POV Stephanie“Julian, I can’t go with you guys right now, I’ve seen Millie shut down before and I need to be with her, I’m the only real family she has, and how to deal with this,” I explain to him. He nods his head, kissing me on the cheek, “I love you, babe, if you need me call and if you need a ride I’ll pick you up okay?” “Okay, I love you Jul, wish me luck,” I say wrapping my arms around him before he leaves. Today has gone from amazing to downright atrocious in so little time. I’m not sure what happened between Millie and X but if I know my best friend she spewed her venom all over him. Millie has a tendency to shut down who she is at times, losing herself altogether honestly. Something sinister arises as a defense mechanism for her pain. She means no harm and she always makes it right again but when she’s in this state of mind she can be pretty vile to the people she cares for most, pushing them far far away. I don’t know the exact reason but I think she subconsciously pus
POVXThe silence in the car is as dark as the night sky. Not a single word has been spoken by Julian or me. He knows better at this point to not push me when I’m in this state of mind. I watch the city lights from out the window as I fight the urge to burn the whole damn city down to mere ashes. “I want you to get Mia to collect all the names of the bartenders and waitresses that worked tonight,” I state cooly. He glances my way and then back to the road, “Consider it done.” I may have vile feelings toward Millie at the moment but it doesn’t change the fact that somebody will pay for this. …Sleepless night. I paced around the penthouse endlessly until I couldn’t stand a second longer. Questions filled my mind to insanity. Was this on purpose? Was it an accident? Was it meant for her? Was it meant for someone else? Who was behind this? A waitress? A partygoer? A rival? These things need to be taken seriously. If it was a rival I need to be on guard, sleeping with one eye
POV Millie It’s Sunday night and I’m told I can leave in the morning. Nurses come in and out of the room every so often. Steph sits on a chair in the corner of the hospital room, she hasn’t left my side since she first came here other than to Uber to the house for Mia’s car and my phone, the store to grab us some things, oh and the book store to buy another book. She’s reading yet another dark romance novel. She insisted on reading me some chapters and although they make me question my morals and I won’t tell Steph this, I already ordered her recommended books on Amazon. I pull up on my light green hospital gown that keeps falling off my shoulder and adjust my position on the uncomfortable bed. My lower stomach is cramping a bit but the pain meds are helping. I stare out of the window at the dark sky, the same darkness I feel in my heart. My emotions have been varying every hour. Sadness, anger, numbness, rage. I laugh sometimes, cry others, and attempt to make peace with my realit
POVXI’m on my tenth set of pull-ups, sweat glistening my entire body. My hair is drenched and pissing me off as it falls to my eyebrows, constantly needing to be pushed back. I’m trying to channel my rage without alcohol and working out is the only way I know how. I’ve been in my gym for two hours now, Julian joined for forty five minutes and then dipped like a weakling. I’m on my sixth rep when my phone vibrates and lights up with a notification. I finish my pull-ups, wipe myself off with a towel, gulp down some water and check my phone. Millie. I can’t do this right now. I do fifty push ups before I decide to text Millie back so I don’t lose my shit on her. She wants to talk tomorrow, I just don’t think I have it in me to face her yet. I don’t respond to her requests because it’s something I need to sleep on. We’ll see how I feel about it later. I do a few sets of Russian twists before I decide to end my workout for the night. I leave the gym dripping sweating, patting mys
POVMillie I’m awoken by a knock at X’s door. X is still sleeping, miles away from me may I add. He was incredibly sweet to take care of me, holding me in the shower, dressing me, and sleeping next to me when I knew he didn’t really want to do any of it but he still did. For me. “X” I gently shake him awake. “What?” He grumbles out. “Someone is at the door,” I say. “Ugh!” He grunts, “stay here I’ll be right back.”He yawns and sleepily sits on the edge of the bed running his fingers through his hair and walks out of the bedroom. I rub my eyes and grab my phone from the nightstand, five o’clock?! My god that’s the longest I’ve slept in days, I really needed that. I have a text from Steph How are you feeling? Let me know if I can bring anything up for you. Do you need a spicy novel? Also, how’d the conversation with X go? That was two hours ago. Hey! Sorry I fell asleep. I’m feeling fine. We haven’t talked yet because we fell asleep. I might need some new yoga pants in a bit
POVXI pull Dani outside of the door and close it behind me. I run my fingers through my hair in frustration towards Millie. I don’t know what that shit was but this is obviously not working out right now. “Dani, look,” I start off as she looks up at me expectantly. “Millie is not okay right now and I apologize,” I say trying to be nice. “Look, X, it’s fine. She’s hurting right now and she needs someone to blame, it’s okay, I understand it and I’m not taking it personally,” she says being mature about the whole situation. “Thank you, but like I said, she’s not okay. Something about you is triggering her. She may be out of line right now but she is my main priority. I’m not firing you but I need you to stay away from me. As for work goes, I need you to go to Julian for everything. As for a friend, I like you as a person I really do but I need you to not text me anymore or come here unannounced or at all for that matter. Millie is my main focus and I need to respect her feelings,
POV Millie It’s been an extremely interesting last couple of days. I sit on X’s lap wrapped in a light blanket on the balcony while we watch Julian and Slim risk their lives lighting off fireworks, the real Fourth of July. Although I hold my breath every time they bring a flame to the firecracker, the beauty of the lights over the ocean almost makes it worth one of them losing an arm. I snuggle into X’s hard warm body, wishing to be cocooned into him forever. I’m a lot more at peace now, X sat me down and explained his talk with Dani which I appreciate him doing. She’s still on my shit list though and I promise she’ll pay. …It’s Friday evening and It’s been two weeks since the Fourth of July. I’m physically and mentally in a better place but I of course still have my moments. X and I have been in a much better place as well since our brawl that one night. “Oh my gosh, you guys! We need to discuss chapter 23!” Mia says fanning her face. Oh yeah, somehow in the past two week
POV Stephanie I bring my computer to life, type in my password, and open up the browser to search for morning flights. “Do you think everything is okay?” Millie asks me laced with suspicion. “Yeah mills, don’t worry this isn’t unusual,” I remark calmly. “Okay,” she balls her hands into a fist on her lap. She notably looks uncomfortable as I go to work and it’s distracting me. “I think I’m getting a bit of a headache, do you mind if I grab some ibuprofen from your room?” She asks rubbing her head. “Oh yeah for sure,” I say handing her my keycard and she gets up stepping out of the office. Okay, now I can actually concentrate. I click on various flights, Julian didn’t say anything about a return flight so I choose a one-way ticket until advised otherwise. I book them their usual hotel rooms for three nights, once again, I can adjust it at any time. I text Julian that they have a flight booked for 9:30 tomorrow morning. I close my computer down, turn off my office light, and