#deterioate

@mattydaddrio

It wasn’t uncommon to find Kaidyn hanging out in Amy’s apartment. Even if she wasn’t around. They’d been friends most of their life and they had a kid together. It was easy to gravitate to Amy’s place. 

Stretched out on the sofa, pillow stuffed under his head, Kaidyn flipped through channels on TV while he waited for his best friend and their daughter to get back from whatever errand they were running. Charlotte had asked to spend the weekend at his place, something that was normal for them, so he wanted to pick her and her stuff up. 

“Hey!” he called when he heard the door open, expecting to find two familiar blonds walking through the door but was instead greeted by a familiar dark-haired man. 

“Aiden,” he said, smiling dropping off his face. He knew the man was one of Amy’s best friends and knew that Charlotte loved him, but simply put, Kaidyn didn’t like him. Didn’t think he was the kind of person h wanted around two of the most important people in his life. 

          Aurora knew she probably should stop her drinking while she could before she did something terrible like puke in her purse the first time she got wasted on her twenty-first birthday with friends in Vegas. But how could she when her job was driving her bonkers and having to plan an exes wedding was like salt in the wound. “What? I invited you to drink with me for company not for you to judge me.” 

Sister Augustine had always told Julia that she needed to be more careful with her life. That being reckless wasn’t good for her health. Sister Augustine had also taught Julia to look both ways when crossing the road. But that was thing; Julia Shawkat was a strange little thing. Her head in the clouds, always talking about finding the one person in so many people. In flitting through life, one social circle after another. Being so flighty meant that no one quite understood her. They labelled her a menace or an enigma. But Julia always wondered, what was the fucking difference?

Finding the one. The age old question, maybe even philosophers asked these hard hitting questions. How did you know you would find the one? Lucky for Julia, she never had to guess. The ringed burn marks around her ankle always told her, like a GPS tracker but only more painful than the beeping. Her first mark had appeared at ten, when the sisters at St. Joseph’s Orphange had taken the children out to the fair on a day trip. She remembered collapsing from the pain, the smell of burning skin and grass making her almost nauseated. Little Julia didn’t know what this was, but the sisters chalked it up to possession, and well...the next two years of her life were pretty much lost. It happened again, when she finally started high school with a foster family. The Shawkats took Julia in like she was their own, and going to high school was the highlight of the girl’s life. Till she felt the searing pain again and fainted on the track field. What they didn’t understand, they let go. But this time, Julia knew. She knew there was someone who was the one for her, out there somewhere in the night.

So she searched every face she could find, hunting for the person who could make her burn like they did. The girl didn’t know who she was looking for, or why. She just had to know. It was only ironic that she would have found him the one time she wasn’t looking. In the most vague, foggy memories, she could remember the intense pain and blood, someone screaming for an ambulance to be called, the same voice telling her she was going to be okay.

Oh, and her ankle was on fire again, branding her for the third time.

But this time, his touch seemed to do the trick. The pain subsided almost as soon as they loaded her into the ambulance, his voice still ringing in the recesses of her brain, she was going to be okay. So when Julia did open her eyes after all that sleeping, she was met with...was he the one? The morphine knocked her out completely, leaving her feeling numb. Julia tried to talk, but instead, she croaked.

     “I know I said you can use my apartment key for an emergency--this isn’t an emergency.” Sierra rubbed her temples as she looked around her once clean apartment and set her work out bag on the counter. “What the hell were you doing the last time we were speaking on the phone....who’s underwear is that--those aren’t mine, please tell me you didn’t.”

        “C’mon it’s just a small favor, I’m going to be attending my high school reunion and I don’t want to look like an idiot who hasn’t gotten their together. I’ll let you snag someone for bathroom sex--or even better, I can cook you something.” Hana pleaded with the other, it was her last bet and probably not the best idea she had but the thought of going back to meet half the people she went to school with, who she hated, it was a huge headache. “Also I want to make my ex jealous at how successful I am with life.

oh my gosh me, let’s do it together