Page 89 of Alien War Daddy's Got Rizz
Smiled at the cameras.
Postponed negotiations to go on a date with the wrong person pretending to be the right one.
And then I fell for him anyway.
And then I losteverything.
I get home, and I don’t remember falling asleep.
But I must have.
Because I wake up to dusk shadows and the low buzz of the skyline filtering through the glass. My face is stiff. My body aches. My hair’s stuck to my cheek in a dried tear pattern.
The compad’s screen is dark.
No one called.
No one came.
Except maybe…
No.
I push the thought away before it can finish forming.
If Grau cared, he’d be here.
And if heisout there?
It’s too late.
The damage is done.
Tidball has won.
And I’m…
I’m just a girl on the floor of a dead dream, waiting for someone to tell her where to go next.
I don’t move for a long time.
The light changes. Colors slide across the windows—helium blue, scorched pink, acidic gold—like the city can’t decide what mood it’s in. Somewhere beneath me, turbines hum and transport rails scream past intersections. The tower breathes without me.
And for the first time, I realize I’m not part of it anymore.
I’m furniture.
I’m residue.
I’m a name on the bottom of a takeover form someone else filed.
The compad buzzes again.
I ignore it.
Let it ring until the sound becomes part of the walls.
The taste in my mouth is bitter. Metal and stale recaf and something worse—regret, maybe. Shame. I scrub a palm across my face, trying to rub away the ache behind my eyes, the guilt coiled in my stomach like it grew teeth overnight.
