Frigid Flora

thirty-two - car chase

"Since when has that ever stopped you?" I raised an eyebrow at him. He knew I'd grown accustomed to my once most despised form of physical contact, just as I had his kisses. When it concerned him, things were fine. He knew that now. "What's up with you?"

He retracted his hands and I swayed on the spot, now unused to feeling so still on my flooring after the five minutes of intense jostling. "Nothing."

"Something's wrong with you," I pressed, prodding him on the cheek with my forefinger as one might tentatively touch their experiment when sporting a lab coat and intellectual-looking goggles. "Something off. What do you have to tell me? Spill the beans."

He cracked. "How can you just act like nothing happened? Like I don't know?"

"What?" I blinked, somewhat startled by his sudden outburst. Though it was in a hissed whisper I couldn't help but think my mother's ear was somehow already pressed against my door and eavesdropping on us, Ian hovering over her shoulder magically already knowing everything even before I did.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about," He sighed as he ran a hand down his face and started pacing my room. It wasn't very big. The walls were barely three of his long legged strides apart and the lack of movement that this allowed him to make seemed to make him even more antsy. "Ian. Alexander. Whatever his real name is."

"Where is this coming from?" Had it really been wishful thinking that he just forget about it?

"Maybe you're content with living in denial a little while longer. You've done it for years, you're a professional denialist. Push it to the back of your mind some more, what harm is a few more years? But Flora, he's living under the same roof as you and he knows you know. What's his end game? Why hasn't he struck yet?"

I shook my head, not wanting to think about any of this. I'd been doing so well. Small smiles in the morning, my mother under the impression I was now taking those pills and the first night on them, where I'd haphazardly cut my hair and I was the one who accidentally broke the mirror rather than Parker, was just my getting used to them. Ian looked at me curiously every time the medication was brought up, caught me once as I took pills back out of my mouth when my mother hadn't been looking, but said nothing. Small smiles and promises that one day soon, once the pills had truly kicked in, I'd be open to attempting physical contact again. The foundations I'd built my lies upon were fragile indeed, but that didn't mean I wanted somebody to smash them all to pieces just yet. I didn't know when I wanted them destroyed. Maybe never. Perhaps I could maintain the façade forever and have nobody notice and nothing bad happen. Maybe I could make my own unconventional fairytale.

"Maybe I've changed my mind. Everything's fine. My mum is happy, Ian hasn't done anything. Maybe- maybe he was just clearing the air. Wanted to tell the truth before starting his life again, happy with my mum-"

"Yet. Ian hasn't done anything yet. Are you listening to yourself?" He let out a short, unamused laugh. "You're stalling and you know it. The man currently with your mother killed your dad, for crying out loud! Look. I came here to-" He took a deep breath and for some reason unbeknown to me I tensed all over. It was as if my body knew what was about to be voiced before my brain. "I came here to tell you that I'm telling the police and I'm doing it with or without your consent, but I'd much rather do so with. I have the phone with the recording. You never did take it back from me and when you told me you'd lost it, I spoke to Skylar. She shared my concerns. She didn't like the idea of my giving it back to you either because we both knew something like this would happen. That you'd freak out or you'd delete it. I'm sorry, honey, I really am. If I could somehow trade my place with yours, you know I would. But I can't. The next best thing I can do is get that disgusting piece of shit out of your house, and if that means you hate me for it then so be it."