Chapter Twenty-Nine
Monroe
I’m in my apartment eating lunch by myself after the clinic morning when the banging on my front door begins. I was about to get ready for an afternoon class, but apparently I now have to stop someone from breaking my door down.
“Monroe,” a female voice hollers from the hallway outside. “Open up. I’m basically your sister now. You have to let me in. It’s like a law or something.”
I look through my peephole to see a topknot of messy brown hair. I open the door and look down slightly at Sloane. My brain was still caught on ‘basically your sister now’.
I blink at her. “Sloane, you literally could’ve just knocked. I would’ve let you in.”
She barrels past me without hesitation, settling herself onto my couch and yanking a throw blanketover her lap, kicking her feet up. “Can you get me a water?”
I laugh, mostly amused at the sheer size of her presence. My apartment was empty and now it was filled to the brim with Sloane. “Sure, Sloane. Anything else?”
“Nope, that’s great,” she says, accepting the drink once I return. She takes a long sip, her dark eyes pinning me. “So, we both know my brother is a colossal idiot.”
I stare at her, unsure how she wants me to respond to that.
She doesn’t wait for me to catch up and continues, “Listen, he’s taken way too many hits to the head. We can assume he’s functioning on sheer good looks at this point. Please don’t stay mad at him.”
My face must look like it’s buffering, because there weren’t any words coming out of my mouth.
Her expression morphs into horror. “Oh, no.” She gasps. “Arebothof you idiots? Don’t have kids. Actually, wait, you have to have kids. I want to be an aunt.” She pauses, briefly, thinking. “Okay, maybe they’ll get my brains and your red hair. It’ll balance out.”
“Sloane?” I finally manage.
“What?”
“I’m not mad at Rhodes, if that’s why you’re here.”
She lets out a relieved breath. “ThankGod. I had an actual panic attack when I realized he wasn’t answering anyone. Because of your whole…vibe”—she gestures vaguely at me—“I was worried this would send you back into that vampire-adjacent spiral you had going on for a while.”
It’s at this point I start to wonder if Sloane Eastwood had ever taken a breath in her life or said anything that wasn’t her entire stream of consciousness.
“Not that I don’t love a black cat queen vibe, don’t get me wrong,” she adds. “But I like you and Rhodes together. I think you’re good for each other. He just likes to think he can do everything himself, you know? He hates asking for help. It’s why his dad was able to pull this shit over on him again. And I know he’s gone all AWOL now, and that is probably stressing you out, because it’s totally stressing me out, and I haven’t even told my parents he’s gone yet, because nobody knows exactly where he went. He’s obviously going to give his dad a real piece of his mind, and that’s been a long time coming, but, like,whereexactly he went, who the hell knows. I hope he breaks Wayne’s entire face. Just shatters the whole thing. A real face-soup situation when he’s done—”
“When Rhodes is ready,” I say, interrupting her monologue, “I’ll be here.”
She takes a big breath and grins smugly. “Phew. Then my work here is done.” She slaps her knees and goes to stand, depositing her water glass onto the coffee table, sliding a coaster underneath it.
I don’t bother telling her that I had already decided to be here no matter what anyone said. She seems far too pleased with herself.
I don’t like that he shut me out, but I respect that he’s trying to work his shit out. And I get it. Asking for help isn’t my strong suit either. But I’m not going to let him push me away, like I did to everyone in my life. He wanted me, and now he’s stuck with me. And I plan on telling him as much as soon as he gets home.
“You don’t look like a hugger, but I’m going to hug you anyways,” she says, before wrapping her arms around me. Her head only comes up to my chin. I smile softly, and after a beat I hug her back because, as chaotic as she is, I genuinely like her. The part of me that longs for the kind of female friendships I’ve never gotten to experience wants to hold on tight to whatever is beginning to blossom here.
And something tells me you’ll never have a more honest friend than Sloane Eastwood.
* * * *
After my afternoon class, I’m in for the rest of the night. I barely focused on my classwork, but it didn’t end up being that critical, so I took my notes, highlighted some assignments for the week and put it away for the day.
I text my dad to see if he has any updates—he doesn’t—and open up the empty text stream between Rhodes and me. I told Sloane I was going to wait for him to figure his stuff out, and be here when he was ready, but I can’t deny that my feelings are hurt.
Once I decided I was in, I was all-in. I know it took me a while to get here, but…
Doubt begins to creep in while I lay staring at my bedroom ceiling.