**AMBYS 2022 WINNER** He'll never play piano again. That's what virtuoso pianist Zephyr has vowed to himself after escaping Sigma, the sprawling criminal organisation that once held him--and still holds his friends--captive in California's mega-city...
Will looked down at his blue box, eyebrows knotted. I waited for a retort, but he just opened the front door, cradling the box under his arm.
That was a shitty thing to do, Zeph.
"Shut up Jun-su," I mouthed.
Will looked so forlorn that my stupid anger instantly dissipated away into the musty air of the apartment. I didn't really care if this poor guy was illegally occupying an abandoned house, or if his Mom or neighbors took care of him, or if he was taking citalopram or whatever else. It was none of my business.
Dumbfounded that my latest insult hadn't deterred him from giving me a ride to my police interview, I followed Will to the garage in silence.
The grandma-mobile was almost bursting full of the boxes that had littered the apartment hours earlier. It looked like after taking me to the police, Will was planning on moving out of the poor deceased old lady's house.
Will held out a cereal bar. "Are you hungry?"
On cue, tiny crystals of guilt started solidifying in my muscles.
"I'm fine."
"I'm sorry that my house is-"
I snatched the fucking cereal bar from his outstretched hand. "Your house is just fine."
Will granted me a weak little smile in reply.
We drove in silence, Will concentrating on the road while I turned my crystallized shame over and over in my mind, trying to find new edges to cut myself on.
I didn't know why I felt so shitty about Will rejecting me the night before. I'd judged the situation so badly. Maybe it was wounded pride; however much I hated my jobs with clients, I took pride in being sympathetic to clients' nerves and insecurities. Two of my clients were regularly seeing psychiatrists, and I'd always been attuned to their peculiarities. I knew how to coax and comfort them, and give them whatever they needed to keep paying.
But I'd made a terrible mistake with Will. Knowing nothing about his medical diagnosis, I shouldn't have tried to solicit him in the first place.
You know exactly why you're ashamed, idiot. You thought that you were better than him.
If I was really honest about it, I'd just assumed that Will would want me. That he'd be grateful for any attention from me. That I'd be a brief, bright spot in his dull little life. My clients had always been so pathetically fawning that I'd gotten used to being wanted.
Worse, it had been so long that I'd come across genuinely kind people that I'd totally misjudged Will's motives. He didn't seem to have any motive other than wanting to help. Was I so out of touch with normality that I didn't recognize simple kindness and generosity for what it was?
There weren't any kind people in Sigma, apart from my guys. Wherever they might be now, I hoped that someone was treating Miles, Raheem and Luke as kindly as Will was treating me.
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