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“It’ll be okay I won’t I’ll go out into the living room and work on our plans for next week”

She nodded and tucked both hands under her face

On the way out, I gathered up all the clothes I saw in a bundle with the old sheets I closed the door behind me and took stock of the rest of the apartment

I’d start working on our plans, but first I’d pick up a few things

23

Zara

A knocking invaded the blackness ofover on my side My stomach ached Not like before, when I’d blasted into my apartment like a rocket set to explode, butpain that had one

The insistent knocking continued, only it wasn’t the door Cliht I’d lost o The war to sleep

So was off

My leg banged against the trashcan beside my bed Thankfully it was empty, not filled hatever had shot out of me from the pits of spoiled food hell

I took two steps and it dawned on me

My floor was spotless

There wasn’t an article of clothing anywhere It wasn’t just the floor that had soer tilted at an odd slant that made it impossible to fit the drawers in it—and every draas closed It looked like the day I’d found it on the curb and not how it had ended up by the time I pushed and shoved it into the elevator and into my bedroom

Memories fro if I’d been robbed Had I been robbed? Why the hell would they have wanted my hand-me-down clothes?

I wished I’d kept a baseball bat or so in my room for protection—not like I’d have been able to find it I flung open rabbed one ofnicely in a roiththe back wall