Page 10 of Scattered Glitter

The truth is, it’s already felt as if I’ve been living alone. Watching her pack up the pieces of her life over the past few weeks has been like watching someone dismantle a home, brick by brick. It’s not just her leaving. It’s everything she’s taking with her—the laughter, lightness, and hope I’ve borrowed all these years.

When she’s gone, this place won’t feel like it’s mine anymore. It’ll just be walls and silence.

Ever since she started dating Michael six months ago,she’s been spending more and more time at his place. It almost feels like I’ve been easing into the idea of her moving out without even realizing it.

Some of the girls from the strip club have already asked about the room, but the thought of sharing this space with someone else doesn’t sit right with me.

It was hard enough letting Annabelle in, but she’s different. I love this girl, and even if I didn’t want to admit it at first, she’s becomesomethinglike my family.

The others… I don’t know them, not really. More importantly, I’m not sure I want to.

I take the picture frame from her, running my thumb over the glass. “We were so dumb and naïve then.”

Annabelle sits up and scoots closer, her knees brushing against mine as she reaches for my hair. Her fingers glide through with ease, weaving it into a French braid, just like she always does before we go to bed. I’m hopeless with that kind of thing.

Rosalee always did this for me.I swallow hard, trying to push the memory away.

Wrong train of thought, Novalee.

“At least we’re only dumb now,” Annabelle quips, giving my braid a playful tug, and I have to bite back a laugh.

“Oh, you know I love you to bits, Belle, but you’restillfucking naïve.” I roll my eyes and nudge her with my elbow.

She pauses for a moment, fingers lingering on my hair. “Maybe,” she murmurs, and there’s an acceptance in her voice that makes something inside me twist with envy.

I’d love to be so carefree and optimistic about everything.

Her hands start moving again, faster now, as if trying to distract herself.

“Not maybe, you are. I know you,” I insist, turning to catch her eye.

Annabelle sighs and ties off the braid with an elastic from her wrist, letting her hands fall into her lap. “Yeah, well, I don’t know you at all, really. You’re closed off like a military asset, and that’s just sad. You’re my best friend, and I have no idea who you are.”

She’s not wrong. I spent years building walls so high that no one could climb them, not even her. It’s safer. No one can hurt you when they can’t get close enough to know you. But sometimes, on nights like this, I wonder what it would feel like to let someone in. Just once.

“Belle—” I start, but she cuts me off.

“I worry about you, you know? I don’t even know if I can leave you. You will probably die alone in a pink wig, suffocated by glitter.”

I blink, surprised by the raw honesty.Wow.

She’s not wrong, though.

And it took her six years and five vodka cranberries to say that out loud.

I snicker and am about to brush it all off with another joke when there’s a tapping on the glass balcony door. The sound is a welcome distraction, and I smirk as I stand.

“I will die as a cat lady,” I promise, making my way over. Sliding it open, I let the night air spill into the room as I reach for the sweet little tabby cat with green eyes waiting for me. “Hello, Good Lookin’,” I purr, scooping her into my arms.

Good Lookin’ is a stray who decided our place was her early morning stop for pets and wet food before sleeping off her adventures for a few hours. Then she’s gone again, off to whatever other life she leads.

She’s basically me in cat form.

I plop back down on the couch next to Annabelle, stroking the cat as she purrs loudly, a contented vibration that somehow soothes the raw edges of my thoughts.

“Nova, I mean it.” Annabelle brings me back to the present, cutting through the purring. There’s a seriousness there that makes me pause. “I want so badly for you to find someone too.”

I know she’s talking about love, about the kind of happily ever after that she’s always dreamed of. She’s in Vegas because someone once told her that if you feel a strong connection or pull toward a certain city, it’s because your soulmate is waiting there for you. And so she came here, full of hope and belief.

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