The Hair Wreath and Other Stories by Halli Villegas

Author:Halli Villegas [Villegas, Halli]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Horror
ISBN: 9781926851020
Publisher: ChiZine Publications

The professor’s ground floor was packed with students and other literary types he had invited along. Julie and Traci left Greg with his bottle of Scotch and went to pour themselves liberal drinks from the professor’s supply of cheap red wine. Greg had to be satisfied with a plastic cup for his whiskey, though it really deserved cut crystal, but perhaps this was what the term Bohemian referred to. Julie and Traci came back to where Greg was standing, squinting at a pretty bad copy of a Tom Thompson painting hanging on the wall above a leather armchair.

“Chris is here,” Traci said in a stage whisper.

“Who?” Greg asked.

“Julie’s ex, the one that Alison dumped.” Julie was standing next to Traci, staring at another corner of the room, her mouth thinned into a narrow line. The way she pulled her eyebrows together made the ring there stand out aggressively. Greg looked where Traci was pointing. He saw Alison having an animated conversation with a tall dark-haired guy in a leather jacket. He was shaking his head vehemently at whatever Alison was saying.

“I need a fucking smoke,” Julie said. She downed the contents of her plastic cup in one swallow and threw it on the leather chair; the dregs of the wine splashed the wall behind it like tiny droplets of blood. Without looking at Traci or Greg, she went out the front door. Chris had walked away from Alison and she was standing there alone. Greg wondered if he should go and talk to her, if this would be a good time. But Traci beat him to it, scurrying over to Alison. Greg walked to the table that the professor had set up as a makeshift bar, near the corner where Alison and Traci stood.

He heard Traci say, “Greg is so sweet, you should just talk to him. He totally wouldn’t do that.”

A jostle of drunken creative types trying to get to the bar blocked out the rest of the conversation. Greg moved away from the crowd. He saw that Traci was still talking to Alison and Julie was nowhere to be seen. He went to the professor’s bathroom, which was decorated with the covers of famous Can-Lit novels in gilt frames against mouse-brown walls. Greg found it a bit precious; he would have gone with off-white walls. While he was on the toilet, he took out his iPhone, just in case. No messages.

He came out of the bathroom and Traci was standing there. “She got another message! Greg, she is, like, totally freaked. He said some really nasty things this time.”

Greg saw Alison struggling through the crush to the front door.

Traci said, “Greg, offer to walk her home or something. He could be anywhere.”

Traci’s words were like a sign. Greg knew that this is how he and Alison were supposed to finally come together. He would be her saviour. He rushed after her, elbowing people out of the way. He passed Julie standing out on the side of the front

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