Devotion 7
Alice waited at the door of 3B. "You're lucky you brought her here, Mister. If you'd of taken her to your apartment, you'd be dead."
She backed the chair off so Shanni could enter and Edward saw the pistol in Alice's lap.
If he was lucky about anything, it was that she'd pelted them with salt instead of bullets.
"You have a permit for that?" he said, this other self pushing through the apathy enough to be spontaneous.
"What the hell is that to you?" Alice said. Her face was a mask of red blotches. Not from tears. From rage.
Uncle had it right when he'd told her to calm down. In theory. Saying that had only caused things to escalate.
"Next time this guy violates your OP, call the police. That's the idea, right?"
She came back at him, all anger, making no sense. He spoke over her, and that took a force in his voice he hadn't used in awhile. "Call the police! And the next time you decide to do your own little terrorism routine on me or some innocent you are supposed to be an adult over, I'll call the police!"
The sudden silence coming from Alice's open mouth was defeaning. "Are we clear?" Edward added, vaguely remembering this side of his voice.
"Don't you EVER call the cops on me," Alice threatened, her hands on the wheels, straightening her chair like she was coming after him.
"Oh yeah? What in the fuck do I have to lose?" he said, a weird smile plastering itself on his features. He felt that weird smile.
It was like he'd thrown a box of salt in her face.
He walked away, the weird smile still in place. He had never, in his life, used the F-word when talking to another human being. For a few minutes, his old self had emerged. He was alive and well in there. But it had appeared—this old self—under the new skin of who he was now. And it felt…he didn't know yet. But it would definitely give him something to think about for the next few days.