Page 120 of End It All

I slowly licked my lips. "Quincy's mom's house."

"Etta Adachi. Why do you want to go there?"

I groaned. "The landlord of the apartment he bought for her has been calling a lot lately. Usually, he takes care of it, but the last few times, I might have picked up the phone. The landlord wants her out. Says she's a mean old nuisance and no one can get any peace."

He snorted. "Yeah, that sounds about right. That woman has never had a kind bone in her body." Harlow shook his head. "She meets one mean asshole and takes it out on Quincy his whole life. It's fucked up."

"Yeah. And I know what she said to him," I muttered, balling my fists up at my sides. "He doesn't need to be around her anymore."

Harlow looked me up and down. "What are you going to do?"

"I don't know yet," I muttered. "But I mean it when I say I'm not going to let her hurt him one more time."

He nodded. "Yeah, it gets pretty bad," he whispered. "I fully support stabbing that old bitch in her wrinkly face."

I stared at him. "That's not what I said!"

Shrugging, he turned a corner. "Hey, I say if we're going to go all out, let's go all out. I fully advocate the bumping off of parents. Especially the shitty ones."

"There's something incredibly wrong with you."

"Oh, I know. Like a lot."

"So, his mom," I asked. "Is she really that bad?"

"Listen, she's sick," Harlow said. "And while I get it, people can't help their illnesses, she doesn'twanthelp. I don't know how many times she's told Quincy that she would throw his ass out in the street if she had to lose even one of her items. It's not just that she's sick, she's cruel. That woman has never cared about him. And she proves it every single day." His hands tightened on the wheel. "No wonder he was in such rough shape."

"I'd noticed," I muttered.

"Yeah. You were the only one that did." He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. "That's why I didn't yell at you for fucking in my guest room. I'm glad he had someone to look out for him."

My face burned. "I swear you never have to say these things."

He chuckled a little. "Kinda do. The way you blush is hilarious." He sighed. "You know there's nothing between us, right? We're just friends. Always have been and always will be."

I nodded. "Yeah, he told me."

"He did, huh?" Harlow smiled. "My little troublemaker is growing up."

I snickered under my breath. The thought of Quincy growing up was truly hilarious, but Harlow wasn't wrong. While he was still just as off and crazy as always, he was trying to grow. And he was doing his best. That's all I wanted out of him. Not perfection. Just accountability. As a matter of fact, it was all I wanted out of most of the people in my life. Quincy was one of the first that stepped up to the plate.

We drove over to the place and Harlow climbed out with me. I had to admit, I was glad there was someone with me. My nerves were frayed, like one single touch could set me on fire. We walked up a dingy set of steps. The carpet smelled like piss andmold. If the building was this bad, how fucked up was her place? When we reached a door, Harlow knocked loudly and hard.

"Etta. It's Harlow. Can I come in?"

The door cracked open a bit and an eye was shoved against the slit. She looked both of us up and down before the door shut. The sound of a lock sliding back was the only indication we weren't just going to stand out there looking like idiots. When she opened up again, I stared at the mountain of chaos behind her. It was worse than anything I'd ever seen at Quincy's. Boxes and mounds of things nearly reached the ceiling. There was a narrow pathway through the clutter, but you couldn't even see the floor. Not really. It was just more... stuff. The smell wasn't much better. Sweet, putrid aromas of rotten food, and other things I didn't want to guess at hit me full force.

Quincy had to live like this?

"Shit," I muttered.

The woman narrowed her eyes at me. "Who the hell are you?"

Suddenly, I wasn't nervous anymore. I'd been worried about meeting his mother, about making the right impression for half a second. But now, all I cared about was protecting Quincy.

"Your landlord wants you out." I nodded toward a red flyer sitting on a mound of crap in the corner. "I take it that's not your first eviction notice."

She sneered. The woman looked less like an elderly woman and more like the devil. But I didn't back down. Instead, I shoved my hands into my pockets.

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