Author's Note

It's been a while hasn't it?

The last year has been a bit of a roller coaster for me. Alongside worries with this little thing called "COVID-19", I poured way too much energy and time into my work then I should have in an effort to be recognized for a promotion. As a result, my personal life suffered to the point that I had no time to do anything but sleep and eat. Since then I've tried to work on bettering myself and my habits in an effort to get back on track, and one of the things I'm doing is making myself write more often as a better way to express myself I suppose.

I really do apologize for the lack of any updates on this story. I'm going to make an effort to be more proactive on updates.

Thanks,

JSA

3: The Scorched

You apathetically sigh as your eyes trail over the state of disarray laid out before your bathroom. A bag of makeup has been left open and tossed aside on the countertop, spewing its chalky contents across the tile. Clumps of matted purple and green hair snake over every surface of the bathroom floor, shower, and countertop like vibrant seaweed that’s washed across a beach. Several lengths stick out just over the mouth of the sink drain, almost as if to taunt you with their mere existence.

Hesitantly, you pinch the colorful strands and pull at them, only to have a much larger and more horrific truth become apparent to your mortal eyes. Suppressing your gag reflex, you throw the eldritch tribble into the trash and lean over the counter as you focus your energy on not throwing up your breakfast.

Outside the door and down the hallway, you’re greeted by a similar sight in your kitchen. Utensils, plates and cups haphazardly clutter the sink after having been missing for weeks. The fridge door is still wide open, shelf after shelf of food that you had gone through a great deal of effort to cook and weigh out the night before had been greedily ransacked at will, containers le And the crumbs. God the crumbs.

As catastrophic as it all is, the scene before you is all too familiar. Almost nothing Aria could do would surprise you anymore.

Almost nothing.

Her lack of tidiness or cleaning habits is one of the caveats that took you longer to grow indifferent towards. The only reason being that the messes Aria would often leave created serious points of contention between you and your college roommates.

Trying to bring it up with Aria would rarely yield any results as she would alternate between a series of excuses about how it wasn’t that bad, how she would clean it later. And so, eager to avoid any further conflict with the people you had shared a living space with, it fell upon you to make sure no trace of her negligence remained. And now it’s followed you back to disrupt the sanctity of your home, like some witch’s curse you never shook off.

Grumbling to yourself about the injustices you’ve put up with, you pull a large swath of toilet paper off the roll and wipe down the counter to the best of your ability. One roll later and there are still streaks and smears that Your instincts are yelling at you to wipe everything down, to make everything pristine and perfect once more.

Shrugging in bitter defeat, you sling your bag over your shoulder and force yourself not to think about it as you close the door to the room. ‘Out of sight out of mind, after all’ you try to reason with yourself, but it’s difficult to ignore when it’s right behind you.

While you mentally grapple with yourself over your compulsive tendencies, Aria quickly sidles past you in the hallway, twisting her usual hairstyle into a singular ponytail and securing it with a band. Her usual punk attire has been traded in for the red and black uniform of the local movie theater. "Three years of college paid off well," you think sarcastically to yourself, a pitiless smile finding its way onto your face before it bitterly flips down into a scowl.

“Hey.”

Aria grunts in response, but makes no effort to acknowledge you further as she continues her way towards the front door.

“Heyheyheyhey Whoa whoa, what the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

Aria turns to face you without breaking her stride. “What?” She asks incredulously.

“Don’t ‘what’ me, you know damn well what. Go clean up the bathroom.” You jab your thumb behind you in the direction of the hallway. “It’s a fucking mess because of you. Again”

Before you even finish naming your demands Aria cuts in. ”Can’t. I’m gonna be late.” She twirls back around dismissively and scoops her purse up from the couch. You step in front of her again and receive a glowering glare as she steps back and crosses her arms.

Old habits die hard. As Aria turns to leave, she’s met by you planting yourself right at the doorway. “You should have thought about that before you fucked everything up in there.” You lean your weight back onto the frame in case she tries anything funny. “If you didn’t want to be late you shouldn’t have stayed up till four in the morning drinking.”

Aria opens her mouth to defend herself but you chime in before her.

“You snore louder than a fucking jet when you’re drunk, so it’s hard for you to hide. Go clean the damn bathroom.”

Aria rolls her eyes. “I’ll do it when I get home d-Anon. I’m seriously going to be late.”

“Take better care of MY place then.” You growl. “Now.”

Growing more annoyed, Aria stares back into your glare with equal intensity. “You want me to lose my job?”

