Episode 366: Forget About The Future

And the cat’s slinky fur pillowed the stream of tears gushing from Avalon’s eyes. Until she removed the cat from her lap, threw on the leather jacket Xavier left behind over her wedding dress and stormed into the night.

She saw him the through the window. She waited in the dark alley for his shift to end. Her small fists pummeled him before he knew what was going on. He caught her wrists a moment, looked in her dead eyes, then let her continue the assault.

"It’s your fault. You told Kylie to write that. You told your father to publish it."

"I didn’t. I wouldn’t." He let her hits continue. "I read it when everyone else did. I was living with Kylie then, platonically. I couldn’t afford rent anywhere else, but I moved out. I live in a closet basically. I don’t care. I couldn’t stay with her knowing what she wrote had to have hurt you. I wouldn’t. Hell, I wouldn’t even do that to Xavier." Her fists began to slow. "I think that stuff is his business and your business, nobody else’s." He winced. But she wasn’t punching that hard and he was all athletic muscle. "I admit I was so jealous and so hurt I asked Kylie to dig up dirt on him, but I called it off. If you don’t believe I’d call it off, just remember when I found him in the greenhouse shooting up. I never went to the press; I only went to you, so you’d make sure you were safe with him. I wouldn’t do something knowing it would hurt you, whatever I’ve done to hurt you has always been accidental, me being stupid me. I didn’t do this."

Avalon’s fighting stopped altogether, her body rather than fists slammed into him. She cried even more into his coat than she’d done to poor Shelby.

He tenderly kissed the top of her head, rubbed her back. "The article came out weeks ago. Why now? What’s happened? What can I do?"

She didn’t know what she was doing. She was hurting too much to think clearly. She just didn’t want to go back to her bed without Xavier tonight. Tomorrow she’d have to go feed Shelby. Tomorrow she’d have to face things. Tonight she wanted to hide in someone who said he loved her. "Take me home with you."

Episode 367: Anything But Mine