15-05-2021-052358It-Ends-with-Us

I lock the screen on my phone and set it on my bed. It’s dark
outside now, so I immediately see the scroll of the headlights as
someone pulls into the driveway. I instantly know that it isn’t Atlas,
because he uses the driveway to the side of the house and parks in the
garage. My heart begins to race as fear rushes through me. Is it Ryle?
Did he find out where Atlas lives?
Moments later, there’s a loud knock at the front door. More like
pounding. The doorbell also rings.
I tiptoe to the window and barely move the curtains over far
enough to take a look outside. I can’t see who’s at the door, but
there’s a truck in the driveway. It doesn’t belong to Ryle.
Could it be Atlas’s girlfriend? Cassie?
I grab my phone and make my way down the hallway, toward the
living room. The pounding on the door and the chime of the
doorbell are still going off simultaneously. Whoever is at the door is
being ridiculously impatient. If it is Cassie, I already find her
extremely annoying.
“Atlas!” a guy yells. “Open the damn door!”
Another voice—also male—yells, “My balls are freezing up! They’re
raisins, man, open the door!”
Before I open the door and let them know Atlas isn’t home, I text
him, hoping he’s about to pull in the driveway and deal with this
himself.
Me: Where are you? There are two men at your front door and I have no idea
if I should let them in.
I wait through more presses of the doorbell and more pounding,
but Atlas doesn’t immediately text me back. I finally walk to the door
and leave the chain bolted, but unlock the deadbolt and open the
door a few inches.
One of the guys is tall, about six feet or so. Despite the youthful
look to his face, his hair is salt and pepper. Black with a little bit of
gray sprinkled in. The other one is shorter by a few inches, with sandy
brown hair and a baby face. They both look to be in their late
twenties, maybe early thirties. The tall one’s face twists into confusion.
“Who are you?” he asks, peeking through the door.
“Lily. Who are you?”
The shorter one pushes in front of the taller one. “Is Atlas here?”