Sixty-Nine

Cameron

Silence enveloped me, a loud, terrifying silence. I'd never felt so confused in my life. My hands gripped the steering wheel tightly as I drove. I felt worse than when I'd not seen Athena for all these years and didn't know how to navigate this.

Barbara sat in the passenger seat. I could feel her glances but couldn’t bring myself to speak. What was there to say? How could I tell her that the girl I obsessed over stank like a fucking sewage pit?

Nothing made sense anymore. How did seeing Athena after five years and feeling that overwhelming pull toward her—turn into such disgust within minutes? That smell, so unbearable and unnatural, still lingered in my senses. It wasn’t just in my nose; I could feel it in my entire body, like it had seeped inside every pore in my skin.

Barbara began muttering something under her breath, breaking the silence.

“Can you just stop?” I snapped at her. “I didn’t force you to come.”

“What did I do now?” she shot back.

She had a way of getting un