“You want to lose the roof over your head?” Once more, you point in the general direction of the devastation Aria had left, eyeing her intensely. “Now.” You restate, adding more force to your tone.

With no way to respond to your threat without digging a deeper hole for herself, Aria seethes and mumbles before violently tossing her bag at the couch and stomping away down towards the hall.

At least she still has some common sense. open the door and shout “I'll be back around 10.” before closing the door behind you and heading out towards your car.

For some reason, you expected to find yourself feeling a smug sense of satisfaction at being able to finally hold this kind of power over Aria. Yet you couldn’t help but realize that the pit in your stomach was anything but. Shouldn’t it feel good to put Aria in her place? To finally have some modicum of leverage on someone who ground you underneath her heel for so long?

You shake your head free of the thoughts and try to shift your thinking to the day of work ahead of you. ‘Out of sight, out of mind.’ you try to remind yourself as you press the ignition of your car, hearing it’s engine roar in response.

There would often be days made you reconsider your career path and you would find yourself daydreaming about the life of a simple farmer, a buddhist monk or anything that would not involve hours of staring at hamfisted code and incessant emails. Today was certainly one of those.

You lean back in your chair and rub the fatigue from your eyes before turning your attention back to yet another failed build. Lines upon lines of ambiguous error messages flashed from the bottom to the top of your screen, the red text jumping out as if to mock you for your inadequacy. You and several others on your team had been stuck on several critical bugs for the last week, with progress constantly being slowed by meetings that were insisted upon that would often last longer than they would have any right to. You sat in resigned silence for a moment, staring at the doorway on the other side of your office as if expecting someone to walk in and pull you into another waste of time.

Reaching over in between your desk and the wall, you pull out a long pole and shift it in your grip. A trusted friend you could always turn to in your time of need, even more so than your rubber duck. The pole always knew what to do in situations like this. Leaning over your desk , you extend your reach with your friend until you make contact with the door to your office. With a little bit of maneuvering you tap the door with a grunt and watch it swing shut with a sharp click.

The cathartic effect of isolating yourself instantly lets the tension in your shoulders dissipate as you recline in your chair and close your eyes. You draw your focus from your nagging thoughts to your breathing, falling into a slow rhythmic pace of deeply inhaling through your nose and exhaling through your mouth. An action that had become habitual at this point, as the daily stresses of your high demand work forced you to recollect yourself once or twice a day.

In. And out. In. And out.

Slowly, your lungs expand and contract with each practiced breath you take. What could be only a couple minutes feels like an eternity as you lose all sense of the world outside of the sound of your breathing echoing in your ears.

Soon enough, the urgent nags of tickets and deadlines begin to trickle back in, disrupting your short-lived solace. With an impatient huff you open your eyes and tilt your head over to stare out the window wall adjacent to your desk. Even though your job demanded a lot from you, you couldn’t deny that it came with a plethora of perks to enjoy; one of them being a corner office in the building that offered a full view of a large public park that served as a gathering for all walks of life. At this time of day, the sun had arched over to the other side of the horizon, its last parting rays still piercing through the soft shadows of the afternoon. There’s enough light where you can make out the shapes of people enjoying the wooded park as they stroll through the winding pathways or sitting down to take in the surroundings. You sigh longingly as you imagine detaching from technology to enjoy an evening to yourself without having to worry about code pushes. But your slipshod coding wasn’t the doubt plaguing you that you were trying to shove down and ignore.

No, another pressing matter that you were chewing over was your not-so-new roommate and all the griefs that she brought along with her. Frustration, anger, and many other emotions weigh you down so much you feel yourself sink further into your chair. Despite how cluttered and conflicted your thoughts are they all revolved around one question; Why did you let Aria stay?

The second your consensus to let Aria stay slipped out of your mouth, that one question has been constantly barraging your mind to the point that it’s consumed every waking thought with an undying hunger. When Sunset had initially asked for your reasoning you shrugged the question off, offering her the half-assed rent response. It’s not like you so urgently needed the money that you would resort to letting Aria ruin your life again. Sure, paying only half rent will be welcome, but it’s not like you were strapped for cash. And even then, was it really worth reliving the trauma and pain whenever you saw her face? If it wasn’t for the money, what other explanation was there?

The truth was you weren’t entirely sure of the answer, as you had even surprised yourself when you agreed in the first place. Hesitant to confront what your Id had forced you into, you had pushed the concern to the back of your mind and reduced it to a gnawing whisper. But merely thinking about it now brought it to the forefront once more.

