Vendetta

W4TCHED

The next day, I end up waking up after midday, having slept through every alarm I set for the morning. But I actually feel refreshed and recovered. I let Sitara know I'll be lazing around for the rest of the afternoon before treating myself to some me-time filled with long baths with quiet music and open-world video games.

It's only a few hours out from midnight when I hear knocking on my front door. After putting down the current book I'm reading and slip my face mask on, I open the door to find Wrench waiting at the front, leaning on the side wall.

"M'lady, are you ready for a night of karaoke and drunkenness that we surely will regret?"

I groan and throw my head back slightly. "Do I have to?"

Wrench moves past me into my small apartment. "Yeah, 'course, we need to celebrate your life." He gets caught up in looking around my belongings before turning back to me. "Er, I mean your living—the fact that you're living—"

"Yep, let's just go." I grab my jacket and slip on some joggers to match my baggy grey jumper and black jeans, stuffing my keys, wallet and phone into a small bag. Then, I drag Wrench out of my home before he can snoop around any more.

When we get into the car, Wrench lays his hands on the wheel and taps it for a moment. I look to him, then I notice the almost empty beer bottle in the cup holder.

"Wrench, you drove while drinking?!" I shout at him in annoyance before getting out of the car, pulling him out and shoving him into the passenger seat before I drive us over.

When we reach the bar it's just before 11:00pm. Ray and Josh are already seated and Sitara is about to set up karaoke. Wrench orders himself another beer and me a gin & tonic as we sit in the booth across from where Ray and Josh are. I give Josh a smile as he looks up from his laptop to acknowledge me, but I completely avoid any contact with Ray as I make myself comfortable in the corner.

"One ginny for Ellie." Wrench places the glass with a straw down in front of me roughly, almost making it spill over. I quickly clutch the drink, rolling my eyes at Wrench as he gets a cardboard coaster for his bottle.

And unexpectedly, after he takes a long sip of the drink through his own straw and places it down on the coaster, he lies down at the booth to rest his head on my lap, propping his feet up on the corner of the table.

My eyes go wide as I tense up, my arms raised above him. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Shhhh," is all he says as he makes himself comfortable, holding his beer and resting it upright on his chest. I sigh and try to relax back into the booth, knowing there'd be no way to make him move without forcing him up at his already tipsy state.

It's not long later that Marcus arrives. By this point, Sitara is into her second karaoke song and Wrench has fallen asleep on me. I'm just finishing my first glass as Marcus heads toward us, Josh acknowledging him first.

"Hey Marcus... You should try "Roxanne" in Tengwar, that's Elvish," Josh jokes.

Marcus looks down at his phone, then up. "Hey, Sitara. Eh, put this up on the screen, Josh. It's from Miranda." Sitara pauses the song and I sit up slightly, trying not to stir Wrench. Marcus reads a message out from his phone. ""You're being followed. A friend of mine is giving this to you at great risk. Watch your backs. There's a target on you"."

"Target? What?" Wrench says groggily, slowly sitting up. I change my seating position as my legs had started to go numb. When the others close in on Josh's laptop, I politely squeeze past Wrench and hover over Sitara's shoulder. I look down at the laptop to find an image of the outside of the bar we're in.