Page 206 of Losing Faith

“Hi, Lissy bear.” Sage’s voice seems to break, but Lisette quickly turns on her heels. Her head whips to the door and when she notices Sire slouched against it, a panic grows in her eyes.

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

Sire pushes off the door, but she puts a hand up to stop him.

“We’re not doing this.” She shakes her head at him.

“We are.” Sire nods for the couch, but when August rests his hand on Lisette, she looks just about ready to lose her shit.

“Don’t touch me!” She takes a step back before putting her hands up. “No one touch me.”

“Okay.” August puts his hands up in surrender. “No one is going to touch you.”

Everyone descends from the room and Lisette continues to back away from them before she ends up in the kitchen.

“An intervention?” She looks around the room before her eyes land on mine and she looks so betrayed… just like I knew she would be. “I told you I was okay.” She shakes her head softly and I quickly take a step towards her.

“I want you to believe you, Lissy, I do. But can you look me in the eyes and tell me you aren’t high right now?”

She looks hurt at first… then her anger settles. “Let me leave.” She keeps her voice low, almost as if she were warning us.

“I appreciate that you asked nicely.” Sire smiles over at her before pulling a chair and sitting in front of the door. “But you know we aren’t going to let that happen.”

“Igenuinelyhate you, Sire.”

I feel myself flinch, as if her words were thrown at me, but he only puts a hand on his heart in mock pain. “You wound me, Lis.” He turns more serious. “Do you want to tell anyone else you hate them or can we start this?”

“Yeah, I do actually.” She turns to the group and I desperately want to look away, but I force my eyes to stay on her. “If you all don’t let me leave then I also hate all of you and willneverforgive you for this.”

Sire laughs softly and it seems to piss her off more. “We don’t care for your forgiveness, Lisette. In a few months, it’s going to be you asking for our forgiveness.”

She starts to pace the kitchen as she realizes she’s trapped.

“Lissy…” Sage starts softly as she slowly makes her way to the kitchen. “We just want to help you and—”

“I don’tneedhelp,” she snaps.

Sage turns her head to the side and I can’t see her face, but I’m sure she’s close to crying. “You do.” Sage sniffles before wiping her cheek, but Lisette looks as if Sage just threw up on her favorite shoes.

Navi steps forward. Sire called their AA Chair and she sent her to hold this all together.

“Lisette.” She smiles over at her and Lisette must’ve just realized her because she looks as if she appeared from thin air.

“Who the hell are you?”

“I’m Navi.” She offers her a smile.

“Get the hell out of my house, lady.” She turns back to Sire. “Who the hell is this?”

“She’s Navi,” Sire answers and I keep my eyes on Lisette, but I can hear his smile.

“Yeah, I got her damn name, dumbass.Whois she?”

Navi takes a step forward. “All of these people are here because they care about you.”

I keep my eyes on Lisette as something seems to click in her head. “You’re going to facilitate this.” She lets out a scoff before looking back over at Sire. “Ineverintervened you—”

“I’m counting you sending people in one by one as an intervention so yes, you have. Four times to be exact.”

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