Relative Fiction | ✓

14

I lit another cigarette, which in retrospect wasn't that smart of an idea, seeing as there were probably still traces of gasoline all over my charred canvases and notebooks. I picked up another one, it's edges black as night, angry and resentful towards its dumbass creator for burning it alive, and chucked it in a black trash bag.

Everything around me was scorched earth - literally and figuratively. My hands were coated in remnants of everything I destroyed, from my paintings to my life as a normal person.

"So who was she?"

Stella sipped on her bright pink smoothie and watched me from the deck.

"Who?" I rolled my eyes at her behind the lenses of my sunglasses. Sweat dotted my forehead as I dragged the trash bag over to the side of the house, but thinking back to the day before with AJ and running my hands all over her body in my dope sick daydreams made the heat feel like I was living on the sun.

"The girl who was just here yesterday," she spat incredulously. "You know, talked with her hands, long legs, way too pretty for you. That girl."

"She's helping me." I tried my best to sound bored, and I hoped the heat hid the redness I felt creeping up my cheeks.

"Helping you what?" Stella scoffed. "Helping you get in your pants?"

"No," I bit back, instantly regretting how defensive I sounded. I tried to reel myself back and took a deep breath. "I don't know why you think I'm some kind of charlatan or something, but it's not like that."

Even if I wanted it to be like that, she was made up of everything that was way too good in this world for me. Her body would reject me like I was a bad organ off the black market.

Stella was about to fire back when a white BMW pulled into our driveway and up to the side of the yard, its tires crunching over the unfinished gravel.

She sighed and shook her head. "In case you were wondering, that's why." She turned and retreated into the house.

Sage emerged from her car with her bug-eyed sunglasses covering almost her entire face, and she pulled at her jean jacket even though it was scorching hot out.

"What are you doing here?" I asked in a low voice, walking up to the creaky white gate that separated the driveway from the yard. She stayed on the other side, practically radiating with intensity.

"You weren't answering your phone," she said curtly, nostrils flaring. "I just...wanted to talk to you, that's all."

I patted the pockets of my shorts for my phone, but I must have left it in the shed. An anger boiled inside of me, like the fire I had started yesterday was still burning in my stomach. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize I had to be available at your every beck and call."

Sage blinked, and for a moment a look of surprise flashed over her features. I was almost as surprised at myself as she was, but it was quickly replaced with disdain.

"I see." She let out a sharp breath. "So that's it, then?"

"I don't follow," I shrugged.

Sage pinched her lips into a thin line, and I knew she was concocting something. I braced myself for an explosion. "Who was that girl you were with at the flower shop the other day?"

I couldn't hold back a coarse laugh. "Are you serious right now? Am I not allowed to talk to other girls? Is that a rule now?"

"Well, no..." She scrunched up her face again, all confused as if I was speaking another language. "I guess I just figured it was disrespectful to the girl you were actually with."