Yeah. I did. And I will AGAIN! At some point!

Ava entered the room again.

“We’re leaving.” She said, yanking my IV from my arm (isn’t that, like… dangerous?). She grabbed my arm and tore me from the bed.

“Don’t I need to sign out or something?” I asked. With the arm not being pulled, I was trying pinch together the back of my hospital gown. It was one of the ones you’d see in a cartoon; like, no joke, my ass is out. What is this for?!

“Nope.” She said tersely.

“Can I get my clothes back?”

“No, they were destroyed.”

“Oh.” I shut up.

She led me down hallway after hallway until we reached an elevator. She pulled me in and hit ground level. Ava finally let me go and immediately started texting on her phone furiously.

“Is something wrong?”

“Yes. Wait, no. I mean… fuck. It’s complicated.” She kept typing. It was making me anxious.

“Are they not going to ask about me leaving? Don’t I need to, like… pay?” Not like I could, so maybe running it was a good idea.

“It’s handled. Adams got it.”

I didn’t know who Adams was, so I assumed he or she had something to do with my blood tests. I’m just going to let it slide for now, considering her frantic demeanor.

We reached the ground floor. Ava finished up on her phone before sliding it into her back pocket. She grabbed me and began dragging again.

“Can I ask where we’re going?” I said, looking over to see a man laugh at my bare ass being pulled by the insanely skinny woman.

“Home.”

“Oh.” That wasn’t what I was expecting. What was the urgency, then?

Ava pulled me to a car. I assumed it was hers. She told me to get in. That really made me think it was hers.

We drove in silence. She was gripping the steering wheel tight. Eventually she pushed on the radio, and some **** metal blasted my ear drums. It seemed to soothe her some, so I didn’t complain.

We got to the apartment building. We went up the elevator. Ava still didn’t speak.

“Fuck.” I groaned.

“What?” She asked, looking at me as we continued upwards.

“I lost the pizzas. For dinner? I was supposed to get dinner. I got pizzas. I dropped them.”

Ava burst out laughing.

“Christ, Michael, you are too sweet. No one cares about the dinner!” She kept giggling between words.

Her laughter was infectious. It felt really good to laugh after the day I’d had. Days, really… it’s been rough, eh?

We got to our floor and we went in. The girls were all sitting on the couch, talking loudly between each other. The moment they noticed us enter they went silent.

It was awkward. I was still in my hospital gown, and they all just stared at me.

Ava spoke up. “Michael, go ahead and change. Come back out when you’re done.”

I nodded and went to my room (I heard Kenzie laugh when they saw my ass after I turned around).

I entered my room and tore off the hospital gown. I looked at myself in the mirror in the corner.

“Fuck me.” I winced. I didn’t feel any pain, but I couldn’t believe how fucked up I’d gotten over the last few days. My eye was still slightly swollen. My nose was pretty much healed, but seemed slightly more crooked than I remembered. My chest… holy shit, my chest was so fucked up. I had scabs of scratches, dozens of purple bruises, and stitches over my heart.

“Aw, you’re still pretty cute.” Vanessa appeared above the mirror. She was laying on her stomach in the air, kicking her feet back and forth.

She turned concerned as she looked more. “Wait, I don’t remember those ones. What happened?”

I started to explain the events of the day; I quickly went through my talk with Ava in the bathroom, then went to my second meeting with Hana (third if you counted movie night). I started on the robbery.

“Then, he shot me. Like, the entire magazine. That’s the bruises here, on my chest. I don’t know what happened, but the bullets didn’t seem to-“

My door burst open. I swirled around and held back a yelp.

Ava looked wildly around the room, searching. “Who the hell are you talking to?!”

I looked back at the mirror. Vanessa was no longer hovering above. I looked back at Ava.

“Uh… no one?”

Ava looked at me, seeming furious. The anger quickly faded as she looked downwards. The anger turned into a wide-eyed blushing.

