Work was hard. Too much noise, too many people, too much everything. My sanctuary was a coffee shop after work. But the issues with sanctuaries is that they aren’t always perfect. Coffee shops especially. They’re open to the public, anyone can just waltz right in, and even if you’re on a second floor balcony of an especially swanky place. If you’re lucky, you run into someone you know. If it’s just a normal day, it’s no one in particular.
But I was already having a bad day, and it became worse.
I was unlucky in the way that you’d run into someone you know, and that you hate. She wore a blue and black dress that went down to her knees, her heavyset form with black fur and curly black hair hadn’t changed since I last saw her. And her eyes still were the same purple eyes I helped her get. I debated jumping off the balcony and booking on foot.
That however tended to get gals noticed by the authorities. And I wasn’t really looking to talk to Johnny Law either. So I hid behind my e-reader while running diagnostics on my pile bunker. Still she came up the stairs, and then called, “Oh hey C____.” Before sitting across from me. Fuck.
I set the e-reader down and looked her in the eye. “That’s not my name anymore Umbrielle.” I forced my tone to be neutral, though I felt the pile bunker tense in my right arm.
“Oh, I’m sorry, what is your name?” She asked. I said nothing. Time stretched. “So, I heard you and _____ broke up.”
“From who?”I snapped back.
“Why don’t you tell me your name and I’ll tell you.”
“Why don’t you jump off the balcony.”
Umbrielle’s eyes narrowed. Her nostrils flared and shoulders tensed. For a brief moment she looked ready to leap across the table. Yet she rolled her shoulders back and put on a smile that felt almost too easy. “Let me guess, _____ broke up with you after your conversion?” Was that her trying to get a rise out of me?
“Look, I’ve been trying to be polite, but why the fuck are you here?” She didn’t have any right to know anything about me.
“I was getting a coffee, is that a crime?”
“No, but harassing someone is by some measure of the law.”
“Is this harassing?”
“Not yet.” I bit back. “But you really pushing that envelope.”
“You’re the one being hostile here.”
“Given what you’ve done, I have every fucking right to.”
“_____ abused you too.” She snarled now.
“_____ is only half the reason I’m this fucked to begin with.”
“What?”
“You fucking tore through my life when I was with her.” The pile bunker was primed, but if I slammed it into Umbrielle I would have been locked away. “And that’s not counting what you did to Verity.”
“That’s fucking delusional. You’re both delusional.” She stood up leaning over the table.
I put my right hand on table grabbing my e-reader with my left. “Where have I heard that before?” I smiled. “You haven’t fucking changed or owned up to what you’ve done.”
“And you have?”
“I fucking wrecked your life for trying to wreck mine.” I grinned. “Just like I’m going to wreck you now.” Her eyes went wide right before I let the pile bunker unload on the table. The table flipped into Umbrielle and I bolted down the stairs and out the door before anyone could stop me. “Get fucked Umbrielle!” I yelled letting my boots click into roller blades and skating away.