Reasoning & Ruin

Jake Moreno's parties always run too loud and too late, and I'm always there for them. Good music, cheap drinks, and a crowd that doesn't know when to quit.

But tonight my attention keeps drifting to the kitchen, where Jake's little sister is sitting on the counter alone, nursing a drink she hasn't touched in an hour. Audrey's got violet hair, combat boots, a mouth that could strip paint, and an expression that says the world recently let her down. I decide to go make her laugh.

It works. We trade breakup stories, we roast each other's exes, and somewhere between her calling my ex a raging cunt and me admitting something about myself that I don't usually tell anyone, the conversation takes a turn I didn't see coming.

She doesn't believe me.

Then she wants proof.

Then she wants to see her brother's bedroom door getting smaller in the rearview mirror.