Page 116 of Caged
The downstairs door of her apartment building is ajar. Not surprising. Apartments in College Town aren’t exactly known for their world-class security, even if hers is on the nicer side. A mix of my own musk and sweat fills the narrow space of the stairwell as I trudge up to the second floor.
I bang loudly on the door and wait. She might not be home, but it’s Friday and typically seniors have this day free. When no one answers, I bang again, my frustration growing with each collision of my fist against the heavy red door.
“Open up,” I shout, and finally, someone on the other side turns the deadbolt lock.
“Can I help y… What are you doing here?” Gabi’s roommate asks, glaring at me from inside their apartment.
“Where is she?” I demand, but I don’t bother waiting for an answer. I push past the woman blocking the doorway, practically body-checking her on my way through.
“Where are you going? You can’t go back there! She’s not here!” the woman calls after me as I stalk down the hallway. I’ve technically never entered this apartment from the front door, but I have a guess as to which room is Gabi’s based on the fact that I know her room borders the alley.
Maybe I should be embarrassed to admit the amount of time I’ve spent standing in the grime behind this apartment. At first, I didn’t know which room was hers, but when I happened to be walking through the alley at the start of my junior year, I saw her changing through the window. That’s how I knew which window was hers when I paid her a visit a few days ago.
I can’t recall why I was in the alley in the first place, but for a period of time, voyeurism became my favorite late-night hobby. There’s nothing like leaning against a filthy brick wall with a bottle of cheap whiskey in your hand, waiting to see if your ex-girlfriend has another man in her room to satiate your relentless spiral of depression. Thank God that time of my life is behind me. Say what you will about Kieren, but when he came back, he gave me purpose. Obligation to Kieren pulled me out of the well, even if he was the reason I fell in the first place. Maybe, though, things would have always ended as they did. Now that I’ve seen Gabi’s true colors, video or no video, our breakup might have been inevitable.
I can practically feel the burn of whiskey in my throat as I stop in front of the bedroom door I assume belongs to her.
“She’s not here!” her roommate wails, who unknowingly just confirmed I’m standing outside the right room. “You need to leave, Jace. You’re not welcome in this apartment.”
The look I give this woman when she tells me I’m not welcome could burn down a house. To her credit, she holds herground. I contemplate knocking but quite frankly, I’m sick and tired of fucking waiting.
“Jace!” her roommate screams when I kick down Gabi’s bedroom door. The door bounces off the adjoining wall with a crash. I march inside to find the room eerily empty. I know I was just here, but it feels different – like I didn’t notice any of the personal details before that make this room uniquely hers.
Looking down at my boots, it feels wrong to trek in dirt from the outside into such a pristine space. I scan the small area. Feminine but not girly with a faint hint of her floral perfume. Seeing her room when she’s not here feels wrongly intimate. The heathered violet comforter is neatly tucked under the matching decorative pillows at the top of the bed, a bed that I was on twenty-four hours ago, kneeling between her legs with a knife to her throat like a fucking lunatic.
I’m so…lost.
A hard lump rises in my throat, pressing painfully at my esophagus.
“Where is she?” I grumble, turning around to face the menacing stare of her roommate, the one who I believe is named Ele.
“Not here,” she says through clenched teeth as she crosses her arms in front of her chest. “Her dad is ill. She went home.”
My eyebrows raise in disbelief. “When?” I demand.
“This morning,” Ele hisses.
“You saw her leave?” I press, still unable to process the truth I’ve uncovered.
“No. She left at the crack of dawn, but I saw her packing a bag last night. What’s this about, Jace?”
“Nothing,” I say curtly as I sidestep her clearly pissed off roommate. I don’t even make it out of the apartment before I break into a run.
58
KIEREN
Present Day,
Sigma
“What?” I ask lazily as I answer the phone.
“You want to tell me what the fuck is going on up there?” my father barks.
“You saw the news?” I ask, stalling while I collect myself. I shouldn’t have gotten high, but I needed to take the edge off.
“The news? Hell, every Sigma alumni in the tristate area who is part of our client roster has called me. My phone’s been ringing nonstop for the past two hours.”