What would have happened if you said no instead? While Sunset had iterated several times that you weren’t being compelled to do this, something inside you felt otherwise. If you had said no to Sunset, it assuredly would have been the last time you’d ever have to seeAria again. A concept that should have left you elated, and yet you’re fighting with yourself over it here in your car. You close your eyes and envision the exact moment you told Sunset that Aria could stay. The guilty expression in Sunset’s face was just as clear to you in your memory as it was out on the balcony that night. She turns to you with that wistful look in her eyes and rests her hand on your shoulder. Sunset opens her mouth to speak but no sounds come from her. Instead, her voice seems to echo through your whole body.

“I know it hurt.”

Even as a memory, Sunset’s words still evoke the painful memories you had tried to bury in your closet of skeletons. You admire Sunset and her offer to share your misery, but her gesture was a sympathetic one, much like a parent consoling a crying child over a broken toy. She felt it was necessary, an action that she had to take as a friend to console you over something she could never understand. Not that she needed to though, someone like Sunset didn’t deserve to go through what you did.

A noisome clattering reverberates across your desk, pulling your attention back to the physical world. Groaning under the titanic effort, you force your body to sit back up to see the commotion is coming from your phone, the screen illuminated to show a number instead of a contact name. You swipe to decline the call and lean back in your chair to return to your self reflection.

Your phone buzzes once, indicating that a text message is waiting for you. Closing your tired eyes, you relish the last moments of your peaceful isolation before leaning back up and . Upon reading the contents of the text you immediately realize who the sender is, breathing a sigh of relief that you didn’t answer.

‘Answer your phone please. I’m locked out.’

The words displayed on your screen elicit a small chuckle out of you. Even if you wanted to help, it would require getting out of your chair to drive half an hour to just open the door for her. You drag your thumb over the screen to reply.

‘I’m at work until the evening. Go find somewhere else to be.’

Before you could hit send, another message pops up into your feed.

‘I forgot my key because I was late.’

You groan in frustration and send your original reply before throwing out another one.

‘Not my problem. I’m not driving half an hour just to let you in.’

Already exhausted from the short exchange you toss your phone onto your desk with a clatter and lean back once more. You bring your hands up to your face and rub your eyelids again before another buzz from your phone makes you groan in anguish. Eager to shut her up, you flip over your phone and swipe open the screen to type out an impatient retort only to stop as you read the message on your screen.

’Nevermind I got in.’

For several minutes you sit there staring in bemusement at the words displayed on your device, trying to parse whatever hidden meaning there may be. If the door was locked and she forgot her key, there weren't a whole lot of other ways she could get in.

But you knew Aria, and you knew she wouldn’t let something like that stop her.

“Goddamnit” You angrily mutter to yourself as you grab your keys.

“Just count yourself lucky that none of the neighbors weren’t here to call the cops on you.”

”I said I was sorry.”

The expression on your face twists into a scowl. Apologies from Aria carried very little meaning with them. You’ve known her long enough to know how empty and practiced her words were. A trained response to shrug off any blame that came her way. And everything from her demeanor to her tone of voice heavily implies that nothing has changed at all.

You close your eyes and take a deep breath, forcefully willing yourself to maintain your composure. “Look. I’m really busy today.” You say with no lack of exasperation as you massage your temples. “I didn’t want to waste my time having to drive back here to babysit you.”

“Oh yeeaah.” Aria waves her hands in the air. “Sorry to pull you away from your busy life of staring at a computer, geek squad.”

You raise an eyebrow at her. “And your choice of career has more value?”

She grimaces before crossing her arms and looking away, pouting like a child who got caught shaving a cat. “Look, I don’t see what the problem is. I got in without needing you to ‘waste your time’. It’s not that big of a deal.”

“NOT THAT BI-” You pull at your hair and groan. “Aria you climbed up to your window and BROKE it to get in! Do you realize how much shit you’d be in if someone cared enough to call 911? And that’s not even MENTIONING the fact that there is broken glass littered ALL over your goddamn room! Yo- Why did you even need to get in that badly?!?”

“Because I was late for my bus to work-” Aria spits out as she jumps off the couch and stomps towards you, her violet eyes boring anger into you. “- and I forgot my lunch and my cash.”

You scoff. “So?”

“So?” Aria repeats in disbelief. “So I wasn’t about to starve and I sure as hell wasn’t going to eat the greasy slop I have to peddle to the mindless pigs.” She shudders at her words, as if she’s recalling some atrocity at the hands of people wanting popcorn. “Disgusting.”

