"Fuuuuucking finally!" Keira yelled triumphantly, holding up the keychain that now dangled stubbornly from the steel ring. She wiggled her fingers like she'd just won a war against a particularly nasty piece of metal. "Took me long enough, but the beast is tamed."
Nobody had ever made her anything before, not even as simple as a fancy-shaped piece of plastic. Unless you counted spiteful nicknames or half-assed apologies.
She blinked, clearing her throat with a scoff to cover it up. "Gonna be real hard for anyone to top this. You know that, right?"
Void mumbled, almost too quiet to be heard, her eyes still glued to the screen "Cool. Wouldn't be the first time I set the bar too high." Her pulse spiked like it had just gotten a firmware update written in pure cortisol.
"Shit, it's happening. Again."
Same twist. Same ache. The pattern never changed - someone wants her, but not now. Someone else is here, blazing, tangible, and somehow that just made it worse. Like her brain sponge didn't know what to do with the contrast.
Her fingers twitched. Rage crawled up her spine, no good outlet in sight. So she created one. With a sharp breath and a grunt through clenched teeth, she flung the phone across the room. It cracked off the wall with a sick sound: polymer shell shattering, battery skidding under the workbench like a rat escaping judgement. It landed with all the grace of her collapsing resolve.
The silence that followed was damn near sacred. Except for the tiny plastic clatter still echoing.
Adding to Void's frustration, Keira was completely unfazed by this impulse. Her gaze drifted down slowly, then back up to Void without so much as a blink. A pause. Then she let out a low chuckle, dry as gravel. "Damn. I think I just figured out where Eitria gets that temperamental streak from."
Void dropped to the floor, spine connecting with the back of her workbench in a slump that looked too practiced. She sank down like her joints gave out, hands limp in her lap, eyes locked somewhere in the dust.
Keira watched her, arms folding, expression sharpening. She instantly caught on to what was happening.
"Uh-huh. Someone's afraid to fuck this up too. Guess it's time to take my shot," she thought.
"So?" she said, voice light but still laced with bite. "Wanna tell me what just possessed you to commit phoneicide, or you'd rather have me starting to guess which old flame dropped a poorly timed 'I miss you?'"
Void sucked in a heavy breath, as if the air suddenly became thicker. Then she spoke, voice husky and pulled tight across a raw edge. "It's... This girl. Dee. From abroad. Met her on a dumb dating app. We matched about a month ago, hit it off, but she's..." she exhaled, dragging a hand through her hair. "She's slow. She wants to take things really fucking slow. And that's fine. It's not her fault. But... Now you're here, and you're... Not slow."
Keira smirked. "You mean I smashed through your walls with a personal vendetta against bricks."
Void gave a bitter chuckle. "Yyyyyep. And it shouldn't feel this damn good. But it does. And now Dee's messaging me like she's got a crystal fucking ball or something..."
Keira stepped forward, lowering herself in front of Void with deliberate slowness, like a storm deciding where to strike. Close enough that her voice wouldn't need to rise, but would still hit Void at muzzle velocity.
"Been there, know the type," she said simply. "Met that kinda girl online once. She was damn near perfect. All curated playlists and slow, dreamy typing. Said all the right things... Until I wanted to meet. Then she ghosted for like six weeks or so. That time reeeeally dragged on. Bitch came back like nothing happened: 'Sorry, I was overwhelmed.'"
"And what did you do?"
"I nuked the chat. Told her to fuck off, grow up, and blocked her. Then cried in the bathtub for an hour like an idiot." She laughed quietly, biting her lip. "Point is, online stuff can work out, sure, but only if both of you are actually there. Committed. Otherwise, it's just projection wrapped in pretty bits and bytes."
"'Overwhelmed' my fucking ass." She scoffed, shaking her head. "You're either in, or you're out."
She leaned back slightly, eyes narrowing - not in anger, but sharp with truth. "Clear communication is crucial, y'know? Just like in engineering-" Her voice dropped just a hair, more serious now. "If any of the measurements are off, you're just setting yourself up to watch your thing crumble under its own weight."
Void, still laser-focused on the floor, responded - voice flat. "I keep hoping she'll be the one. Because she's gentle. Because she never pushes."
