A Billion Reasons To Hate You

Chapter Thirteen: A Bad Trip.

By the time she reached her mother’s house, it was late, and the whole house was dark, which was good; she wasn’t in the mood to explain herself tonight. She let herself in, as quietly as she could, closing the door softly behind her.

She crept up the hallway to the loft ladder. The ladder gave a sharp metallic squeak as she climbed.

“Shh, you noisy fuck.” she whispered to herself, as if the metal cared.

The hatch creaked open with a drawn-out screech that could have woken the dead. She winced, paused, waited and nothing. Her mother kept snoring peacefully downstairs.

Renee climbed into the attic, flicking on her phone’s torch. The beam cut through the dust, landing on a stack of old boxes in the corner.

‘RENEE – CHILDHOOD’ was scrawled across them in faded black marker.

She crouched down, brushing her fingers over the labels. So many fragments of who she’d been: photos, ribbons, awards, old schoolbooks.

None of the faces she’d known back then matched the ones she’d seen tonight. It made her nervous, but there was something almost exhilarating about it, too. She went through more photos, throwing them over her shoulders frantically as they didn’t give her the answers she needed.

After almost an hour of digging through every memory she had from school, she felt completely defeated until she remembered the card he’d given her.

“Oh s**t, duh, the business card!” she thought.

The crash had blindsided her, and she barely registered him handing her the card. Still, the name on it should tell her something. If he really went to school with her, it should ring a bell, jog some kind of memory. Renee was certain she hadn’t forgotten a single person from that place—mostly because everyone there had made it their mission to make her life miserable.

She slid her hand into her pocket and drew out the card. Sleek, matte black, with ‘Lloyd Sterling, COO, Sterling Bank’ stamped across it like it belonged to someone important.

It took barely two seconds for it to click. Renee knew exactly who he was. She might not have remembered his face, but the name Lloyd Sterling was one she couldn’t forget in a thousand lifetimes.

Her jaw locked, her eyes sharpening as the surprise drained out of her face and the anger settled in.

“Of course,” she gasped. “Of f*****g course it’s him. It just had to be the guy who made my life hell for five years straight”

Her hand shot out as she grabbed her final-year yearbook from a box at the back. She tore through the pages, flipping fast until she found him. His photo was ruined: devil horns, black X’s gouged over his eyes, his name scratched out and “ASSHOLE” scrawled underneath in angry ink. With a furious scream, she hurled the book across the loft. It slammed against the wall with a dull thud.

“Perfect,” she snapped, running a hand through her hair. “The universe really knows how to pick its jokes.”

Renee took a moment to steady herself. If fate wanted to hand her the one man she hated more than rice pudding on a shiny silver platter, then fine—she’d take it with both hands. She’d finally get the closure she’d been longing for all these years.

Renee adjusted her position, settling cross-legged with the business card and yearbook laid across her lap. Her fingers trembled a little as she pulled out her phone, typed in the number from the business card, and stared at the blank message box for a long second.

She finally typed:

It’s Renee, can we meet?

She hit send before she could overthink it.

The silence that followed made her crazy. She spun her phone in her hands, checked the screen, waited two seconds, checked again. Then again. She huffed, shifting her legs, glancing at the yearbook like it might magically force him to reply to her faster.

A cough echoed from downstairs. Renee froze.

She held her breath, waiting in fear as her mom coughed again, followed by a shuffle of movement and then... nothing.

Renee let out the air slowly and assumed her mom had gone back to sleep.

Her phone buzzed, and she practically launched it at the ceiling, the unexpected sound scaring the life out of her.

Lloyd had at last texted her back:

If we’re going to meet, it has to be somewhere public, just in case you try and murder me, you know?

Renee giggled under her breath and typed:

Yeah, wise. Let’s say tomorrow, 10 am, Moonbeans on 4th Avenue?

A few agonising moments passed before Lloyd replied with a mere:

Fine.

A tiny, not-so-innocent smile tugged at her lips before she locked her phone and slipped it into her pocket. She hurried to clean up the mess she’d made digging through boxes. Her foot slid on an old paperback, her balance vanishing as her weight pitched forward.

The attic floor broke beneath her with a crack like a gunshot.

Renee didn’t even have time to scream. She dropped straight through the ceiling and crashed into the bathtub below, sending up an explosion of plaster, dust, and pure chaos around her.

The house shuddered, and Renee’s ears rang. A violent cough tore out of her as she lay dazed in the bathtub, sprawled like a corpse someone forgot to set properly.

Her mom came thundering up the stairs and burst into the bathroom, completely out of breath. Her face froze in sheer disbelief as she took in the gaping hole in the ceiling and Renee lying in the bathtub, surrounded by debris.

“What the actual f**k are you doing, Renee? You scared the living beejebees out of me.” Maud shouted.

Renee coughed, waving dust out of her face.

“Falling through the attic roof, apparently,” she responded sarcastically.

She tried to stand up, but her arm buckled. She slipped, hit the back of her head on the tub’s edge, and groaned.

“Holy f**k, could I be any more unlucky?” she snapped at the ceiling. “AND DON’T ANSWER THAT, WHOEVER IS f*****g WITH ME—IT’S A RHETORICAL FREAKING QUESTION.”

Maud stared at her, exasperated, arms folding as irritation tightened her expression.

“Why does chaos follow you around like a bad smell?” Maud grumbled.

Renee coughed out a dusty laugh and braced herself as she attempted to climb out of the tub for a second time. Once she was on her feet, she met her mom’s gaze with sudden seriousness.

“I don’t know, Mom. Maybe it’s attracted to the scent of my suffering. Ever think of that? Huh?” Renee replied, once she’d caught her breath.

Maud looked far from satisfied with her response, rolling her eyes as she left the bathroom. As she headed down the stairs, she called back up to Renee, “You’re paying for that, by the way. Get a quote tomorrow. And please—leave my house before you destroy anything else and let me sleep.”

Renee huffed as she brushed the dust and plaster off herself. She straightened her jacket, checked for her phone, and headed downstairs. “I’m leaving!” she called out. “I’ll get it fixed—just use the other bathroom for now. Sorry, Mom.” She pulled the door shut behind her and locked it, exhaling as the cool air hit her.

“f**k me,” Renee muttered. “Couldn’t write it even if I tried.”

She fished a crushed pack of cigarettes and a lighter from her jacket pocket, tapping one free. The flame flared, and she lit up, taking a long, grounding drag that burned all the way down.

Her phone beeped again.

Still holding the cigarette between her lips, she pulled out her phone and glanced at the screen. A new message from Lloyd:

Some stuff came up at work. Can we meet next week? Sorry, it’s really important. Same day, same time?

Renee hesitated, the ember of her cigarette glowing as she thought. She wasn’t about to let him think she was actually interested—despite the irritating little part of her that kind of was.

She finally replied with:

Next week? Great. Gives me a whole seven days to regret agreeing to this.