Edge of Ashes (Sons of Ash Motorcycle Club) by Brynn O'Connor

I’m so caught up in my
monologue that I don’t even notice the beep of the recording time ending and I
just keep plowing along until the phone just cuts off. She’s pretty good at
checking her messages. She’s probably at work. Suddenly I get this overpowering
urge to take a shower. I set the temp as hot as I can stand and spend the next
thirty minutes scrubbing layer after layer of my skin off my body. When I
finally can scrub no more I get my raw, red self out of the bathroom and climb
into bed. The mess of my closet can wait. I don’t expect I’ll be able to sleep
as worked up as I am but surprise surprise, the minute my head hits the pillow
I am off in dreamland.
    “Kari…Kari, you awake?”
    My eyes fly open! Adam is leaning over me
with his hand on my shoulder.
    “How’d you get in?” I ask. You can’t come
in unless you’re invited.
    “What?”
    “Everyone knows that. Demons can’t enter a
person’s house unless invited by someone who lives there.”
    “Wow, I’ve been called a lot of things but
not a demon.”
    “Get that look off your face! It wasn’t
meant as a compliment.” I reply, trying to wipe the sleep from my fogged out
brain.
    “I believe in calling a spade a spade.
You’re a demon and you should never have been able to come in. I mean look
around you. My room is a mess!”
    He looks around himself. “Wow, if you call
this a mess, I’m never inviting you to my place.”
    Surprised I look around my room as well.
It’s completely clean. Gone are all my clothes and knick knacks from my closet.
The place barely looks lived in.
    “You did this?” I ask. No…he couldn’t have
cleaned up the mess without me waking up. No way.
    “Well there was this shoe in the middle of
the floor. I uh…picked it up and put in in your shoe rack next to its partner.”
He shrugs. “It was nothing really.”
    I look around again bewildered. “But it was
such a mess,” I complain.
    “Yeah…I think we have a different
understanding of what constitutes a mess Kari.”
    “But my clothes…”
    “Are in the closet and dresser, I assume.”
He replies.
    I take another peek around the room. It’s
clean as before I trashed it. Something strange is going on here.
    “How’d you get in?” I ask again. For some
reason my brain is stuck on that.
    “So it’s back to that again is it?”
    I’m just about to make some kind of caustic
remark when my best friend appears in the doorway of my room. She appears to be
naked save for one of my robes she has on. If that’s not weird enough I
suddenly notice that Adam is a pair of silk boxers and nothing else.
    “We have to tell her,” Jenny says to Adam.
    “You weren’t supposed to find out this
way,” Adam says to me.
    I look at him like he’s nuts. “Really? Then
why’d you burst into my room wearing your underwear?”
    “I told him not too.” Jenny says.
    “She was screaming,” Adam defends himself.
How am I supposed to be doing the nasty with you when your best friend’s voice
is in my ears?”
    I decide to ignore the remark about me
screaming; that can wait. “Weren’t you going on about love at first site not so
long ago and now your back to screwing my best friend?”
    “I got confused.” Adam replies. “It’s
always been about Jenny. She’s my old lady now.”
    This is not making a lick of sense.
    “Kari!” Jenny shouts. “Kari!”
    “What? Why are you shou-”
    “Kari, wake up!”
    My eyes fly open. Jenny is standing amidst
the rubble of my room and shaking my shoulders. I jerk back away from her and
sit up. What the hell is going on here?
    “Who let you in?” I ask.
    “I know where you hide your spare key.” She
replies. “What happened here? Did they do this?”
    “You got my voicemail then?”
    “Of course. I tried calling but when you
didn’t answer I thought I should come over. You sounded really freaked out.”
    “Where’s Adam?”
    “What? Why would he be here?”
    I look at her again. She’s wearing