"But she also doesn't pull, from the looks of it." Keira's voice softened, shedding the sharpness but none of the impact, her tone settling into that dangerous territory between concern and challenge. "And I'm not saying 'pick me,' like this is some kind of bullshit reality show. I know better than to be anyone's backup plan. But Void..." she tilted her head, studying her. "You're tearing yourself apart trying to hold space for someone who's too much of a pussy to actually try and step into it."
Void's fingers had curled into fists without her noticing. "She is stepping into it. Just... She's careful. She's been hurt, too."
"Yeah? So was I." Keira's smile was crooked, tired around the edges. "You think I act like this - full-volume, no filter - because I've had all the sunshine and rainbows?" She huffed a breath, the corner of her mouth curling bitter. "I've been led on, stood up, ghosted, breadcrumbed... All the funky things." Her voice didn't crack. It sharpened again. "So I started showing up like a fucking fire alarm. If I'm too much, people can fuck off early. Sucks to suck, cowards."
Void looked at her, eyes flickering. "So what, it's your way of testing people? Scare them off before they get the chance to disappear?"
Keira let out a quiet snort. "Could put it that way. But you didn't seem to be bothered by that. Not even when I ruined your whole week by coming into your room like a wrecking ball."
"I wasn't, because you weren't trying to hurt me. You were just... Being. Sure, loud as fuck and as annoying as if I were talking to myself in front of a mirror but..."
"Exactly." She gestured between them. "That's the whole fucking point."
She leaned in closer, voice dropping just enough to squeeze beneath Void's skin. "You and me? This is messy. Fucking weird. But I think even you can see this. It's undeniable." Her eyes were still locked onto Void. "I'm here. And she's... fuck-knows-where."
Keira let the silence settle for a second, before breaking it, "I'm not asking you to pledge loyalty under neon moonlight or whatever romantic shit your LED setup would approve of. I'm simply saying: stop bleeding yourself out for someone who isn't even in the damn room."
Void still barely able to process what the hell is happening, looked down again, then finally managed to utter, "You think I'm cruel for not cutting it off with her?"
"No." Keira's voice dropped even lower. "You strike me more as someone deathly afraid of letting go. Of being the villain in someone else's narrative. But... Girlie," she tapped Void's chest, just once, two fingers over the sternum, "this is your story. Not Dee's. Not mine. Yours. Don't play background music in your own fucking life just because someone else needs a softer tempo."
Void swallowed hard, that coil in her chest pulling tighter. "And what if I let her go and I regret it again? What if this..." She looked straight into Keira's eyes before continuing. "Whatever the fuck it is with you. What if it crashes and burns?"
Keira shrugged, but her eyes were anything but careless. "Then it burns. But at least you didn't sit in the dark waiting for a spark that never came."
Void's hand slowly reached up and grabbed Keira's in a gentle way, their fingers now loosely intertwined. The warmth there was a stark contrast to the cold uncertainty knotting her stomach. "It's not just about letting go. It's about what comes after. I... I guess I'm afraid I won't be ready for anything else."
Keira's grin was softer now, almost a tease. "Honey, nobody's ever ready. Nobody walks into this shit with a manual or a safety net. You just... Dive in. Or you don't. Either way, you're gonna have to learn to swim sooner or later."
Void's laugh was bitter. "Swimming feels like drowning some days."
"Then grab my arm." She squeezed Void's fingers, voice dropping to a whisper. "I'm not gonna let you sink. Not while I'm here."
Void swallowed, heart hammering loud enough Keira had to hear it. "You really mean that? You look, sound and even fucking carry yourself like it's all too good to be true."
Keira nodded, eyes locked with hers, fierce and honest. "I don't just mean it. I live it."
Her eyes lazily shifted to the sad remains of what was once a cellular device.
"We should probably go out and hunt you down a new glass slab." Her voice tried for light, but her eyes lingered on the splintered phone like it had cracked something else, too. "Maybe something Void-proof this time."
She hesitated, then added, a touch quieter this time.
"And... Yeah. That one's gonna be on me. Feels only fair after turning your defenses into rubble."