Page 41 of Malice
The next message I needed to tackle was one I’d been anxious to open. I knew I’d hurt him by putting distance between us, but I couldn’t make him promises. We weren’t together, we couldn’t ever be, and my heart was being collected piece by piece by four horsemen.
That said, he was still one of my first and only friends. I’d known Cole almost as long as Andi, and in some respects, the conversations we’d had were much more personal than those I’d had with Andi or the horsemen. Things might be complicated at the moment, but that didn’t magically undo years of leaning on each other. He deserved a response from me, at the very least.
Resolved, I clicked on our text thread and pulled up a string of unread messages.
C:
I noticed you’ve been absent for a few days. Are you okay?
C:
Are you at least far enough away from the blast zone? I’m worried about you.
C:
Merri, please. I know we left things in a weird place but I need to know if you’re safe.
Guilt seemed my constant companion these days. It twisted my gut as I read his messages over again.
Me:
I’m okay. Nowhere near the eruptions.
The message changed fromdeliveredtoread,but he didn’t reply.
Me:
Cole?
C:
I thought you were dead.
Okay, I probably deserved that.
Me:
My phone has been off. I just found out about the
I struggled to complete my sentence. Andi had only given me a rough sketch of what happened. I didn’t have a lot of detail. Which was strange when you stopped to think about the scope of the catastrophe, but also, the entire world was ending, and I was on the lam from Old Scratch himself, so you know, my barometer for fucked up shit was really skewed these days.
After several seconds, I resumed my typing.
Me:
...everything. I was worried about you, too.
There. Now it seemed like I picked up my phone when I realized he might be in danger. Maybe that would earn me a few brownie points.
C:
I’m glad you’re okay.
Me:
What about you?
C:
