~Five Years Ago Pt.3~
"Do you have anything to drink here?" Kori wondered.
The question caught Roy off guard, so much so that he almost didn't hear it. "Uh…" he began, "I have water, orange juice, apple juice, cran-grape, gatorade, orange fanta, coconut water-"
"Okay, pause," Kori interrupted, "You drink coconut water?"
"...Sometimes?" Roy answered hesitantly.
"Yuck," Kori gagged, "Shit is disgusting."
Roy winced at her wording. He wasn't accustomed to hearing her talk like this. If it slipped by accident, sure. Whether a cut on her finger, or an accidental spill, Roy was no stranger to hearing Kori curse. But using it like this? It was new to him. And it sort of made him cringe. But, he had to remember that she was, indeed, drunk as a skunk. "I put it in my orange juice sometimes," he shrugged, "Barely notice it. It's good for you."
Kori only stared at him for a moment, a grin spreading across her face. "You're cute," she commented, "And I meant alcohol, by the way."
The statement had Roy fighting back a blush. He immediately brushed past her into the living room, moving things around so he could keep himself busy. "Calling a man my age 'cute' is insulting," he replied offhandedly, not turning to look at her as he continued moving around the room.
"Hot, then," Kori shrugged, leaning on the doorframe so she could observe him comfortably, "Handsome, attractive, sexy, whatever gets me a glass of the best liquor you got."
"And have you become an alcoholic before you're even of age?" Roy snorted, "I don't think so."
He was suddenly overcome by the feeling that he'd forgotten to do something. He glanced around, a puzzled look on his face before his eyes landed on Kori.
Her ankles.
"Shit," Roy cursed, "How'd I manage that?"
"Manage what?" Kori inquired.
"Nothing," Roy mumbled, already walking further into the house, "Stay there!"
He made his way to his closet first, grabbing an old beach towel. He then went to his medicine cabinet, grabbing a bottle of alcohol and a box of adhesive bandages. He took a detour to his room to deposit his "peacemaking piece of steel" before returning to the living room where Kori had settled on the couch.
"Not the kind of alcohol I was talking about, Roy," Kori sang.
"Well, it's the alcohol you're gonna get, Kori," Roy replied in the same tone, sitting on the couch, leaving a little distance between the two of them. He folded the towel he'd grabbed into a thick square and deposited the alcohol and bandages onto the couch. "Roll your pant legs up and let me see your ankles."
Kori finally caught on to what he was trying to do. "Roy, it's not that big of a-," she protested.
"Yes, it is," Roy dismissed, "You were walking the streets alone when I found you. If you stepped on glass out there and it sprang up and cut you, it could be infec-"
"I didn't," Kori told him, "I threw a glass I got from the bar and-"
"Glass from a bar?" Roy questioned, "What were you-?"
"I don't want to talk about it," Kori interjected.
"Can you at least tell me why you were angry enough to-?" Roy tried.
"Rather not," Kori replied shortly.
Roy studied her for a moment. "...Alright," he said finally, "Come on."
He patted the empty space next to him, a nonverbal invitation.
Kori eyed him suspiciously but brought her legs up and over, obediently laying her feet where he'd asked.
Roy scooted closer, lifting her feet so he could occupy the space there and placing them in his lap. He gently removed her flats from her feet. "You're hardheaded," he sighed as he folded her pant legs up and away from her ankles.
"I was distracted," Kori shrugged with a smug smile.
Roy ignored her in favor of reaching around himself to grab the bottle of alcohol. "This isn't gonna hurt," he informed, "It'll either tingle or you won't feel anything at all."
Kori huffed at that. "Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose of alcohol?" she deadpanned.
"Not when under the influence of alcohol," Roy muttered, "Trust me, I know."
Kori stared at him expectantly. "Well?" she inquired, "Details, details."
"I studied and got my degrees in the medical field, Kori," Roy reminded.
"Bullshit," Kori stated, "I know you were in medical, Roy. Alcohol doesn't magically give you amnesia, you know."
Roy gave her a pointed look.
"You know what I mean," Kori dismissed, "That 'trust me, I know' sounded personal, is all I'm saying."
