Page 142 of Plaything

“I will,” she promised before checking the time. I’ve gotta go, but I’ll see you after school.” She gave each of us a smile and waved bye to Reesia before rushing out the door.

...She left in a hurry. Maybe I was overthinking it or worried about her, but something seemed strange.

I wasn’t the only one who picked up on her behavior, as the four of us shared similar confused looks. Aiden moved quickly, practically jogging to the front door to catch her before she left. When he opened the door, we heard her tires moving against the gravel as she left.

“What do you mean?” Collin asked in a hushed voice as Reesia whispered something in return, but I barely paid them any mind. It was Reesia, after all, who knew what went on in her mind. My girl just left in a way that unsettled all of us, and I was cursed with the speculation that my friend may have done something awful. I had other things to worry about than her ramblings.

“She was probably just overwhelmed,” Jamie tried to comfort, noticing our concern.

As I was about to invite everyone into the kitchen for breakfast, Collin took Reesia’s hand firmly. He brought her closer to the middle of the room. “Tell them what you told me,” he ordered.

Reesia widened her eyes at her husband as if he’d betrayed her. “She made me promise I wouldn’t tell, I told you that!” She whispered.

“Now, Reesia,” he cocked an eyebrow at her, leaving no room for question.

“What?” Dominic encouraged.

There was a solid five seconds of inner turmoil as Reesia battled with herself. She made a sound between a whine and a groan as she blurted words impossibly fast. “First of all, I want it known that I told her she needed to tell you, and I scolded her and everything for not telling you. She’s gonna hate me forever because she made me promise that I wouldn’t say anything to the four of you because she was embarrassed. Still, she didn’t say I couldn’t tell Collin, so if she asks, he told you, not me!” She didn’t pause to breathe.

What the hell was she talking about? My elbows were on my knees as I leaned forward, trying to unravel the tangled words of Reesia at six in the morning.

“She didn’t give me any of the dirty details when I asked about yesterday, but she told me that at the end of the day, she felt fine, and there was nothing wrong, and she was happy. Then she said after everyone went to sleep, she felt horrible—long story short, she had a massive sub drop and bawled on her bedroom floor for an hour. She was embarrassed and kept saying how she hated that she was ‘the girl who cried after sex’ whatever that means,” she rolled her eyes and scoffed. “I told her how stupid that was, and she brushed it off like it was no big deal and said she was fine now. And now my stomach hurts...” She finally took a breath and held her torso.

...

We failed. So fucking horribly.

As if a cannonball had dropped right onto my stomach, I felt sick. Not only did we fail to see signs of a drop, but she also didn’t feel comfortable coming to us.

We should have waited longer; we should have had a conversation about what happened. We were all so tired that we neglected the possibility of her dropping later in the evening.

Deeply ashamed of myself, I was rendered speechless at Reesia’s admittance. Odette said she was embarrassed? I thought we’d assured her enough that she could come to us with anything and everything. Obviously, we hadn’t. She was deeply misled by her own thoughts and upbringing, convincing herself that crying was in any way embarrassing. We mentioned sub-drop but never went into detail about it or why it happened. Fuck, we may have only mentioned the phrase itself.

Just on Saturday night, we spoke about how she’d always had to self-soothe. How could we be so careless?

I wanted nothing more than to go back in time, wake myself up, and be there for her—like we should have been last night.

The absolute worst part was that there was a significant possibility she was still dropping. If her distant behavior this morning was any sign, she still wasn’t okay. She never got the proper aftercare and that was entirely on us.

There were fucking four of us. We’d been engrossed in this lifestyle and community for years, decades even. We knew better. We failed her.

I didn’t know how much time had passed before Wyatt spoke. “Are you sure, Reesia? You’re not mistaken? I don’t recall her leaving bed last night,” Wyatt asked gently, trying to convince himself that Reesia had misheard Odette.

Reesia wouldn’t have said it if she wasn’t entirely certain. We’d all seen how badly Reesia got when she dropped, it wasn’t something she took lightly. The people in this room knew that if Reesia had a bad day and a bad drop, her trauma response was to age regress. Collin did a great job of ensuring no one saw her vulnerable, taking her away from others before it got too bad. It wasn’t something they or anyone else liked to talk about, and I understood.

Reesia nodded.

Another thick silence blanketed the room as our thoughts ate at us. My day was ruined, and I knew my friends all felt the same.

“Shit happens,” Jamie spoke softly, much softer than her usual tone, attempting to make us feel less shitty, but it didn’t work.

“It shouldn’t have happened,” Dominic rasped back before he stood and headed to the kitchen, surely to fill his cup with more coffee.

Aiden barely made any noise as he left the house, probably hoping he’d catch her before her first class. On the way down, he’d realize that even if he did see her, he’d catch her off guard before her test.

Right now, there was nothing we could do except accept our failure, make plans to talk with her as soon as we could without affecting her day and ensure that we didn’t let this happen again.

The day was crawling. The universe must have known that I was itching to see Odette and make sure she was okay. I texted her to ask how her test went and if her peers were behaving, and her responses were positive.

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