Chapter 21: User (Indie’s POV)
“Bye,” I mumbled, waving him bye from the door.
He leaned forward and kissed me against the door.
I smiled against his lips but I didn’t actually feel like smiling. After I asked him the question so bluntly in the laundry room, I shrugged it off. I told him, “Never mind. Forget I said that.” Then we continued pretending like nothing happened. Then we came back to the apartment and now he’s leaving.
He had Bourbon’s leash in his hand and Bourbon was sitting there, patiently waiting. “Bye,” he said after pulling away. He turned around and started walking to the elevator and I spun around to get back inside the apartment but I winced loudly and grabbed onto the door frame.
Can period cramps please just be erased from existence? My period is always unnecessarily painful but it’s been a while since I had such painful cramps. The last few times, it wasn’t so painful.
“Are you okay?”
I blinked in surprise and looked over. He was right next to me, holding me up like I was going to collapse. And I wasn’t. “Huh?” I asked, dumbfounded. I winced louder and grabbed onto his arm. They hurt so bad it makes me want to throw a hammer at someone.
“Indie,” he sighed, pushing the apartment door open and scooping me up effortlessly.
“Oi,” I whispered to myself, all the air leaving my body as I grabbed onto him, putting my arms around his neck.
He walked inside and then looked out. “Bourbon.” He dropped the leash and Bourbon didn’t run, he was sitting patiently. “You know how to whistle?” he asked me.
I nodded. “You don’t?”
“Who said?” He whistled and Bourbon ran back inside.
Moretz was still working on her project as she looked over. “What happened to her?”
“I don’t really know,” he mumbled, kicking the door shut.
“Nothing. I just have cramps. I don’t know why you picked me up, I’m not that fragile,” I said, looking from Moretz to Wabara.
“You were wincing and holding onto the door.”
“Dramatics,” I mumbled, staring at him.
He looked at me, not moving towards my room.
“Um, okay. Are y’all just going to stand there looking like you’re out of a Nicholas Sparks book? Get moving,” Moretz scoffed.
He blinked rapidly and then turned to look at her. I kept my eyes on him though, only glancing at Moretz when he started walking to my room, still not setting me down.
“Wabara.” He stopped, spinning around to face Moretz when she called his name. “She can walk, you know. You can put her down.”
He stared at me.
She stared at me.
“What?” I asked, looking between the two. “I’m not the one who—” I groaned, kicking my legs and closing my eyes tightly as pain shot through my entire lower body, my thighs, my calves, up to my stomach.
“You were saying something,” he scoffed at Moretz before pushing my door open with his back and then kicking it shut before he walked to my bed and lay me down. He kneeled beside the bed and started shuffling through my nightstand in a rush. It looked like he was panicking but I deal with this every damn month.
“Wabara.”
He kept looking around.
“Wabara.”