Roy rolled his eyes and let a put out sigh escape him. "If you must know, getting blackout drunk used to be one of my favorite pastimes," he replied, "Used to bang myself up a lot. Wouldn't feel it until morning, nevermind the rubbing alcohol."
Kori peered up at him questioningly. "Used to be?" she echoed.
"Until I decided to kick it," Roy shrugged, feigning nonchalance as he poured the alcohol over Kori's ankles.
"Why?" Kori wondered.
"Are you sober enough for this story?" Roy deadpanned.
"Probably not," Kori answered honestly, with a goofy smile, "But that works out better for you because if you really don't want me to know, I'll probably forget by morning."
Roy chuckled at that but it died off fairly quickly.
This wasn't something he expected to talk about.
A bitter smile crossed over his face before his expression went blank. "Well," he began, using the towel under Kori's feet to pat her skin dry, "I met Kira."
A bright smile spread across Kori's features. "Aww," she swooned, "You did it for love."
Roy snorted at that. "Desperation, more like," he corrected idly, "I hadn't known her long enough to be in love. Just the idea of being with someone outside of a bottle… the stuff was killing me but I just wasn't willing to quit it. Kira came into my life and it seemed like the golden opportunity. Something to live for in place of liquid death." A pause. "In reality, I was just swapping one unhealthy dependency out for another."
"Roy, we don't pick when we fall in love with someone," Kori reminded, "You definitely could've been in love with Kira-"
"Yeah, I could've been, but I'm telling you I wasn't," Roy argued, "I loved the way Kira made me feel. The way she distracted me from drinking when she was around. But I didn't love her. Because outside of being a distraction, she wasn't doing anything else for me. A pretty face with ugly intentions. That's all she was."
Kori stared at him confusedly but Roy refused to meet her eyes, taking the adhesive bandage out of its box and unraveling it. "… What happened?" she asked carefully.
Being drunk may have dampened her inhibitions but it didn't make her any less of an empath.
"I remember her being here one day and gone the next…" she continued, "Mostly because you disappeared for a while after that, too. But you never told us what happened."
Roy let out a quiet bitter huff.
Kori didn't think he was going to respond for a moment, seemingly focusing on wrapping her ankles as an escape.
But, then, he spoke.
His tone, a hollow one.
"She left her phone out, one day," he mumbled, "I'd never been a snooper before. Didn't care to pillage anyone's phone in search of my own heartbreak. But it just kept ringing with notifications. I reached over to silence it but then I saw this message. 'He still doesn't suspect anything?'"
He paused, closing his eyes as the memory hit him, before shaking his head and continuing to secure the wraps on Kori's ankles.
"Now, that could mean a lot of things, right?" he reasoned sarcastically, "Maybe she was planning a surprise for my birthday. Maybe she's getting an anniversary gift. But my birthday had been three months ago and our anniversary wasn't for another five. The crazy thing is even with the possibility of cheating looming over my head, I still didn't want to look. Because I knew if I did… it was over. That illusion… that fantasy bubble I'd constructed around myself that I didn't need the bottle was gonna be decimated… and I was going to go right back to the path I was on, barreling down it with my foot on the throttle until I crashed into a bottle and died. And, so, I almost didn't look. But not knowing was worse torture than the finality of knowing. So I picked up the phone. And now I'm so glad I did but before? Before, I wanted to throw myself through a window."
"She was cheating?" Kori inquired.
Roy snickered bitterly, smoothing his hands over the edges of the bandages to make sure they stayed. "She was doing something arguably worse than that," he muttered, "Yes, she was cheating. But she was also working with the guy to siphon money out of my account. When I first saw the messages, it looked like they hadn't been able to beat the encryption on my account. But the more I scrolled the more I realized it was getting back into the account that was the problem. They'd already pulled 500,000 out. But I guess her guy did something stupid like lose the encryption code that gave them the back door into my account in the first place. If not for that, I'd probably be bankrupt right now."
"What'd you do?" Kori wondered, "When you found out."
"Made a plan," Roy shrugged, "She realized she left her phone and came back for it. There was panic in her eyes when she saw me holding it, I remember it clear as day. But I only smiled, kissed her goodbye, and told her to enjoy herself. She was going to some city for the majority of the day so she didn't have time to question it, I guess. But part of me wonders if I was that believable or if she was that stupid. Because it felt so fake… but it got the job done. Anyway, when she left I scoured the house for everything that belonged to her and threw it out on the street. I was too angry to even consider drinking which was a blessing I guess. But, when I finished throwing her things out, the plan was to hire someone to find the account she'd pooled the money into so they could put it back where it belonged and fortify my own. But that wasn't enough for me. So I went for the ultimate."
"The ultimate?" Kori echoed warily.
"The ultimate," Roy repeated, "I hired a P.I. to do some digging on the guy Kira had been working with. Turns out he was a hacker for hire which worked out perfectly for me. You remember Tony, right?"
"The techie with the pretty smile," Kori recalled goofily, "Yeah, I remember him."
"You just go around calling everybody pretty, huh?" Roy commented teasingly, quite a feat when taking the mood of his story into account.
"You know you're the prettiest," Kori dismissed, nudging him with her foot, "Come on, keep going."
Roy chuckled slightly at that. "Well, I made a fake Instagram account and contacted the guy pretending like I wanted his services. Told him to meet me at one of my spare apartments to do some work for me."
"You sent Tony instead?" Kori guessed.
"Exactly," Roy grinned, "Look at you, so smart." He paused as he took in Kori's laugh. "Well, Tony's even smarter," he continued, finding humor in Kori's pout, "He's so good he knows what you're doing based on just the sound of the keyboard. Not even looking at the screen. So, I had him open a false account for me as a cover for my real account and change the account number Kira and her guy had been using. Once it was done, I told the guy where to meet 'me'-"
"Aka Tony," Kori added.
"Right," Roy confirmed, "The plan was for the guy to unknowingly pull the money they stole from me, and then some, from the account he and Kira had used and put it into mine. I told Tony to call me when it was done. But, until then, I had nothing to do but wait. The anger was simmering so I worked out to try to blow off some steam. I was tempted to go outside and destroy her stuff but the neighbors were already looking at me funny, I didn't want to give them a reason to call the cops before the fun started. So, I just stayed in my gym. Eventually I got the call, told Tony to hand the guy the phone and had some fairly satisfying words with him."
He grinned as the memory came back to him.
-[START IN-FLASHBACK FLASHBACK]-
"It's for you," Tony informed, handing Kira's mystery boyfriend the phone.
The man eyed him for a moment before putting the phone to his ear. "Hello?" he answered warily
"Zack, is it?" Roy replied, his tone calculating.
"No one knows that name," the man, newly revealed as Zack mumbled, "Who are y-?"
"I'm Kira's boyfriend," Roy interrupted, "Or, her ex-boyfriend now technically. That's beside the point. I just wanted to inform you of the way things are going to go down from here on out." He paused for dramatic effect. "The account you just hacked into was your own. Can you guess whose account you transferred the money to?"
Zack said nothing.
"Stupider than I thought," Roy mused mockingly, "The account was mine, dickhead. Whatever method you used to get into it cannot, and will not, be used again. I'm not deeming you worth my energy as of now, but, if I find out you've done this shit to anyone else, you will be dealt with. And, trust me, I will find out. As of now, your account is empty aside from the 500 dollars and 42 cents you've made working at Burger King. Good luck living off of that until you find a real job." Another pause. "Might have to put Kira to work. Something other than sleeping with other men, this time, perhaps. The horror, right?"
"You can't do this," Zack tried.
"Oh, but I already have," Roy grinned, "Oh, I almost forgot. My buddy Tony, there, is gonna keep you company to ensure I get to break the news to Kira myself. You should be fine… as long as you don't make eye contact."
And, with that, Roy hung up.
-[END IN-FLASHBACK FLASHBACK]-
"Uh… Roy?" Kori inquired, "You know I can't read minds, right?"
"Sorry," Roy winced as he belatedly realized that he had, indeed, zoned out. He shook his head and continued with the story. "Anyway, all that was left to do was wait for Kira to get home. I had Tony hack her phone to intercept any calls she could've gotten from her guy so she was completely clueless when she got home."
