This is the sequel to REACH. Before you read this, read that first...
Roy Walker becomes paralyzed after a movie stunt gone wrong. While in the hospital, he befriends an avant-garde nurse named MacKenzie, and soon both are pulled into an intense em...
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{author's note: hey how we're up to chapter 8 like DROPS I'll try to update them simultaneously:) }
MacKenzie wanted to get his mind off things. And Roy partially agreed. And they went to the liquor store, and MacKenzie bought booze and didn't tell Roy what booze, and they went back to his place...
She totally had that whole night planned. That was MacKenzie; she knew what she wanted.
The washroom in Roy's apartment was rather small and he could barely fit his wheelchair inside. The walls were a busy mosaic of blue and white, and the claw footed bathtub was just big enough for two people.
He watched her undress. She was tall, thin, and lithe. Delicate. Soft and small. She smiled.
He sat across from her in the hot water, staring into her tired eyes. She did look tired.
She had set a bottle of absinthe on Roy's wheelchair next to the bathtub, cubes of sugar, water, this weird spoon needed to dissolve the sugar...
"What the hell are you up to?" Roy whispered
"Let's just talk," MacKenzie smiled.
"Wormwood, Kenz. That shit makes you hallucinate."
"No it's fine. It's fine in moderation," she insisted.
MacKenzie began pouring the green liquid.
"Talking. Yeah."
"How many packs of cigarettes do you smoke a day? Like, three?"
"You got me there..."
Absinthe tasted like black licorice and made his tongue tingle. Didn't Edgar Allan Poe used to drink this stuff?
"So let's talk. Talk to me. Talk to me about everything."
"Hmm. Everything?"
MacKenzie's legs wrapped around Roy's waist. She sipped her absinthe, tapping her fingers on the side of the bathtub.
"Like Oklahoma. And you. And the universe." She leaned forward, grinning. "Ask me questions. I'll ask you questions. And let's get drunk."
"Don't drink too fast, MacKenzie. I don't want you too drunk."
She ignored him. "Ask me anything."
He actually didn't know too much about her. She was like a rare book he was desperate to read, but up on that top shelf he couldn't reach without help and no one could help him.
"Do you believe everything happens for a reason, or do we just find reasons after things happen?"
MacKenzie thought for a moment and then burped. She nodded. "Yes."
"Huh?" Roy chuckled.
"Yes," MacKenzie repeated.
"You...didn't say which."
"Yes."
Roy shrugged. "I see."
"My turn."
"I'm here to answer."
"If you woke up tomorrow with no fear, what would you do?"
"I don't know, MacKenzie."
"You know."
"I don't."
"What if we drank this whole bottle of absinthe?"
"We'd probably die!" Roy laughed.
"Probably..."
"So..." Roy could barely choke down his drink but at the same time couldn't stop drinking it. "What is the one thing you did in your past that you wish you could undo?"
MacKenzie frowned. It seemed she was deep in thought but her response was quick.
"Say goodbye to my brother," she responded quietly.
"You wanna talk about it?"
"We talked about loss enough today," she said.
"He was your full blooded brother."
"He's not related to Alice. Wasn't."
Roy nodded.
"Boy I'm feelin it now," she chuckled.
"Oh yeah?" Roy raised an eyebrow.
"I wanna sleep but I wanna go for a run...my body feels like caterpillars...."
She shook her arms in demonstration and giggled.
"You wanna get to bed before we drown?"
"Uh, yeah. Yeah let's do that..." MacKenzie began to stand but stopped herself. "I have one more question."
She looked very high but was trying to keep herself together. Roy kind of wanted to see green fairies.
"Are you in love with me?"
There was concern and worry in her wet eyes. It could've been from the drink. It could've been not. Could've been anything.
"Maybe," Roy whispered.
"Can you say it?"
Roy took MacKenzie's hands. Her fingers were pruned.
