The voice on the other side of the line asked. His voice was angry, accusatory, and worst of all…worried. I’d just passed the halfway point between my home and Talan’s shop when the phone rang. “You shouldn’t be out alone after everything that happened last night. What if…” “I’m okay, Jaime.” His huff told me he didn’t believe me. I was aware of the fact that half of the things I’d done as of late made no sense, was paying the price for it as we spoke, but this had been necessary. Last night a part of me had died, become fragile. Today, that had changed. Being inside those four walls had reawakened my codependency to what that shop represented. No more pain. No more loneliness. No more being medicated in order to function like a normal member of society. My independence hovered within my reach, and it was about time that I took the reins, claimed my life back.