-[START IN-FLASHBACK FLASHBACK]-
Roy was roused from his cat nap by a knocking at his door. He pulled his phone out of his pocket, opening the Ring Doorbell app so he could see who was at his door.
A sadistic smile spread across his face almost immediately.
He stood from the couch and stretched leisurely before making his way to the door. His hand hovered over the door knob before finally closing around it and twisting as another insisted knock sounded out.
"Hey, babe," Kira greeted as he opened the door, "My key wouldn't work."
She tried to come in but Roy put more of his weight on the door, partially leaning on the frame so it wouldn't budge.
"That's because I changed the locks," he beamed.
Kira stared at him confusedly. "Alright… we can get a new key made tomorrow," she reasoned, "Now, stop messing around and let me in. It's cold out here."
She tried pushing the door open, once more, but Roy wasn't having it.
He only sighed in fake pity. "Oh, you can take a hot shower at Zack's," he assured her mockingly, "At least until his house gets repossessed."
Kira's blood ran cold.
Roy could see the exact moment realization set in.
"Who's Z-," Kira tried.
"I am not going to dignify this mess with a conversation," Roy decided, "I'll simply inform you that I threw all your shit in the dump and you have two seconds before I close this door in your face."
Kira looked outraged. "I'll sue-," she started.
"Two," Roy stated, promptly closing the door in her face. He grinned as he heard Kira's frustrated scream. "You'll wake the neighbors," he chided idly, "And, just for the record, if you do try to sue me, I'll throw every fraud charge in the book at you. My P.I. has already uncovered 46 in the U.S. alone."
Pure silence.
"Goodnight, Kira," Roy sang, walking away from the door and plopping onto his couch.
But the giddy feeling quickly dissipated into something barren and ugly.
"I'm gonna drink," he realized.
The words sent a wave of cold resignation over him.
Barely an hour later, they came true.
-[END IN-FLASHBACK FLASHBACK]-
This time, Roy genuinely meant to retell Kori the story as he went through it in his head. But it appeared that he hadn't quite gotten to the end.
"What happened afterward…?" Kori wondered, "After she left."
Roy was quiet for a moment. He wasn't sure what to say. But, suddenly, the words came to him, clear as day. "The rage went away," he replied simply, "I had nothing else to cling to but the sadness. The hurt. But, we don't cope with that." He paused, chuckling as if he'd told a joke. But, the look in his eyes told a completely different story. "My father, who I was supposed to be mourning, didn't and I wasn't going to either. So, I drank. That's why you guys didn't see me for so long. I was on a bender."
"What stopped you?" Kori asked.
"Well one day I woke up with a pair of scissors next to my wrist," Roy answered, sounding far away, "Like a threat from drunk me. I got a visit that same day. June 22nd, do you remember?"
Kori eyed him confusedly for a moment.
Roy understood he was asking a lot of her, at the moment, considering she was drunk, but-
"Your birthday…" Kori realized, "I came to visit you on your birthday."
The memory was a shared one, this time. No words were needed.
-[START IN-FLASHBACK FLASHBACK]-
Roy groaned as yet another round of incessant knocking made his headache even worse. "I'm coming, goddamn it!" he yelled, stomping to the door and wrenching it open.
His anger dissipated immediately.
"Kori?" he inquired confusedly.
"Happy birthday," Kori sang, the perceived loudness of the greeting making Roy's head pulse.
She surged forward to give him a hug but he backed away swiftly, thinking she'd be able to smell the booze on him.
Roy quickly remembered that he'd taken a long peach scented shower and pulled her into a hug. "Sorry, I'm a little out of sorts," he apologized.
"I'll say," Kori mumbled, pulling away, "You look like crap, sweetheart."
"Gee, thanks," Roy deadpanned.
Kori gave him a bright smile. "Anytime, love," she replied sweetly.
Roy narrowed his eyes but smiled a small smile all the same.
After a long moment of silence, it became awkward.
"Uh…" Roy began, 'Well, it was great seeing you."
"It sure was," Kori agreed, beaming.
But, then, she did something that perplexed Roy.
She ignored the cliche "get the hell out of here" and, instead, stepped right past him.
