Amidst Silver and Rust

PROLOGUE

Find me on Radish: ariakrlyn918

P R O L O G U E

"Can you please make some space?" I bark angrily before reaching for my toothbrush. I spread a thick strip of toothpaste onto the worn bristles only to see it spill onto the shower floor when Keegan elbows me further away from the pathetic stream of water stemming from our rusty shower head.

"Maybe you should lose some weight or work up some sort of schedule so that this whole mess can be avoided," Keegan counters as I add a second coat of toothpaste to my toothbrush.

His back is to mine and he towers behind me as he rinses out his spiced shampoo from his brown locks. The scent overwhelms my nose as I look up at our popcorn ceiling – annoyed as his shoulder blades brush against my skin while running his hands through his short hair like an animal.

"First of all" – I look down and expel the toothpaste that has pooled in my mouth onto the shower floor – "screw you. Unlike Laurel I like to incorporate solid foods into my diet on the daily and I'm sorry that I like to store a little fat between my organs. And no. No schedule. You said you didn't have to be at work until nine."

"Greg asked if I could come in earlier. I'm aiming for supervisor so what the fuck was I supposed to say? He would've automatically dismissed me for consideration."

"He's a dick." I press my arm against my breasts as I brush my teeth and stare at the grimy shower wall. "Are you almost done?"

"Yeah let's switch."

Keegan spins around being careful not to get to close and wraps his large hand around the top of my arm in order to maneuver me under the shower head. For a moment I  feel like a rag doll beneath his grip.

As I stand beneath the water stream, I notice the extent of grime on the walls and the floor feels slick with residue from my conditioner. Our white shower curtain is beginning to turn a revolting shade of yellow at the hem and I make a mental note of tossing it into the washing machine this weekend.

I place my toothbrush into a clear, plastic cup on the windowsill above the shower and trade it for my shampoo while Keegan takes the opportunity to soap his body down.

"All those late night cheeseburgers are going straight to your ass." I look back to see him staring at my behind and for a moment I find myself distracted by the way the water spills over the newly formed muscles of his chest as he runs a bar of soap across his pecks.

"What the fuck, Keegan?"

"Relax. It's nothing I haven't seen before."

"I'm this close to stabbing you in the eye with the end of my toothbrush," I say pressing my thumb to my index finger in front of his face until my eyes begin to sting. "Fuck I just got shampoo in my eyes."

Keegan grabs onto my wet shoulders and squeezes them gently before reaching for the shower head and shifting it forward so that the water pours down on him instead, completely ignoring the fact that I desperately need it to rinse out my eyes.

"Are you serious?" I glare at him with one eye screwed shut.

"I'm almost done, you'll have the water all to yourself in a minute so just fucking relax, Addison."

"Stop telling me to relax. How am I supposed to relax when we're being forced to shower together yet again so that we can both make it to work on time? I cannot afford to be late, not today. The new CEO is coming in and I don't want to make a bad impression."

Keegan pushes the shower head back into place. "You'll manage to do that regardless of whether or not you make it to work on time. You swear like a sailor and you run around like your hair is set on fire. You need to hurry up if you want a ride." He drips water everywhere as he steps out of the shower.

"Fuck my life," I utter under my breath when I soon realize that the temperature of the water is dropping by the second.

Like a madwoman, I rinse out the lather out of my hair and attempt to picture the day ahead of me since working at the office was becoming extremely wearisome and the stress of a new employer had settled between my shoulder blades. Between juggling a large amount of school work and working a full forty hours a week – I was drowning. But I couldn't afford to quit my job and focus solely on school, not with my ridiculously expensive half of the rent and my mother's medical bills.

I step out of the shower and onto the waterlogged bathmat just in time to see Keegan make his way back into the bathroom in order to work on his hair. I watch as he scoops out a small amount of product from a black jar of pomade and carelessly kneads it onto his scalp without so much as glancing at me as I pat myself dry before wrapping a towel around my body.

"I don't know why you bother, you'll still look like shit." I gently tug at the back of his hair as I walk past and I can't help but notice that even his shoulder blades look much more defined since he has been putting extra hours at the gym with his new, health-junkie of a girlfriend.

Laurel is so thin that she practically disappears whenever she turns sideways and I find her about as attractive as an old broomstick. Time and time again I fail to understand what he sees in her – or what she sees in him for that matter.

Pulling my towel off, I throw the door to my bedroom shut and quickly slip into my work attire. I groan in frustration when I notice the wrinkles on my satin blouse and the deep creases on my pencil skirt. I shake it off, and step into a pair of peep-toe, Christian Louboutin heels whose authenticity I still found myself questioning despite having spent five days furiously bidding on online two months ago.

Once I moisturize my face, I choose to go light on my makeup since time is working against me. I curl my unruly lashes before throwing on a couple of coats of mascara on and snatch a pink, tinted lip balm from my handbag before sprinting toward the bathroom only to see Keegan still hogging the mirror.

"Move aside," I command before shoving him away with my hip.

"I need to brush my teeth!"

"Do it over the kitchen sink."

"I swear, Addison..." he mutters through his teeth before disappearing out of sight.

I dry my hair with my piece of shit hair dryer and quickly work the heat through my long, bronde hair until it inexplicably shuts off of me. I stare blankly at before banging it against the sink repeatedly, hoping that it's simply malfunctioning until I take notice of the that the small light on the wall outlet is out.

"Keegan!"

"What?" he asks exasperatedly once he shows up in the doorway with his toothbrush in his mouth. Despite being sleep deprived, his teal eyes look bright as fuck.

"Did you remember to pay the electric?"

He stops brushing and peers at me blankly. "Fuck..."

Not caring if the hair dryer ceases to work for good, I harshly toss it into the sink and fling my arms up in frustration. I catch my angry expression in the mirror, it's reflection sprinkled with splattering of old, dry toothpaste.

"Chill out, I'll pay it when I get to work."

"I gave you my half of the money last week and you promised you would pay it," I let out and start rummaging through one of the drawers for a hair tie. I manage to find one and simply pile my hair on top of my head.

"Let's go," I instruct.

"Who's looking like shit now?" A lopsided smirk distorts his thin lips, one I knew all too well.

"Go to hell," I reply as I shove my way past him.

☓

 Please click on my username to follow me:  ariarlyn918 

Thank you so much for reading!