I looked down. Oh yeah. I hadn’t changed yet. Ah. That was my dick and balls. Hm. Embarrassing.

I quickly covered up with my hands.

“I… I thought I hear you… I assumed you… fuck, sorry!” Ava quickly left, shutting the door behind her. She yelled through the door to ‘hurry up’.

“Sorry to throw you under the bus like that, I just don’t want the others to know about me yet.” Vanessa reappeared, though now she was on the bed.

“It’s… uh, yeah, that’s fine.” I started dressing myself. “I’ll tell you the rest later, I think I need to get back to the crowd before someone else comes in. I think something’s up.”

Vanessa looked concerned. “I… I mean, come on! You said you got shot, and now you can’t finish the story?” She pouted.

“I promise I’ll explain everything later tonight, okay?” I pulled a shirt over my head. “I’m fine, though, if that’s what you’re concerned about.”

She sighed loudly and disappeared. I felt bad leaving her on a cliffhanger, but I also couldn’t keep the rest waiting without seeming suspicious.

The living room was full of hushed whispers. The moment I was within vision they stopped, just like when I’d walked in the first time.

Ava blushed again when she met my eyes. I hoped they weren’t whispering about my penis. Sara seemed sad. Kenzie looked absolutely giddy. Kate looked… she was actually looking away from me, looking out a window, so I couldn’t read her face. Her body language read as nervous, since she was bundled up against herself.

I stood for a moment, waiting for someone to say something. No one did.

“Uh… so… what’s up?” I asked.

“Michael… we need to tell you something… you may want to sit for this….”

-

Hey, authors note again, even though at some point I said I wouldn’t be leaving these often. I lied! I enjoy talking to you all! Today is a little more… melancholy, however.

I’ve been writing a chapter a day. I love it! And, if possible, I’d like to continue doing that! However, some days are harder than others. If it was up to me, I’d have written this chapter about twice as long, but instead I ran out of time and had to cut it off here on a cliffhanger, and finish my thoughts tomorrow.

Now, I’m sure you all don’t mind. I mean, this was about as long as I usually write chapters (between 900 - 1400 words is what I average, if i remember correctly). I just worry that there will be a day I miss. Then, suddenly, I don’t feel the pressure to write as much.

“Oh, I missed one day, I can miss another!”

I fear the snowball effect. I don’t want this to be an abandoned story. I love writing this, and I have so many ideas. I also have OTHER ideas, but there’s no way I could juggle two stories at once right now.

I think I’m going to start posting this story on other website as well, if that’s allowed (idk the rules of chyoa concerning cross-posting). I’m also going to change my name on here to Michael Chase when I’m able, and will use those names on other places (I always liked when authors’ pseudonyms are their characters’ names).

This is to say that I’m somewhat toying with the idea of doing, like, a patreon or something. I’m ashamed to say that I always raised an eyebrow when I read other stories and see patreon or subscribestar links... “It’s just smut! Why do you need money?!”

Well, I’ve been served my humble pie! Time is money, and writing takes time!

This wouldn’t be made tomorrow or anything. I would need to grind out to get some chapters ahead so that there was an incentive, yaknow?

I’ll be thinking about it. I will be out of the country and DEFINITELY unable to write from November 24th to December 4th (if anything is uploaded then, consider you all lucky!). I will try and make a decision by then.

I want to add something; I HATE the idea of asking for anything. I have no problem writing this for free! I enjoy writing greatly, and seeing you guys comment and like and such is more than enough to make it worth it. I don’t expect to become a full-time smut writer by any means. But, in the off chance I’m able to take a bit more time to write… why not go for it? I don’t know. It makes my stomach turn kinda. Not because smut-writing is embarrassing or anything, but because I don’t want to ask for shit from you all. Not to mention only being 21 chapters in. Yikes, red flag for me, eh?

I’m sorry for ending this on both a cliffhanger AND a lame rant about my own poorness and lack of time management.