Collateral Damage

chapter 10

We fell into a routine. I would make him breakfast. He would not talk to me. A few hours after he left, Debra, a woman in her fifties would come to clean the apartment. I would try to help her and she would shoo me away, saying I was getting in her way.

I hovered around her and when I got bored, watched the television. Some nights Alexis would take me out for dinner, but that was it. Life was getting depressing real fast.

I couldn't sleep at night because I hardly did anything and wasn't tired. I twisted and turned on the bed. It was still comfortable but that wasn't any use to me if I couldn't sleep on it.

Letting out a sound that resembled a growl, I sat up on the bed, throwing away the covers.

Fuck this job. Fuck everything! I couldn't do this anymore.

I decided to leave first thing in the morning. Staying here was detrimental to my mental health. I had thought it would be a dream come true if I had minimal human contact, considering my anxiety, but it wasn't like that at all. I craved any form of contact with the outer world now. I waited for Debra every day so that I had someone to talk to.

Also, I hadn't seen Elyse in weeks and I was missing her like an amputated limb.

I left my room and like a freaking ghost, wandered around the penthouse, careful not to make noise so as not to wake Alexis. I was beginning to hate him for making me live like this.

I opened the glass door and stepped into the balcony. I shivered and rubbed my arms to produce some warmth. It was 2 am and the city was still alive. I leaned on the railing and looked down. It was a bad idea as my head spun at the height. I jerked back which was a bad idea as my leg caught on the leg of a loveseat and I fell on the ground. Hard.

'Ow,' I groaned and rubbed my ass.

I cursed as I stood up.

I was safer in bed. I got back inside and went to the kitchen, opening the refrigerator I grabbed a bottle of water and drank half of it.

Unfortunately, there wasn't a TV in my room. There was one in Alexis though. I had never stepped in his room but I knew that because I'd heard voices coming from there. He preferred lounging in his room even though it was his house and he could be wherever he wanted. I suspected it was because he didn't want to be around me. It was stupid, but it stung that he would go to such lengths to avoid me.

I felt my way to the living room in the dark. It was better to stare at moving figures than at the darkness in my room. I felt the wall for the light switch. Who kept it pitch dark in their house? Alexis was weirdly obsessed with darkness. The memory of him in his darkened office room alone still gave me chills. What the fuck was he doing there like that anyway?

I stubbed my toe on something and started jumping around on one foot, biting my tongue to keep from cursing out loud.

'Damn it,' I whispered at the darkness.

My back hit something and there was a loud crash. I gasped. I broke something. Something that probably cost more than all my organs combined. I was so dead.

What did I break? Goddammit.

I took a wide side-step as I was still barefoot and didn't want to hurt my feet anymore. I was surprised Alexis hadn't come barging. He must be a heavier sleeper than I had thought.

My hand fell on some sort of handle and my left foot fell on a glass piece. This time I couldn't keep in the whimper. But that didn't matter because somehow at that time a loud sound started blaring.

It was an alarm.

Somehow, I had caused the alarm to go off. I started freaking out. Shitshitshitshit.