Cruel Race

Miri’s dad said goodbye to his daughter with a brief kiss on her cheek - such an inconsequential kiss he didn’t even have to take his phone from his ear.

“Don’t stay out too late,” he said. As if she’d be out partying or something. As if her mother, his wife, hadn’t just died.

Miri leaned into James and squeezed my hand and didn’t say a word to her father.

She came back to our place where she slept the day away. In the evening, I pressed a hot cup of chocolate into her hand before leaving her and James snuggled on the couch. I closed the balcony door behind me and balled up Aaron’s coat in my arms, using it to pad the railing as I leaned against it. I avoided looking at the couple making out in the courtyard hot tub. I looked to my right, into the stand of pine, my eyes seeking the darkness. The shadows. And that’s where I saw him.