Alice:
This feels like an NBC show.
Me:
But edgier. I’m cooler than King of Queens.
I can’t make this shit up.
Alice:
People will be disgusted anyone fucks him.
"Get her a cock attached to someone better!!!"
I crack up laughing at her unexpected comment.
Me:
Lol. I had to pull over bc you had me LOLing!
I’m literally going to go hand him his baby bottle on the way back if he’s still there.
I send her a picture of the glass baby bottle I got him from the Asian grocery store. It had contained a Japanese milk beverage, and he’d become instantly obsessed over the childlike bottle.
I got it as a joke, but he’s obsessed and calls it his ‘baba’.
So now his ‘friends’ can see his baba.
I pass by Timmy’s supposed location. Sure enough, he’s there with his ‘friends’, laughing and carrying on like he’s the life of the party.
I don’t stop. I don’t even slow down. Let him have his moment of delusion. Let him pretend these people care about him.
When I get back to the apartment, I’m met with the same suffocating reality—Timmy’s chaotic presence, the weight of his words, the impossibility of building anything stable with him around.
I’ve always been hopeful. I’ve always believed people could change. But as the days stretch into months, that hope feels more and more like a cruel joke.
I glance at my phone, at Alice’s latest message:
Alice:
You deserve so much better.
And I do.
But for now, I’m still here, navigating this nightmare one chaotic day at a time.
CHAPTER 64
DOING THYME
MARGAUX
THE PAST
Boss: We’re going to go to lunch at the restaurant onsite.
Me: At the prison?