# A Surprise Visit Chapter 5

5 - CARDS ON THE TABLE
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A few days come and go and I find myself once again on Trish’s couch, with her wrapped around me, enjoying each other’s company. Or at least, attempting to. Trish seems particularly distant and unmotivated today as we lie, the din of the television mostly ignored as she stares at nothing in particular.
“Trish,” I whisper. No response. “Triiiish,” I quietly call again, lightly rocking her. Nothing again. Desperate measures. “Triiiiiiiiiiish,” I repeat as I sneak my arm towards the base of her tail. Still quiet. Starting from the base, I slide my palm across the top of her tail and down towards the tip. She reacts, but only barely, lazily thwacking my hand with her tail and murmuring something unintelligible.
“Come on, talk to me. What’s got my amethyst angel so down?” Trish sighs with disgust.
“Fine, but only if you promise never to call me that again. That sounds like a stripper name.”
“Deal, that hurt to say anyway.” Trish takes a bit to collect her thoughts, squeezing into me in the process. Her voice is a low, sad whisper at first.
“I just...I’m tired of all this secrecy and gossiping and avoiding each other. Tired of having to make excuses just to see you. Tired of having to watch the clock to make sure we don’t get yelled at. Tired of feeling guilty for not divulging everything to everyone.” Discontent worms its way into her voice.
“I’m actually kind of fucking happy for the first time in months. And everyone just wants to fuck it up.” Discontent morphs to anger.
“‘Mama didn’t raise no skinnie-sucker, Trish!’ ‘Why are you hanging out with a murderer, Trish?’” Her mocking tone fails to hide the building storm within her.
“It’s like being with you means they don’t want to even care about me anymore.” Trish shakes with barely constrained rage.
“Why am I a lost cause to them now? Do they want me to go back to languishing in my fucking room all day? Do they want me to hold these stupid fucking grudges forever? God DAMNIT! I NEED them! But the fucking SECOND I do something they don’t want, they threaten to throw me away like fucking trash!” Trish collapses onto me, sobbing uncontrollably.
“I hate it so fucking much, Anon. I just want it to go back to normal. And now I have to decide between you, and them, and...” Her tears drown out the end of her thought. I attempt to encourage her, but the lack of confidence in my voice is obvious.
“They just...need time. We’ve got time, it’ll come around.”
“Unless a miracle happens, you’re going to be homeless at the end of the year.”
“Trish, we-” I’m cut off by a buzzing in my pocket. My heart drops. I know exactly what this buzzing is for. Trish looks at me with wet eyes, and I pull out my phone to check the time. Ten minutes until Trish’s mom normally returned, and I had to be out of the house to prevent an ‘incident’.
“FUCK!” Trish screams, burying herself into me. Goddamnit all, this is the worst possible time. I can’t stay, though. A parent-child shouting match…
A chill shoots across my spine and throughout my entire body.
Can I really just leave her like this, though?
“You wanna come with?” I offer.
“...”
“...”
“...yeah.”
I dial the taxi service as we rush ourselves out the door. Within minutes the taxi driver appears and we’re off on our way to Skin Row. Trish is still visibly upset and exhausted by what had just happened, and the driver stays uncharacteristically silent as we roar off towards my part of town.
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The taxi blows past what would normally be ‘end of the line’ and comes to a screeching halt in front of my apartment building.
“I’ll put it on your tab, go,” the driver says, ushering us out of the taxi. Before we can even close the door behind us it screams down the road and out of sight. We hurry into the relative safety of my apartment as the sun dips below the horizon. Trish wastes no time flinging herself onto the bed and loudly groaning into it.
“Why on earth did I agree to this. She’s going to be so pissed.”
“Something tells me it’d be worse if you stayed. And it wouldn’t have been right for me to just leave after that.”
“Yeah...thanks.” I take my place alongside Trish.
“It’s just...damnit. Why can’t everyone just get along?” Trish chuckles, albeit sadly. “That sounded kinda weird coming out of my mouth, but still…we share something special. Something we don’t share with anyone else. And everyone...everything seems like it’s trying to take us apart.”
“We’ll work through it, Trish. They just need time. I know I probably sound like a broken record at this point, but it pays to stay optimistic.” I wrap my arms around Trish and pull her close, bringing our eyes to bear.
“I know, and I appreciate it...but…” Trish trails off, this particular thought not seeming easy to put into words.
“I know I said that I needed them earlier, but...do I? If they’re just going to hurt me, why bother keeping them around?”
“Not a good idea to burn those kinds of bridges. You said it yourself - barring a miracle, I’m gonna be in trouble real soon. We’ll need something to fall back on.”
“We could be homeless together.” I raise an eyebrow.
“I...can’t tell if you’re joking or not.” Trish just shrugs.
“Of course you could always get a job, you know.” I grumble, but the idea seems...slightly more palatable than it was a couple of weeks ago.
“I mean, your dad is paying for the rest of the year, right? A few months to save up some money might go a long way.” Hmm. She’s right, but…
“You got anything better to do?”
“No…” I admit.
“Come on, how bad could it be?” I try to formulate a protest, but Trish pleads with me. “Do it for me?” I’m completely enraptured by her eyes, and her tone makes my voice catch in my throat. It takes me a few moments to finally break the spell, and I shake my head in an attempt to clear the daze.
“Agh, you fucking...fine.” Trish cheers and hugs me tight, then starts pecking at my face with her lips. Her assault is relentless, lips planting on random parts of my face, tiny smooch noises punctuating each attack.
“Hey!” Peck. “No!” Peck. “Quit that!” Peck. “Stop!” Peck. “AAAAA!” Peck. Trish cackles and snorts as I fail to evade her. I go to counterattack, holding her face still and all but ramming my lips into hers.
“Mmph!” Gotcha, you twitchy little hooligan. She relaxes in my arms as we kiss, and we pull apart a few seconds later with a satisfying pop. We cuddle for a while longer, then Trish’s phone goes off. The ringtone is different from last time.
“Hmm? Oh, it’s...Reed.” Worry paints her face as the merry tone jingles in her hand.
“You should take that. See if he’s willing to come around.” Trish hesitantly nods and then steps away to the bathroom to answer the call.
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She returns a few minutes later looking...uncertain.
“Everything go well?” I ask.
“Maybe?”
“Is it a start?”
“Maybe.”
“Ah, wonderful. I guess it could be worse.” Trish snuggles up alongside me and we eventually drift off to sleep together.