dedicated to a new friend smaragdine_aries ❤️

~

"You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're doing something."

⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘
𝑪𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒔

Months ago

"You act just like Malcolm - neglecting me." Morgan mumbles under her breath as she puts on her earrings in the vanity.

My jaw hits the floor at the mention of that name.
"No I don't!" I insist.

"Yes you do." She argues, walking down the stairs once she's finally done getting ready.

"No I don't!" Is all I can say in my defense.

"Yes you do."

"Nuh-uh!"

"Ya-huh!" She yells back.

"Children!" My mother raises her voice in the foyer. "Cry about your juice boxes later. We have a reservation, now let's go." She's the voice of reason, rushing us out the door, meanwhile my father just rolls his eyes.

Morgan looks back at me coldly so I push her through the door, outside, and she smacks her lips.

She waits to let me walk by and kicks me in the back of my knee.

I stand there, stiff, with my jaw clenched as I stare down at her.

Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.

At dinner, I pull out a chair for Morgan but she doesn't sit there, she sits between my mother and hers.

"Really?" I scowl, still waiting for her to correct herself and seat near me.

"What?" Her tone is sharp. "I don't have to always sit next to you." She claims, looking up at me through her eyelashes.

Mom clears her throat to steal my attention. "Get it together." She whispers at me as she tries to remain calm and place the napkin in her lap.

I sigh deep with frustration. Morgan is forcing me to be the bigger person here.

"Can we talk?" I growl, pinching the bridge of my nose.

Morgan rolls her neck, pushing the hair over her shoulder. "No, just sit down."

"Morgan." The bass in my voice is enough to get her to stand.

I hate that we have to act like this in this fancy ass restaurant when we're supposed to be spending time with our parents but her petty attitude leaves me no choice.

I stuff my hand in a pocket and the other hand swipes down my annoyed face, trying to think of the words to say.

"Is there a reason you're acting like a child in front of everyone?"

She drops her arms. "I'm surprised you noticed."

"What's that supposed to mean?" My face curls with confusion.

"I've had the same complaint since we moved, if you don't know why I'm upset it's because you don't care."

"What?!" I flail my arms. "I can't read your mind, Morgan."

"You don't have to! How many times have I told you that I'm not happy, and I don't like the way you've just put me on the back burner?"

"Back burn— Morgan, I. Have. To. work." I emphasize every word. "I'm sorry I don't always have time for you."

"Chris, last week when you came home, I was trying to tell you about my day but you completely blew me off."

"I was tired?" I lie, not taking myself seriously because she can read me like a book.

"You got off at three then you played the PlayStation until eleven and drank yourself to sleep." See. She knows me well.

Dropping my own attitude, I start to chuckle.

Fine, she wins.

"I'm sorry," I crack, trying to squeeze her body. "it was a new game, Jack told me I couldn't beat his level, I— I'm sorry."

She rolls her eyes. "I'm tired of 'sorry.'"

All I can say again is, "I'm sorry."

Her eyes burn on me, making me laugh.

Eventually, though, she comes around and lets me kiss her head.

"I'll take the day off and we can do something you want to do. All day."

"Don't lie." She pouts, fixing my collar.

I cross my heart.  "I swear."

She smiles big and takes my hand. "Okay, and I mean all day, like, the whole twenty-four hours, too."

A kiss seals the deal and all is forgiven so we can enjoy a nice night out with our parents.

~~~ Present Day ~~~

There's a sudden knock on the door, interrupting Morgan and I.

"Who is that?" Morgan wonders at this time.

I release her body from my hands and exhale my frustrations. "Hell if I know. Stay here." I tell her.

Just as I suspect, Morgan follows me anyway.

I peer through the window before just opening the door and I see that it's only Annette. But why? What does she want at this time?

Morgan's face distorts with confusion. "The detective?" She wonders.

Annette looks uneasy, fidgeting and trying to push her way in until I finally let her.

"Annette, what's going on, it's almost two in the morning?" Morgan says, tying her robe.

"I was just in the neighborhood, thought I'd pop in." Annette stalls.

"I don't like surprises, Annette." I wave my wrist to speed things along but she just stares blankly.

"Today." I emphasize, crossing my arms over my chest.

Annette swallows hard. "She's back."

Of course I immediately know what she means. Or, who.

I knew this would happen, it was too much to think she'd never return.

"You came all the way here to say that?" I growl.

Morgan shoots her eyes at me as a warning. "Stop!" She grits her teeth.

She returns her gaze to Annette. "Thank you for letting us know. Uh, what was she doing all this time, do you know?"

"I believe she's gotten some cosmetic work done in Turkey. Perhaps to look more like... you."

"This is fucked." I exhale, pacing.

"Has anyone figured out what the fuck she wants? Money, or something? Anything?" Morgan talks with her hands. Her discomfort is obvious, I feel for her.

"You know what, I'm just calling the cops." Morgan has the bright idea but it's no use and she knows that from the past.

"What are they gonna do, Morgan? We tried, remember?" I jog her memory.

Morgan breaks down, grabbing her hair at her temples as she falls to the bottom step.

"I hate her." Morgan snarls, staring blankly at nothing. Agreed.

"If there's anything else you all want me to do, I'm open-"

"Just let us know if she's up to something." I reply, showing Annette the door.

She stops to rub Morgan's back. "You'll be alright. In the meantime, you two stay strong for each other. Stay vigilant. I'll call you in the morning with an update."

"Good night." I wish, seeing her out.

Fuck.

Sabrina isn't necessarily a threat, or someone I'm scared of. Morgan is worrisome but that's only because this bitch is unpredictable and willing to do anything to get our attention. Someone with nothing to lose is someone to watch out for. She simply doesn't give a fuck, and that's the unnerving part.

As long as Morgan knows that Sabrina's antics are just that, and we trust and love each other, we'll be fine. Right?
~~~

