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"It would be impossible to estimate how much time and energy we invest in trying to fix, change and deny our emotions - especially the ones that shake us at our very core, like hurt, jealousy, loneliness, shame, rage, and grief."

Debbie Ford

Raven awoke from the spill of sun rays through the curtains of a foreign bedroom. For a moment, she wondered where she was until the body stirring next to her triggered her questionable decision-making from the previous night.

"Morning," he murmured though Raven didn't look at him. She really didn't want to. She felt her face grow crimson with embarrassment and anger. Not at him but at herself. Since when did she allow her decisions to be fueled by subjectivity? She had never before stumped to such a low!

She knew the answer to the question, but she decided she didn't want to address that topic or else she'd spiral into the emotions that caused her on-going conundrum in the first place. She sat up, still avoiding Garfield's stare, and begun to dress.

"Raven?" he asked, but she chose not to answer.

When she finished, she got out of bed and walked to the living room where her phone was still perched atop the coffee table. Fourteen missed calls.

"Are you going to talk to me?" she heard his voice from behind her.

Raven finally addressed him, her eyes only briefly tracing his own before she slightly looked away as if he were just another mistake. Which, though it felt rude to admit, he was. "I have to go," she simply told him.

"So… We're not going to talk about this?" he questioned, though he sounded neither disappointed nor angry about it. In fact, he sounded rather apathetic, much different than the Garfield that annoyed her to hell the previous night. It was somewhat disheartening to hear that emotion (or lack thereof) from him.

"I don't believe you fully understand the whole friends-with-benefits arrangement," she retorted, sounding more hostile than she intended.

"Oh, trust me, I understand," he snorted with no humor in his tone. "And this isn't a particularly proper way to treat a friend."

She was quick to respond, "We're not friends, Gar."

"Fine. Fuck-buddies then," he snapped. "Look, Raven, if you never want to see me again after this, I get it. I'm not going to chase after you like some sort of creep or pathetic wimp. But I'm not going to let you just walk out of here without knowing where we stand. I don't want you to come knocking at my door one day expecting me to be willing to be a distraction from your ex again. If we're doing... whatever this is, we're going to act like consenting and rational adults."

Raven took a moment to respond as the certainty in his voice took her by surprise, and she opened her mouth a few times before she finally got a word out, "I wasn't thinking straight yesterday. It was the alcohol talking."

She heard him laugh quietly under his breath, and she clenched her fists, irritation replacing the anger clouding her mind. She knew she was just trying to find an excuse to blame him. To blame someone else, something else.

"This was a mistake," she reworded, finally locking eyes with him. The words felt like venom in her tongue, and she desperately wanted to spit them out.

There was no hurt in his eyes. On the contrary, there was an absence of any emotion. It was one of the rare instances where Raven wasn't able to read someone, and it sort of scared her—the fact that this lively being constantly blurting out dumb jokes and greeting her with a smile was so devoid of any trace of emotion that she couldn't properly understand what he was thinking.

Garfield nodded, "Alright, Raven. Go ahead. Just please don't come back expecting me to open my arms wide and act like your sex toy when you don't know how to deal with your feelings."

Raven felt her blood boil, and before she could think about her words, she snarled, "I'm not the hypocrite still caught up with my cheating dead girlfriend."

There was a slight shift in his expression so fleeting Raven almost didn't catch it. He turned around and visibly breathed in. "Just leave," he murmured.

Raven felt a twinge of remorse, but she was too stubborn to apologize. In some sort of sick way, his own hurt helped alleviate her painful emotions. She snatched her bag and stomped out of the apartment building, opting not to close the door as she physically couldn't look back without regretting everything.

When she walked out of the complex building, she stood outside for a moment, unsure of what to do next. She dialed Kory's phone number. It rang… and rang…

"Hey, it's Kory..."

"Kory, could you-"

"... I'm busy right now, but you can leave a message, and I'll answer as soon as I can!"

Beep.

She froze for a few seconds, her ears only registering the silence at the other end. Raven hung up and sighed. She heard the faint thundering of the sky above her, warning her to get home soon. How she was going to do that without her keys? She had no idea.

She started walking, trying desperately to grasp to something besides the bitter taste in her mouth from her nasty remark to Garfield. He didn't deserve that. She knew it, but she couldn't get herself to walk back to apologize. To tell him she was hurt, that she desperately needed a pair of arms to console her and lay with her, to just listen to her self-deprecating comments and reassure her that she was enough, that she wasn't the bad guy, that she wasn't as hurtful as her father. That, unlike him, she had a soul that emphasized with those around her. But she knew it wouldn't happen because it wasn't true, and her words toward Garfield confirmed that fact. She was an abusive monster like her father, and she was a heartless bitch like her mother.

