a slow burn. a steady flare burning in the pit of his stomach. his head would be swimming when that cycle would rinse and repeat. but the cycle was never to hold him, amber liquid steadily sliding into his throat to try and intoxicate him. he can’t even remember the last time he truly got drunk or for what reason he might have.

           the urge was calling him now. a night he’d planned to have fun with was turned upside down because of one unnoticeable exchange of coats. he’d ended up with some guy’s coat instead of his own, only to find the same man’s phone in one of his pockets. too far gone from the store and the owner, there wasn’t all that much for him to do other than message one of the contacts and say that their friend lost his phone. that he was willing to return it. too bad the phone was locked.

          he didn’t believe in gods, deities, or that there was a spiritual reason for everything. but coincidences seemed to be often reoccurring in his life. a call rang on the phone not minutes after he realized he had it, an obnoxious tone setting in. all too quickly he picked it up. the message he received cut him off from explaining why he had the phone.

                         “ THEY KNOW IT, CONNOR! THEY KNOW WE KILLED HIM. ”

           he hung up before those words could truly process. and they hung around him the rest of the day and into the night. any other day, he could have just brushed it off. hoped that it wouldn’t be brought back to him because he was the unlucky sod that found the phone. but with people turning up dead and the news making a fuss about it, his mind kept going.

           his gaze dropped to the beer bottle he was nursing, fingers tracing along the neck as he sat at the bar. it was tempting to just leave the phone there when he decided to call it a night. set it on the counter of the bar and walk away before anyone would notice. that would probably be for the best. he was fine with losing a coat if it kept him out of any major trouble.

                             ^{╳ ┊   @dontbooboyfriends​}