Page 12 of Sleeper

AROUND TWO MONTHS AGO

Ididn’t know why I agreed to come with her to his house again. This wasn’t the first time we’d landed at his house after her shift. Not that I ever wanted to come here, but I didn’t trust Willie enough to let Kenzi come alone. They both had a drug problem and there was no way she was driving when she was higher than the Empire State Building, not on my watch. Not only that, but Willie seemed to genuinely like Monty andno oneliked Monty. If I had to bet even his own mother secretly hated him. The guy was a sleazeball who, in my opinion, profited off peoples’ desperation. It was like he was a shark circling the waters but was out for an easy target instead of blood. Time after time I’d witnessed him sliding a baggy of drugs into Kenzi’s cash. She thought he was being nice and helping her out, but my eyes weren’t hidden behind the same blinders as she wore. He was keeping her coked out of her head, so she would keep his customers happy. Thus, here we were at Willie’s house, a place neither of us had any business being.

My eyes roamed the small home, memorizing as much of its distinct features as I was able to while they distracted one another. They were too busy fondling each other to pay attention to me. I wondered if they even remembered I was in the room with them.

The white couch had dark blue and hunter green lines crossing that formed a flannel like pattern all over its surface. The floorboards creaked more than they had in the past, which was probably an unimportant detail, but I made a mental note of it anyway. There was a Snoopy clock above the kitchen sink made of a vinyl record with a clockface added on top. Each piece of information I forced myself to observe were ordinary things to find in a house. I pushed myself to find something, anything that would explain my nervousness, and found nothing. The only thing I had was the uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach that something was very wrong.

Willie smiled, his hand landing across Kenzi’s left ass cheek as he smacked it two times in a row as she stood up to go to the kitchen. Something was off with them tonight, but I wasn’t able to put my finger on the exact reason. She seemed extra fake tonight and when I added that with his over-the-top happiness, it had me on edge. I told myself these things were enough to make me feel the way I did, but it wasn’t. Maybe it was just my PTSD going rampant again. When my paranoia kicked into high gear, I had gotten the wrong impression from perfectly ordinary situations before, so maybe that was what was happening now.

Kenzi and I had been through a lot of shit together, but this was the worst I’d ever seen her. We were kidnapped when we were younger, which oddly enough was what sealed our friendship. As unconventional of a scenario as it was to be in, I was glad if I had to be in it with someone, it was her. We each had our own unhealthy ways of not coping with our past, mine was denial. Hers was drugs. Looking back, I know if she hadn’t been with me there, I would have given up all hope. She had saved me countless times when I gave up, only she had no idea. The strength she had while we were being held captive inspired me to persevere. That was my motivation for not leaving her on the side of the road when she asked me to drive the three of us here. I owed her the same thing she was for me so many years ago. A reason to live. Someone to be strong for her when her shoulders were too weak to carry the weight of life.

It was hard to stand idly by as she self-destructed, but if I said too much, she would push me away and without another person on the planet on her side to fight for her, she’d give up. Of course, she had a lot of people, like Willie, who claimed to be her friend. They weren’t, though. Even if I held a gun to their heads and they swore it was the truth, I still wouldn’t believe a single word their deceptive tongues muttered. Hell, maybe some even believed the lies they told themselves, like Willie. He’d never said a shitty word to her in my presence, but he wasn’t what I would call respectful to her either. He saw her as a thing, an object, not a person. By the way he treated her and acted as if his wishes were the only ones to have value, it was undeniable.

“Tonight’s the night, Kenzi Poo,” Willie said in a sickening sweet voice, licking his lips, watching her reenter the living room.

“It is!” She gave him a knowing smile with a nod.

“What’s tonight?” I asked, my eyes darting between their faces while my heart galloped under my skin.

“Should we tell her what we found?” Willie paused to glance at me.

“Hell, yeah we should, baby,” she answered, brushing her long-braided hair over her shoulder and dropping onto his lap with a giggle.

“First off, you know that you’re my best friend, right?” she asked, looking straight at me.

My head mechanically moved up and downward. My anxiety was so freaking bad right now I refused to speak. I was afraid if I did, I might puke.

“Well, here. I can’t wait.” Her hands clapped together and then she held her open palm out for him.

Shit! Not an engagement ring. Please!I begged the universe, sending my unspoken prayer into the atmosphere.

If he’d asked her to marry him while she was in this mental state, she may have agreed. I wasn’t letting my best friend marry the man she despised only a short eight months ago when she was sober. If that was her decision, so be it, but she had to be clean to tell me her wishes. Otherwise, this wasn’t an issue I would back down from. If I let my junkie best friend tie the knot, then when my sober best friend claimed her body again, the first thing she would do was murder me.

I exhaled heavily and then held my breath.

Willie’s fingers fiddled with something in the front pocket of his t-shirt. Whatever was inside was too small to be a gun and the closest thing to a weapon that would fit in there was a nail file, so we were safe on that front, I guess.

Forcing myself to breathe out slowly, my thoughts soared back to a ring. His knuckles bent when he grabbed something and tugged it out. A delicate silver heart-shaped locket with lavish rubies around its edges slid down the silver chain that dangled from his fingers.

A locket and an awfully expensive one at that. The last time I checked it still counted as jewelry someone would give as a symbol of their love. The mere thought of the possibility had my muscles frozen into a rigid position and chills jolting through my body. There was no other logical explanation as to why he was giving her such a high-priced gift. Okay. There were plenty. The reasonable part of my brain told me he might have bought it for her to make her smile. Kenzi loved anything that fell under the definition of luxurious and that locket without a question did. Hell, there was probably a picture of it in the dictionary beneath that very word.

“Why did he give you that?” I blurted out my suspicions unintentionally. I had to know what it represented to figure out my next move. If I was right, we were leaving. I didn’t care if I had to drag her out by her ankles, I would force her and use any means necessary to get her out of here.

“To give to you.”

“Me?” My voice squeaked. “No, it’s too much,” I swiftly said when she held it in front of my face, sending me down a completely different spiral of considerations. “Where did it come from?” It was a rude question, but the most obvious one that needed answered. Willie didn’t have the kind of money it would take to buy something this pricey. From what I’d gathered, the compass that fueled his morale not only pointed south, but it had also set up a permanent residency and installed a mailbox. The likelihood of the locket being stolen was very real.

“It belonged to my wife before she passed and now, we’re giving it to you,” he proudly beamed.

“Why?” I probed further. Either he didn’t give two shits about his wife, or he wasn’t a materialistic kind of person, which neither were too far of a reach out of the realm of realism.

“Just to show how much we appreciate that you’ve stayed by me through everything. Even now,” Kenzi stated as her hand flattened over her heart, “I know you don’t want to be here, but you are because you want to protect me.”

I remained silent, not quite sure how to respond as Kenzi took the locket from Willie and placed it into my palm. Her fingers curled around mine as she smiled.

“Flip it over.” The words “Always in my heart,” was inscribed in a fancy cursive font on the back portion of the heart. Tears swelled in my eyes, and I choked back the ball of nerves rapidly climbing up my throat.

“Who is the lady inside?” I asked when I opened it, not having the ability to pry my eyes off the woman in the picture. Even she saw this as a problem and was judging me for not opening my mouth to protest.

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