It's a regular day, not much different than most. I'm upset I can't be with Morgan at this time because she's on ten, keeping her head on a swivel. So am I.

The day's almost at an end, though. It looks like this: paperwork, organization, and preparation for tomorrow's shift.

Everything that doesn't need my attention anymore is filed away and I've addressed what was necessary.

5:10PM

Clocking out time. Finally.

I wave goodbye to the janitors on my way out and stare back at Beck who just smirks as I pass him in the lobby. Weirdo.

On the way to my car, I'm juggling my jar of sea moss and my briefcase when I get a call from Morgan.

I answer it on the second ring.

"Hey, what's up?" I talk first, unsure how to address her.

She giggles cutely in my ear. "How was work?"

"Stressful."

"As always." She finishes my thought.

I throw my shit in the backseat of my Tesla and pace around the car as we speak.

The parking garage is empty since everyone's gone, I can hear my echo.

"Exactly. How's your day going?" I genuinely want to know.
She has a lot going on, too, and I wanna be supportive.

"Um, good, thanks for asking!"

"Yeah?" I smile because I can hear her grinning and it makes me happy that she had a decent day despite everything.

"Yeah! My office is turning out so amazing, I still can't believe you're doing all of this for me, thank you."

"Believe it, Morgan, you deserve it. And stop thanking me, you don't have to."!

She laughs briefly and then changes the subject. "Hey, um, do you think you could pick up my curbside order from the craft store? I had to order a few more things for the party."

Shit, I forgot about the Halloween party. I don't think that's something we need to be doing right now. . .

"Uh, yeah," I stammer, looking at the time. "it's under your name?"

But of course I'm not going to ask Morgan to cancel, she's so excited to be throwing another gathering. We'll be fine, I'm sure.

"Yup! They'll bring it out to your car, just text me when you get there, okay?"

"For sure."

"Alright," she bubbles, "thank you so much. I'll see you when you get here, okay? Drive safe."

"I will. Text me."

"Okay," she says, "byeeeee."

I end the call and find myself smiling like an idiot, just hearing her voice.

God, I love that woman.

I'm ready to get in my car and pull off when some asshole cuts me off.

They park right in front of me, blocking me in.

HONK! HONK!

That shit made me so mad, the white in me almost jumped out and said, "hey pal, what's the big idea" out loud.

The red Corvette is tinted so dark that I'm sure it's illegal.

I beep again but this asshole doesn't move.

The door opens, though, so I unbuckle my seatbelt and reach for my glove compartment.

My hand stops, though, at the sight of Sabrina. She's practically unrecognizable but what other woman would do such a thing?

I swallow and push my head into the headrest.

You've gotta be fucking kidding me, I think in my head. Why me, Lord? Why?!

I start to think back to how things got like this. What exact steps brought me to this moment? It's not often that I have regret, but meeting Sabrina is something I wish I could take back. I'd give anything.

She taps on the window.

I crack it just to hear her out.

It isn't until she removes her glasses and hood that I see she's got a whole new face. Like Annette said, her trip out of the country.

I clench my jaw and finally face it.

"You don't want to get out and greet me properly, Mr.Vaughn?" She's trying to maintain this new supposed-to-be sultry voice.

"If I ask you what you want finally, will you leave me alone?"

"I told you," she says, opening my door. "I only want you. Well, amongst other things." She smirks.

I get out of the car, fed up.

"You're not getting it," I make clear. "Leave me alone, and Morgan."

She stumbles back and hits the car parked next to mine, making the alarm go off. I think that's good, hopefully someone will catch her like this and do something. Even if they only secretly record this exchange at least I'll have footage of her and proof that she's stalking my life.

The car alarm is blaring, it's hard to focus on anything else but I want Sabrina — or, Marissa, I should say— to hear me loud and clear.

"I don't want you. I hate you. This is my last time warning you: leave me and my wife alone." That's the nicest way I could say it. And the last time I'll be nice.

This bitch makes my blood boil, it takes a lot out of me just to maintain my composure. God knows if this was a man calling himself harassing/stalking me like this he'd be dead.

