Page 119 of The Monster and the Masochist

She let out a burp that sounded like it would rather be vomit, and I wrinkled my nose as the scent of liquor filled the room.

“Nah. Uber.”

No wonder I hadn’t seen her car anywhere.

It hadn’t even occurred to me to check and see if her car was in its designated spot in the underground parking garage for our building. I’d just assumed she’d driven because… Why wouldn’t she?

Unless she knew she’d be too drunk to drive home from wherever she’d gone…

She drunkenly wriggled out of her shorts, and I frowned at the handful of cotton swabs that poked out of the edge of one of her pockets.

‘Something is very wrong.’

‘No shit!’ I snapped at my monster.

“What happened, Theo? Why did you go out and get fucking blackout in the middle of the week?”

I watched in agony as she managed to get herself into the shower. She turned the water on and curled up in a pathetic ball in the corner, resting her head between her knees as the water beat down on her.

“Theo!” I screamed, and she jerked slightly in response.

“Leave me… ‘lone,” she slurred, her eyes empty and dark.

“No! This is… Where is this coming from?” I snarled. I knew I wasn’t going to get anything out of her while she was like this, but I was so upset and shaken up that I couldn’t seem to get a grip on my emotions.

“Fuck off… ‘Sandra. Leave me ‘lone,” she repeated, and I felt like she’d just slapped me across the face.

Fury ripped through me, and my last thread of self-control finally snapped.

“You want to be left alone? Fine. Sit in here by your fucking self. But we’re talking about this tomorrow when you’re sober.”

She just buried her face back in her knees and flipped me off, which made me so angry I wanted to fucking kill her.

‘No. We’re not killing this one. We’re keeping this one,’ my monster snarled at me, and I gritted my teeth in an attempt to control my fury.

‘Yeah. We’ll fucking see,’ I snapped back as I spun on my heel and marched myself back to bed.

As angry as I was, I left the door open so I could still see her.

She was so drunk, I was worried she might pass out in there and choke on her own vomit or something.

I wasn’t getting any sleep tonight, which was unfortunate, considering work was going to be hell after that nightmare news segment.

Plus, I’d been planning on going to watch Theo’s fight after, since I knew it was supposed to be a big one.

Maybe she’ll skip the fight.

There’s no way she’s going to be feeling well enough to step into the ring after getting drunk like that…

Though as the thought formed in my mind, I knew it wouldn’t be true.

Theo would fight tomorrow, no matter how sick she was feeling.

I knew this because I was starting to worry Theo wasn’t just a masochist. I suspected Theo might have a little bit of a death wish.

Her mother had warned me she had a darkness inside her, and I’d promised I would help her fight it.

The problem was, I didn’t know how to fight this particular flavor of darkness, and I was worried that if I didn’t figure it out, I might lose Theo for good.