I Love My Worst

m, steady and cruel. Keziah Brown sat on the edge of

g for air, eyes fluttering in and out of consciousn

ago. Now she just stared tired,

f graying hair from her mother's forehead

oxygen mask hissed as it pu

nd checked the time on her cracked phone sc

ai

olted out the door, weaving through nurses and hallway ch

wn, wasn't glamorous, but it paid barely enough. Ke

Carla, the manager, gla

orry. My

ring your drama here. Table

a notepad and made her way over. Eve

d from carrying trays. She had $38 in tips barely enough fo

zzed. A text

night. You need this. Com

ah s

Work + dying

e Hills. Swear it'

't afford to

pick you up.

r late

'd scrape the stars. Glass chandeliers, velvet rugs, wine like blood in crystal

Lizzy, tugging down the too-short bla

deep and not thinking about hospital bi

h too

hen a

anot

red, pretending she belonged, sipping something tart and expensive she couldn't pronounce.

its and secrets. She stumbled through the room, bu

el-grey eyes that looked like they

Tre

hat he was too calm for this chaos.

red back,

t him dared he

in her blood and pain still sc

d down, sharp, asse

said o

os

trying to find something re

You say that like you

m n

in their

here fo

ser, glass in

are you

outh opene

w anymore,"

tretched. A c

but it didn't

om

't ask.

foll

l stairs, past doors that whisp

d the noise from

of them. A room soaked

t know what

did and jus

d like the world owed him softness. The

elt so foreign to her, she held her br

but with the feeling she was stepp

bedroom that felt colder than a morgue. H

e pillow sai

ot what you

her fist and felt s

hat w

e. No

e as she walked out ba

cold slappe

wiping at her cheeks, refusing t

our later, curled on a be

ez.. what

me h

eks La

pregnancy test in the

ati

relief crashing throug

n't erase

y of how small she fel

even got

e had

ek lat

l bills wer

idn't have. Every shift at Josie's bled her dry. Every night, she lay awake wo

lope came with n

was a

e

at be

ke

e bed after

s heart

the image and the weight of knowi

's apartment in

took that photo. He took it

... twisted. You need

aughed b

h a billionaire whose name I don't ev

oor beside her. "We

me. Then tossed me. And

zzy made a call. To

nally learned the name th

Tre

once to a model, but never married. Billionaire by twen

his photo in an

was

never aske

eft her broke

ingly was about to