Barely Associated

39

2:56 AM

Amari

I entered the dark house to be met with the slightest of light coming from the Kitchen.

The sound of men laughing filled the house accompanied by the sound of beer bottles being set on my marble counter tops.

I kicked my slides off and walked carefully into the kitchen to see Justin and his old college roommate, Terry, talking.

"Miss Amari?" Terry smiled at me.

He walked around to give me a hug and I forced a tight lipped smile and patted his back.

Terry wasn't good for Justin. We all knew that, but ignored it. He was Justin's closest friend, after all.

"How have you been?" Terry asked as he let me go. "Congratulations on the baby."

"Oh. Thank you." I smiled at him. "And I've been... Better, actually."

I glanced over at Justin who was nearly asleep at the kitchen island. Terry followed my gaze and chuckled.

"Well, I better get going anyway." He said grabbing his jacket and patting Justin's back. "You just can't hold your whiskey."

"I can. I just can't hold whiskey, Rum, and beer all at once." Justin said sitting up. "Here. I'll walk you out."

"Alright." Terry nodded. "Goodnight Amari."

"Goodnight." I waved as they left the kitchen.

I took a seat and glanced at my phone. Tyler had sent me a picture of Kyler getting ready for bed. I smiled to myself and locked the phone when I heard Justin coming back. Without a word, he started cleaning up.

"How was your night?" I asked breaking the silence.

"It was fine." He shrugged. "We went out for drinks then came back here."

"That sounds..." I thought for a moment. "Not as fun as it probably was."

"That's because it wasn't fun." Justin laughed looking over at me. "At the bar he ditched me to go with a girl young enough to be his child, basically."

"That sounds about right for him." I nodded.

"Yeah..." Justin nodded thinking about it. "He's gonna end up in prison one day. How was your trip?"

"It was fine." I shrugged. "Just... A lot of paint swabs."

"Oof." He said coming to sit beside me. "Well, you must've had fun at some point. Visit any museums? I know you like that type of stuff."

"Museums? No." I shook my head. "Nothing fun."

"Not even a tiny bit fun?" He asked grabbing my hand. "No familiar faces?"

"Maybe 2 or 3." I whispered watching him as he stared at our hands.

"Amari, I have to tell you something." He said quietly.