Page 76 of Pretty Black

“You’re wasting your time. I’m happy.” But nothing about him appeared happy. He looked dead inside. Even the light in his eyes had gone out. Was this the end of the cycle and his inevitable descent?

I was terrified for him.

The more I thought about it, the sicker I felt.

“Is that all?” Iris asked when I didn’t go on.

“I miss you.”

“I know. I miss me too.” Iris shook his head. “I miss us. But we can’t go back.”

“Why not?” I took one of his hands.

“We’ve tried it too many times. It doesn’t work. We don’t work anymore.” His words broke my heart.

“We can figure it out.”

“I wish we could. I have to go.”

Alexander grabbed me on my way back to my room. “What’s with him?”

“He’s still barely speaking to me. How would I know?”

“He won’t return my calls.”

“How did you get him here?” I asked.

“To talk about the album. He wants to put it out, but it’s not ready.” Alexander narrowed his eyes at me like I had some agenda for asking.

“It’s perfect.”

He brushed off my comment. “I’m going to get the cops involved if he keeps this up.”

“What? What do you mean?”

“File a missing person’s report or something,” Alexander mused, like he was thinking his way through it.

“He’s going to be mad if you file a fucking missing person report. Don’t you have, like, private detectives?”

“I’ve tried to find him for weeks. If he leaves again, we might never find him.” Alexander fixed me in a stare.

“I think a missing person report is too far. You’re going to push him to quit. He’s already there. He barely finished the last tour.” I didn’t know how to reason with either of them.

“We need to take this seriously because when normal people go missing, we aren’t worried we’ll find them face down floating in a pool of their own vomit—ODed— or worse. Who’s he with?” Alexander screamed. Iris hadn’t answered his calls for days.

“He wouldn’t tell me.” I knew what worse meant. He didn’t have to say it, and I knew Iris was capable, which left no argument. “You can’t keep him in a cage.”

“Fucking watch me. He has responsibilities he can’t just vanish.” He turned his back, heading in the direction Iris had gone.

“Alexander…”

He didn’t look back.

TWENTY-FOUR

PRESENT DAY

Iris Black

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