SHATTERED

six

saylor

jessie walked over to me with a sly grin. i raised a brow, then laughed as they held out a beer bottle and wiggled their eyebrows. i took the bottle from her, popped the lid off, then handed the bottle back to her.

"thanks, pookie," she scrunched her nose up before she took a sip of the beer.

"pookie..?" i repeated slowly as i made a face. "the fuck is that?"

"you don't know what pookie is?" they tilted their head.

"saylor, for real?" miguel popped in as he looked at me with wide eyes.

my face scrunched up in confusion. "no. am i supposed to?"

"it's just a nickname," jess shrugged. "i blaming the fact that you don't know it on your age."

"i'm literally only two years older than you, asshole," i shoved their shoulder.

"you're twenty seven... you're a grandma," she teased.

"see, i don't wanna hear that when you were fucking around with a milf; she was in her mid-thirties, huh? so, what does that make her? ancient?" i sent them a look.

"no," their eyes widened. "fine, fine, you're just old... not quite a grandma, i guess."

"you're annoying as hell," i rolled my eyes.

"mm, whatever," she laughed.

we stopped as the front door opened. we all turned to see alex walking inside. they shut the door back and locked it again. they turned around, and they stopped for a second.

"the fuck y'all looking at?"

as they started to walk closer, i could see that the whites of their eyes were red and a little droopy, like they have been every day since thanksgiving... which was a week ago.

well... i don't know about the day after thanksgiving, because we didn't practice that day, but i could only assume that they got high that day too.

"well, you're almost forty-five minutes late," i pointed out as i narrowed my eyes.

their own eyes narrowed too. "shut the fuck up; i don't wanna hear that shit from you."

i started to get off of the counter, where i had been sitting, but jessie was quick to put a hand on my shoulder to stop me. miguel watched cautiously. alex reached the stairs, and they started to walk up them.

"i'll be down in a few minutes," they muttered.

"the fuck is their problem?" i shook my head.

"cut them some slack," jessie's brows knitted together slightly with a small frown. she started to say something, then stopped. "just— it's really not something to do with you, i promise."

"we all know alex can't stand me," i sent them a look. "for whatever fucking reason. there's no need to lie."

they sucked their teeth, then made an awkward face. "it's mostly not something to do with you..?"

i sighed. "whatever," i muttered as i hopped off the counter, then walked over to the couch to slump onto it.

i scrolled through my phone as i waited for alex to come back downstairs so that we could start practicing. miguel walked over to his bass and started playing it at a low volume, while jessie finished her beer.

like they said they would, alex came down after a handful of minutes. they rubbed at their eyes with a loose fist. i could see that the redness was starting to clear up; they must've used eye drops.