Misery Loves Company

Track 52: Safety in Numbers (Part II)

Misery Loves Company

By: theinkslingerr

Track 52: Safety in Numbers (Part II)

When I got home, I was still worked up from my lunch time chat with Enid. I swept through my room like a tornado and gathered everything she'd given me or left behind.

Makeup, a pair of jeans she'd said made her look fat, boxes of animal crackers, and a ton of other crap I'd accumulated over the years.

After thirty frenzied minutes of searching, there was a big pile on my bed and I stood there glaring at it, breathing hard.

Kevin P. Bacon, the stuffed pig Enid had won me playing those claw machine games that were a rip-off, stared back at me from his perch on top of the pile. She'd always been weirdly good at them while I practically gave the machines my money.

"The person who won you sucks," I explained to Kevin P. Bacon.

A verbal response wasn't needed, because I knew he agreed. Enid had separated him from his stuffed animal family, after all.

Multiple shoes, an iPhone speaker shaped like a gramophone, books about directing and producing for beginners. There was still so much of her in this room, in my life— even after she'd kicked me out of hers.

I squared my shoulders. I should've done this a long time ago.

Stomping downstairs, I grabbed some garbage bags from the kitchen and stuffed any reminder of her into them. I wanted to leave them by the curb, but there were still paparazzi out there and they didn't need more of an incentive to snoop. I ended up leaving the bags by the door. When trash day came, I'd gladly watch the garbage man toss them in the back of his truck.

I rested easy that night knowing I was totally, completely free of Enid Concepción Diaz.

That didn't mean I was eager to go to school the next morning, but I figured if I could survive yesterday, I could survive today too.

It was the first Tuesday I wouldn't be going over Enid's after school to film, and it felt kind of weird. How would I spend my afternoons now? I couldn't be with Sienna 24/7. I knew she wasn't Enid, but I still feared her thinking I was clingy. Part of me also began to worry that without Misery Loves Company as an excuse, Eli, Ji-Hyun, and the others would eventually lose touch. Right now the boys were busy helping the label with damage control and Ji-Hyun was an actual adult with a job and an apartment, and a one-eyed labradoodle to feed.

Realistically, how often would we get to see each other?

About as often as never, my mind supplied.

And Rocco?

Well, at this rate, even if he wasn't Nic's father, he'd never speak to me again. I zoned out, eyes fixed on my phone as I brushed my teeth. Little droplets of water and toothpaste splashed on the screen.

I couldn't leave things like this.

With the show being cancelled, there was no telling when I'd see him again. And I couldn't just drop by his place now that the whole world knew we had something going on. If we let it, all of these outside forces like Sage and the fans finding out everything, would keep him out of my life and me out of his. We'd have no option but to drift apart.

I spit out the toothpaste and rinsed my mouth with cold water. It felt clean, tingly with mint. I avoided my own gaze in the mirror as I opened it and stuck the tube of toothpaste back inside.