"Keep talking dirty to me, I love it." She puckers her lips. In the same breath, she wraps her arms around me.

I black out.

"HEY! HEY!" A voice yells. "Get your hands off of her, or else!"

I look at exactly what it is I'm doing and realize how this looks.

And the man is recording. Fuck.

Sabrina smiles. "Keep choking me like this, you know I like it rough."

My hand is around her throat and I haven't stopped squeezing, yet. I can't.

"Hey! Is everything okay, ma'am? Do you need me to intervene?" The man rushes over with his Samsung Galaxy.

"Meet me tonight or I'll tell this man here that you're trying to rape me." Sabrina demands in a whisper.

With no choice, I let her go.

There's a small voice, call it the devil on my shoulder, that tells me I should've just kept choking her.

She hobbles off to the side to catch her breath but still looks at me with something like lust in her eyes.

"No, sir," she waves off the man. "we're just playing, I swear. No harm here. Is this your car?"

The man comes over and nods his head, deading the deafening sound.

He glares at me like I'm the problem here.

I shake my head and get back in my car.

Sabrina stops me, though, before moving her rental out of my way.

"I'll text you the details. And don't tell Morgan about this; I promise you you don't want her to know what it is that I'm about to tell you." She winks before pushing off of my car door.

I put the window up and grip the steering wheel.

~~~

Before I get out of my car when I'm outside of my home, I receive a text from an unsaved number but I recognize it as the one that's been torturing me for so long now.

Images of Sabrina's neck, bruised.

"FUCK!" I roar, throwing my phone onto the floor.

~

"—You put your hands on her?!" She yells furiously after I tell her exactly what went down.

I hang my head, sitting on the couch. "That's all you got from that?"

"Yes! Chris, what the fuck?"

"She said she was going to tell the man I raped her. S-she touched me first!"

"You don't just black out and lose control like that, Chris! Now what if she goes to the cops, she has pictures?!"

"I didn't hit her or anything."

"No, you just violently choked her and someone recorded it, Jesus." Morgan paces.

Saying it out loud doesn't make it sound any better. I know I fucked up because a man shouldn't put his hands on a woman ever, but I honestly don't feel bad. Sabrina, Marissa— whoever the fuck she is— deserves it and then some.

"What are we going to do?" I ask Morgan with my head in the palm of my hands.

"You've done enough," she says just as fast. "I'm going to bed. I-I just need time to process all of this."

"Fine." I huff, standing up.

Morgan can't even look at me. She just flails her arms and walks in the opposite direction, stomping up each stair.

Like always when I'm stressed, I turn to a joint.

I finish rolling it up outside, watching the dogs run around under the stars.

I wish I could say it's a peaceful night out. It is, everything around me just sucks.

Morgan didn't totally lose her shit when I told her about the encounter with my stalker, but she definitely isn't on my side on this one. I don't blame her.

I keep fucking shit up. I don't know what's wrong with me.

I put the lighter to my joint but a sudden gust of wind makes me look to the sky.

"Aheh," I chuckle.

I scratch my eyebrow with my thumb nail and then put the joint behind my ear for now.

"I, uh, haven't done this in a while... you'll have to forgive me. God, Buddha, ancestors, whoever's up there: I need you. My life is in shambles right now and I can't keep pretending that it's not," I begin to pray out loud, picking at the skin on my palms.

"I don't know what to do anymore. Every time I try to do the right thing, it's wrong. And every time I try to let shit go, something else happens. I want to be a man about this, I want to end things as civil as possible but something tells me it won't be that easy. It never is. I love Morgan more than anything. I just want her to be happy; she deserves a stress-free life. I'm trying to do right by her, I swear I am, just— I need help. Show me the way. What am I supposed to do? What can I do? I'm tired of living with burdens, just, please, give me a sign or something— I'll do anything it takes to make this go away." I seal my eyes and squeeze my hands together as if that will affirm the prayer.

I open my eyes and exhale. "Amen."

It'll take a lot more than saying some sappy words to a made up deity to take all of this away, but I do feel slightly better.

I don't even feel like smoking anymore, and I can't turn to the bottle. Seeing it's late enough, I take my ass inside and want nothing ore than to fall asleep and wake up to find out this is all some fucked up nightmare. . .

I remove my worn clothes and shoot them into the laundry hamper with a yawn.

There's nothing more that I want to do than hold Morgan and hope she'll let me.

She's so peaceful, so serene. If this wasn't so creepy, I'd watch her sleep for hours.

As gently as possible, I climb into bed under the covers.

I'm hesitant to put my hands on Morgan but I can finally breathe and sleep good once she caresses me back.

Okay, don't get on me for being all sentimental here. This is going to be without a doubt the corniest thing I've ever said, but, with Morgan's love, I honestly feel like I can do anything.

Her cold hands heat up with the aid of my body temperature. As she caresses me back ever so delicately, I'm reminded that she is the sole reason why I have to do something about my stalker once and for all.