"Your place is a mess, man," she commented as she walked into his living room, eyeing the various mail and clothes strewn about.
Roy thanked God that he'd had sense enough to at least clean up the bottles that had been in this particular area. "Yeah…" he mumbled, "I've been meaning to get all this cleaned up, but… I've been busy with meetings and whatnot and-"
"Don't lie, Roy," Kori interrupted, "You're not very good at it. Not with me, at least." She paused at his confused, and slightly afraid, expression. "You haven't been to work in months, sweetheart. It's your birthday so, it hasn't been a year quite yet, but you technically haven't been since last year."
"What, you're checking up on me, now?" Roy questioned defensively.
Kori only stared at him boredly. "I think that's pretty obvious," she deadpanned, gesturing around herself to indicate where she was, "I know what happened. I know you and your father weren't necessarily close but he was still your parent. And you still lost him. And I know what that's l-"
"Kori, you were barely old enough to even know your parents," Roy interjected, "You have no idea what this is like."
His eyes widened in horror as he realized what he'd said.
He opened his mouth to apologize but Kori stopped him.
"Don't," she said simply, a small smile on her face, "I said way worse when I was grieving my aunt."
"Don't give me an excuse," Roy mumbled, "I shouldn't have said that."
"Like I said, I've said worse," Kori dismissed, "But do you know why?"
"Because you wanted to be an ass?" Roy inquired, his tone dull and unfeeling.
"Me?" Kori questioned amusedly, an easy smile on her face, "Never." She laughed for a moment, delighted when she saw the smallest hint of a smile on Roy's face. "I said the things I said because of my desire to be alone. And I wish someone had seen it for what it was and fought me on it."
Roy had already been avoiding eye contact but it seemed as though her statement made him go so far as to shift away from her completely.
Kori was not oblivious of this but she chose to ignore it. "So," she continued, her tone sharp so as to catch, and hold, his attention, "That is exactly what I'm going to do for you, now. We are going to go out and have fun. No dissociative drinking, no drugs, heaven forbid. Just you and me and… Universal Studios."
"Universal Studios?" Roy echoed, "You just pulled that out of your ass, huh?"
Kori reveled in the fact that her plan had worked. "Sure did, sweetheart," she grinned, "Now, come on, we're wasting daylight. And, if we get there too late, I'm just gonna make us stay at a hotel so we can do the whole day, tomorrow."
Roy grumbled but got up and made his way to his room. 'No drinking, she says', he muttered to himself, 'This is gonna be a long day. Two, if she has it her way.'
-[END IN-FLASHBACK FLASHBACK]-
"Even then?" Kori questioned.
"Even then," Roy confirmed,"My blood was singing with the need for alcohol so I was a little irritable but you came in anyway. Forced me to stop hiding from the world." He paused for a moment as a soft smile crossed over his face. "It was the first time for the better part of a year that I felt something other than numb or drunk."
Kori could tell that there was more he wanted to say. "And?" she urged.
"And then we came home," Roy conceded, "And you asked to use my bathroom. And that blinding euphoria was replaced by a sick, curdling feeling of shame. I remembered I had bottles on bottles of countless varieties of liquid liver failure surrounding my bathtub." He let out a bitter chuckle. "Now, I had never given a single fuck about anyone knowing I had a drinking issue at any point in time after Kira. And yet you made me feel ashamed."
Kori eyed him confusedly. "Sorry?" she apologized hesitantly.
"Don't be," Roy dismissed with a laugh, "Because, that was when I decided to kick it for the second and final time."
Kori gave him a bright smile and moved her leg off of his lap so she could flip around and lay so that she was partially on his chest. "So, I saved your life, huh?" she inquired goofily.
Roy looked down at her, a soft smile of his own on his face. "That's right, sweetheart," he chuckled, "You saved my life."
Kori huffed proudly. She was quiet for a moment, considering. "I think I should get a kiss for that," she decided.
Roy snorted above her head. "Do you, really?" he hummed.
"Mhm," Kori confirmed, looking up at him and nodding slowly.
Roy grinned at her, showing off his perfect sharp white teeth. He leaned in slightly.
And then…