The sky howled another distressing cry and poured down its tears. However, unlike yesterday, Garfield wasn't there to help Raven.

"Green bean?" Victor called out as he stepped inside his friend's apartment with his spare key. The room was overtly dark and quiet, odd considering Garfield usually always left the television on.

"Gar?" he asked again as he opened the door to his bedroom. A sudden squeal startled him and a topless blonde girl quickly covered herself before running past Victor. "Woah!" he exclaimed before turning around.

"Cyborg! What's up, dude?" Garfield laughed as he got out of bed as naked as the day he was born.

"Dude, put some clothes on. I'd rather avoid another incident like that one time in tenth-grade Gym class," Victor muttered.

He heard Garfield shift behind him, "Alright dude, it's fine, you can turn around."

Victor turned to see his friend thankfully clothed and lying on his bed with a hand behind his head and a bottle of tequila on the other. "So…" he started as he approached the bed, his eyebrows furrowed. "What's up with you today? You didn't show up at the garage."

"What do you mean? I'm having the time of my life!" Garfield wooed before taking another sip of the bottle. "What's wrong with you?"

"Gar…" Victor took a seat on the bed by his friend's feet. "Did something happen?"

"Why do you ask?" Garfield chuckled. "Nothing happened. I just happened to run into this cute girl at the bar and decided to bring her home."

"A blonde, blue-eyed, petite girl suddenly ends up in your bed after you ditched going to bars to drink alone since you almost overdosed?" Victor raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, that's believable." He sighed, "Seriously, Gar, tell me what happened? Did you try to visit Steve again?"

Garfield snorted, "Everything is fine. I haven't seen that old man since a few months ago. And that slut practically begged me for it. I just gave her what she wanted."

Victor took a deep breath and scratched his forehead, unsure of what to do next. "Gar, I want to help-" he turned back to his friend, but he was already passed out.

He stood up and placed a blanket over Garfield. He made sure to turn him on his side in case he threw up. He exited the room and strolled to the kitchen where he found an empty bottle of tequila and two more full ones on the counter. Victor once again sighed and took out his phone to dial a friend.

"Hey, Wally, care to come over to Gar's place right now? He seems to have…" Victor glanced at the bottles. "Gotten hold of some old unhealthy habits, and I need some help taking care of him and getting him to talk."

"Ah shit, not again. I'll be there as soon as I can," Wally assured him. "Hang tight Vic. Just make sure he doesn't do anything stupid."

"Don't worry. He's passed out drunk. Not an overdose though, fortunately," he explained. "Just get here when you can."

"Got it," Wally replied before hanging up.

Victor took a seat on the couch amidst the dark room, the silence overpowering every sound. "God Gar, what hole did you spiral into this time…" he whispered to himself, attempting to avoid the old troublesome memories the situation brought.

Raven opted to turn off her phone after the fifth time it rang. She knew Kory was worried about her. She knew she was probably blaming herself for not answer her call that morning. However, Raven didn't have enough energy to talk to Kory. Especially considering she'd probably bombard her with a hundred questions about her whereabouts.

She lied back on the couch, a hand on her forehead, and closed her eyes. She settled her breathing, attempting to calm her riled thoughts.

In. Out. In. Out.

She was exhausted yet at the same time she couldn't seem to fall asleep. She wished she could just stop thinking once and for all.

Knock. Knock.

Raven sighed, wondering which of her friends had decided to come searching for her after the many ignored calls. She willed all of her strength into getting up and walking to the door. She didn't even bother checking who it was.

That was her first mistake.

"Raven…"

"Malchior," she stammered, her hand gripping the door handle. "What are you doing here?" she asked through gritted teeth.

"I'm here for you."

Date: Monday, April 22, 2019

A/N: This is a short chapter, I know, but I wanted to address the night-after situation. It's about to get a lot more angsty y'all, my expertise. I'll admit I like this story a little more than the Broken-Glass series because it's more character-driven. I'm struggling a bit more on Glass because my plot is the driving force, while Gar and Raven's characters are leading here. I've always been a character-focused writer, so it's a bit harder to develop the plot for me. I'll try to update Glass this week, but it depends on how much work I have.

Also, I wonder why the number of views doubled the moment I switched the rating of this story... Hmmph.

ALTHGVRRA - Your review made me so happy! I'm glad you like the story!

Chaotic Coffee Bean - Thank you!