said, taking the lead of our group. I would had sprinted over, since I had the stamina for it, but something told me prison didn’t give you much of a chance to exercise. So, whatever, I guess, not gonna let the serial killer wander off.

We made it pretty damn deep into the residential area, all the way out to where the actual houses stood. In a few blocks, though, the scenery would abruptly change into big blocks of apartment buildings until we made it to the river—it separated the outskirts from the city, where there wasn’t anything but tall buildings, shops, and public facilities. At least they had some small nature parks out there? Around this time of year, though, that meant bees flew everywhere. buzzing and butting in wherever you went. Especially if you had the bright idea to carry an open glass of lemonade.

One flew onto my nose, and thank gods I felt its stupid fuzzy rear and shooed it away before it could get up to any funny business.

“Aw, it’s just trying to be your friend.” Charya stuck her tongue out at me. “Apologize.”

“No.”

“Apologize!”

“No.”

“Awww, are you like, functionally unable to say you’re sorry about anything? That’s so saaaaaad.”

“…Is this about the bee?”

“Mh?”

Charya stared at me for a long, drawn-out moment of silence. And of course she took the chance to laugh after everything. I nearly felt my soul leave my body—thanks a lot, asshole. We kept walking in silence afterwards, like I could be assed to make Neblu McBrickWall into a conversational partner after that fucking travesty of a conversation.

Maybe this was her way of asking for an apology. Of course, I wanted to. I did! Sure, she may had been the most annoying fucking flea on the face of this planet, but it didn’t mean I needed to act like...

Like a selfish, angry piece of shit.

Not again. But how the fuck was I supposed to say shit to her when she turned everything into a joke? Just be blunt?

Whatever plan I had in mind got cut off by a loud beep. The last house we happened to be passing by had a sprinkler at the edge of the lawn, so when it turned on to sprinkle the lawn, it blasted us too with a frigid blast of freezing cold water. I could feel a fucking chill in my bones—fuck, FUCK!

“FUCK YOU!! I HOPE YOU STEP IN DOG SHIT FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE!” I screamed and waved my fist at the window, though the pulled curtains made it obvious no one hid there to bitch at me back. Charya laughed (always that laugh, always her stupid laugh) and our living mannequin Neblu didn’t even stop walking as she strode right past us.

“Like a lit fuse, I see,” Charya said, adding a whistle to the end of her mocking words.

Somehow, they stung more than being drenched, but I bit my words down before they became another regret to add to my stupid, shitty life. Just—suck it up, Kelsey. Don’t be a pussy. Especially not one as aggravatingly insane as Ale.

I shoved my hands in my pocket and focused on the apartment buildings which came into view. Anything and everything else didn’t matter, just my words. As long as I didn’t look at her face, I could do this.

“Sorry for what I did,” I said. “Wasn’t cool and shit—Promise I won’t let it happen again.” I knew there was a thirty percent chance I actually managed to meet my promise, but—whatever. Who cared, she could take it or leave it.

After that, I finally looked up at Charya. Charya, who…

Who kept walking, like I didn’t even exist. She only gave me a hum in reply.

“Hmmm?”

…Not even a blink of acknowledgment. Of fucking course.

“The fuck? Weren’t you the one pouting about it back at the meeting?”

“Was I? I don’t think I remember.”

“You…”

I balled my hands into fists. Remember you felt guilty! Don’t punch her, even if it felt way too fucking tempting to go ahead and swing my shot. Maybe if she acted sorry about what she—

A bout of nausea filled my stomach.

Never mind. Just forget about it. I could had dwelled on that stupid, complicated mess for as long as I wanted, but when Neblu tapped on our shoulders and pointed at the river we got near, Erna’s jump into a literal stream of shit managed to wipe those thoughts away.

Charya’s obnoxious giggle raked my ears; she ran close to the bank and screamed Erna’s name. Fuck it. At least I got it out of the way. Even if I still felt like complete garbage, for all the right reasons. For being such a…

Such a…

Whatever fucked up thing I was.