“I still fail to see how any of this was my problem.” You say with a shrug, making the impatience in your voice more apparent.

“Dickhead!” She huffs furiously, the outburst taking you by slight surprise. “If you hadn’t threatened me to do some stupid fucking chores that-might I add-could have fuckin’ waited till I got home, I wouldn’t have been late, I wouldn’t have forgotten my money, and I wouldn’t have had to have broken the goddamn window!"

“Oh, so my window being broken is somehow my fault?.” You reply mockingly with a laugh as you roll your eyes. “I’m sorry, I forgot you have no sense of responsibility. I’ll remember that next time you trash MY place.” You lean forward with a sneer and Aria shirks back. AGAIN.”

“I-I was going to clean it!” she exclaims defensively, squirming under the pressure you were applying to her.

You narrow your eyes at her. “No you weren’t.”

Aria steps back with a look of frustration.“Y-you don’t fucking know that!”

“Yea, I DO. You can barely clean up after yourself to begin with!” You angrily gesture your hand towards the kitchen, which shows little noticeable improvement since this morning. “I had to threaten your dumb ass with eviction to get you to wash my fucking dishes! And you STILL didn’t do that, you parasite!"

Growling into clenched fists, Aria paces in a circle before she faces back towards you. “God what the FUCK is wrong with you?!? I NEVER should have told Sunset to call you!” She hisses as she jabs her finger at you. “Living in a fucking van down by the river would have been better than this!”

“Finally!!” You triumphantly shout, throwing your fists in the air. “Something we can agree on!”

Aria’s glare remains fixed on you for a second longer before the anger that’s aflame in her deep violet eyes instantly vanishes. “Wait, I didn’t me-”

“No, I know exactly what you meant. And I’m glad you were the one to say it. Makes this process so much easier!”

“I didn’t mean it, you asshole!” She cries out, a level of panic apparent as her voice cracks. “I just-nevermind! I just didn’t mean it!”

“Well why not? You said it yourself. We’d both be much happier if you just got the fuck out my apartment!” You spit as you point towards the front door.

“You know what? FINE!” Aria shoves past you as she makes a beeline for the front door.

“Where do you think you’re going??” You shout back at her. “Get back here and pack your shit up!”

“If you want me out of here so bad I’m leaving until you can pull your head out your ass, you jerk!” She yanks the door open with enough force that you have a brief moment of concern that you’ll have to have that fixed as well.

“Alright, go on! But don’t be surprised if your shit is tossed out on the curb, bitch!”

“Don’t go in my room, you asshole!”

“IT’S NOT YOUR ROOM!”

“FUCK YOU!”

You open your mouth to parrot her outburst, but it’s too late. The door slams shut behind her and the sound of muffled footsteps trailing off before leaving you in the room that has now fallen completely quiet, a stark contrast to just moments ago. You interrupt the silence as you vainly curse and spit at the empty space around you for several minutes until you collapse breathlessly onto a chair, your aimless venting only serving to frustrate you even further. You dig your fingers into the palm of your hands, wincing at the pain but not relenting. It gives something to think about besides the anger that’s continues to fester in you.

Eager to try and distract yourself from thinking about it anymore, you lift yourself up and trudge down towards the open doorway that leads to Aria’s room and peer in.

You grit your teeth at the state of the room. Again, while it was nothing you were a stranger too, the mere sight of it only served to remind you of your past experiences with Aria. only serves to cement your belief that nothing about Aria has changed in the years. The disrespect, the selfish impulses, and the lack of empathy or concern for anyone else but herself.

It was all too familiar.

The only mess of notice is across the room where the window used to be. Where the agape, vicious shards of glass poking from random corners and edges. Sprinkled all across the area beneath the opening are dozens of smaller fragments, the last rays of the evening sun catching against their surfaces and casting reflections all across her room like a dangerous disco ball. Some pieces are easy to spot, but flickering glints amongst the rest betray the hundreds of slivers and bits that would be a nightmare to pick out by hand.

Who were you really mad at, you muse to yourself. At the surface level, Aria was the one to pin the blame on this, as well as everything else. She was the one that resorted to property damage for no reason other than the fact she was too stubborn to eat a slice of pizza or a hot dog. It wasn’t your fault that she could never keep track of her priorities.

You shake away the thoughts and slap yourself upside the head. The only fault you had was trusting her at all. You shut her door before sitting back down on the couch, no doubts in your mind that she would come back eventually.

She has a habit of doing that.