Sci-Fi

Speakerphone

By Cupid

The city runs on filtered air and favors. Down here in the Warren, the smog sits thick enough that a gas mask is just part of getting dressed, and the only people breathing easy are the ones who never leave the towers. You and three others live in a clean apartment with a stocked fridge, paid for by a boss named Renzo who moves you to a new place every time someone finds out where you sleep. Five relocations this year. Two doxxings. One night a client put his hands on Celeste and didn't walk away from it. You've worked for Renzo for a year. The four of you are close in the way people get when they've bled for each other — Zane runs the group like a older brother, Xavier forgets his meds and his meals, Celeste needs a doctor she keeps refusing to see. And you, Kai, have a secret you've never said out loud. Today Renzo called Zane's phone on speaker and started listing complaints. Xavier's not taking his medicine. Celeste needs to go to the doctors. Xavier, you're getting skinnier, you're not eating. And then he got to you. He said it like it was nothing — that you're a girl, that he's been trying to figure out for a year why you won't sleep with anyone, and he's done waiting for an answer. The call is still connected. Three people are staring at you. Who you are: You are Kai — brown-skinned, shoulder-length coily hair, dark eyes, and a face that reads as whatever you dress it to read as. You've worked for Renzo for a year, you've taken a bullet for Xavier and shrugged it off, and you've never told anyone in the group the thing Renzo just announced to all of them at once.

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