She is Fatal to Death (Standalone Story)

Chapter 6 (One Long Punishment)

One year later...

Diamond

          Diamond listened to the woman's snoring as she stared at the ceiling. Jasmine? No, that couldn't have been right. Diamond looked over at her sleeping face, which included a gaping mouth and thin, twitching eyebrows. Perhaps, Nicole? No, Nicole was a couple weeks ago.

        The unnamed woman turned onto her side, exposing her bare chest, one covered by countless hickeys thanks to an overly excited Diamond. "Chika?" There was a sleepy noise of confirmation at the sound of that name. Chika, it is.

          Diamond checked her phone to see it was two in the morning. She unlocked her phone only to be confronted by Renata's cheesing face, revealing her almost straight teeth. Diamond remembered taking the picture, the morning after the first time they spent the night, the first moments they spent together that broke past the boundaries of platonic—years ago at this point. She decided to check their messages.

DIAMOND: Hey ren where u been?

DIAMOND: I miss you, and I know you're busy

DIAMOND: We should get dinner or breakfast or do something soon

Five minutes after the latest text...

DIAMOND: What do you think?

          Diamond had sent those texts around ten hours ago, and there was still no response from Renata. It may or may not have been what led to her getting drunk and fucking Chika's brains out.

            In around seven days, it was going to be one year to the exact day since the incident. 

           Diamond tried to do everything in her power to support Renata during the fallout.

         Initially, Diamond had been so confident that Renata was going to bounce back, even if it meant taking a bit of time to heal from the attack. How wrong Diamond had been...

          Renata had done her best to showcase a brave face during the first couple of weeks, but this kind of effort faded until Diamond watched that light wane in Renata's gaze. The bags underneath Renata's eyes darkened, her shoulders turned just a bit more inward. But that wasn't the end of it. Something else grew in the place of what had been lost. Something darker. Bitter. More violent. It was difficult to recognize Renata as each month passed by—not that they saw each other often after three months.

          They used to talk every single day, with 'good morning' and 'sweet dreams'. Now? Diamond was happy to just get a text here and there. More than one call a week left her heart feeling just a little bit more uplifted and hopeful.

        And since she still felt the effects of alcohol on her body, she was feeling feisty. So, she pressed the call button. It rang a couple of times, and regret began to sink into her skin once it was dawning on her that she was calling Renata in the earliest hours of the day, slightly drunk, with a naked woman lying in the bed next to her.

        She was about to hit the 'end call' button when a familiar, tired, though mildly alarmed, voice answered, "Diamond?" She felt her throat dry up, words subsequently dying right along with the drought inside her mouth.