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A Few Months Ago:
Kayla stepped out of the shower, her eyes swollen and red from crying. A woman should feel good about herself after sharing a night of passion, but she felt cheap and used.
Her robe hung loose while she dried off. She winced as she noticed a small bruise on her ankle—it was from hitting it against the side of the bed frame when Evan pushed her down.
In some ways she was ashamed of the way she’d settled and accepted the way things were. It had been a loveless life with a man who used her to simply take care of him. She knew now she’d been his servant. There was no true love anymore. Maybe there never was.
Thank God she’d had that little implant done secretly so she wouldn’t bring a kid into this fucked-up situation. Even though she adored working around children, the time wasn’t right.
She looked into the mirror and didn’t like what she saw. This reflection before her—it needed to change.
“Hey baby, why don’t you come back to bed?” Evan’s yell echoed round the bathroom. “The game is almost starting and I’m in the mood for some nachos and a blowjob.”
Kayla clenched her teeth, took a deep breath and then looked at her reflection in the mirror.
It changes now.
BREAKING UP IS ALWAYS hard. It’s even harder when you have no idea what you’re going to do next.
Kayla’s first major step involved getting in the car and heading back to her hometown. She had arranged for a transfer from her local school administrator job to the new opening at her old high school in Winnemucca, Nevada, and handed in her notice as soon as the approval came through, saying she was leaving at the end of the week. Her boss wasn’t happy, but she didn’t give a damn.
Sure, she still felt a little guilt from purposely clogging the toilets with tampons and leaving that road-kill in the oven, but she didn’t care. Besides, he didn’t deserve anything more after he cussed her out because she didn’t want to suck his dick.
Gathering all the money she had and borrowing a little from her mom gave her enough to get a small apartment behind the house of an old family friend. It wasn’t much. but it would be a start and it was cheap enough for her to afford the rent.
Going home would be a nice way to restart her life and she found the thought comforting. That was what she needed—something to look forward to with a smile. To slow things down and go back to a time when she wasn’t scrambling every day meet other people’s demands. When she didn’t feel like she had to fight to survive. And most of all, not being stuck having to rely on a man to help her.
Kayla smiled at Mr. Bronson as he helped her unload her plastic totes from the back of her SUV. There weren’t too many and he seemed eager to help her out, welcoming her with a broad smile. It didn’t seem like she had brought very much with her, but she’d left Evan a “Fuck you, asshole”, note and crammed her clothes and a few good memories into the car.
“Thank you, Mr. Bronson.” She lifted out the last box.
He turned quickly. “Please, call me Leonard? I’ve known you since you were little, Kayla. You and Seth used to play here in the back yard as kids. We’re very happy the cottage was available when your mother called. We’d just had it renovated and we both love the idea of you living there.”
She smiled and plopped the totes in the small living room of the apartment. “Well, thank you again...Leonard.”
“Now, you can have supper with me and Barbara, if you’d like. You probably don’t have much food yet, and I know she’s making her famous chili tonight. She’d love to spend some time with you, and you can get the lease signed as well. All the loosed ends tied up and we can get caught up on how you’re doing. So suppose we say around six?”
“That sounds great. It’ll give me a little time to unpack. I’ll see you then and thanks for the help.” She smiled and waved as he walked onto his back porch.
The Bronsons were one of the best memories from her childhood.
Winnemucca didn’t have much in the way of industry, but relied on the several gold mines in the area for its income. Sadly, one of the mines had suffered a disaster. Kayla’s father had worked like hell to save most of his crew, but didn’t make it out after going to get the last few men. Kayla’s life changed that day and no other man had been able to fill the hole left by her true hero, her dad.
The Bronsons were like grandparents to her, and their daughter—Aunt Cassidy—was her mom’s best friend. After the accident, they both her and her mom under their wing, helping out as best they could.
They had been living proof of old school values, and just amazing people. Kayla was so happy that was still true.
And man, could Mrs. Bronson cook. She had five sons and one daughter, and never cooked less than an army sized portion for the kids, and eventually the grandkids.
Kayla had considered moving in with her mom, but admitted she couldn’t because her step-dad was a complete pervert who made her feel uneasy. He’d stolen her panties and taken them into the bathroom and done really odd things. She still had nightmares after seeing him naked and jacking off in the shower with her panties in his mouth.
The Bronson house had been a home away from home as she was growing up, and it looked like it would be so again, until her life was back on track.
“Burrrpppp...oh, much better.”
After two bowls of chili, two pieces of cornbread, a diet soda, and an ice cream sundae, Kayla was stuffed but happy to know Mrs. Bronson could still cook up a storm.
The dinner was a nice way to catch up on things. They talked about the changes to the city, the people, and how things were so different even after only a few years.
Exhausted from the drive and from unpacking everything into the cottage, the bed felt like it was calling to her. She finished up the last of it, slipped into her standard Disney princess pajamas and crawled into bed. Lying there, her mind filled with racing thoughts whirling around endlessly. Everything was different now. Everything had changed and nothing was ever going to be the same.
Kayla curled up into the fetal position, bare, alone and scared. Tears welled in her eyes and the loneliness crept up on her, threatening to overwhelm her.
Reaching up, she grabbed a small pillow. The soft fabric felt good against her face as she snuggled her cheek into it. Turning onto her back, she held the pillow up in the air with both hands. It should be a face, she thought, a man’s face. Someone who wanted her and would be there for her every night.
Bringing the pillow close she closed her eyes and kissed it.
Feeling this alone wasn’t a good thing, and it troubled on her. Even though Evan was a classic douche-bag, he had at least been there. Not in a good way, because he treated her like shit and never even listened to her, but he had been around at the times when she really needed a shoulder to lean on. God. She tried to put a good face on it, but no matter how she looked at it, five years of her life had been wasted.
She rolled over and slid the small pillow between her thighs. There was another thing she needed. A human being between her
legs instead of a pillow or plastic battery-operated-boyfriend.
IT TOOK A COUPLE OF weeks, but Kayla quickly settled into her job, and started feeling normal again. She enjoyed her work and the people working with her. She even knew a few of them from high school. It had been a long time, but some things don’t change much.
One day, she sat at lunch and decided to pull up her high school’s social media page. It had different sections, and several of them showed all the different graduation classes, ordered by year. There were updates and “Remember When” pages full of details about where they all were now.
Scrolling through, she did notice a lot of people had moved away from Winnemucca. Most were now in the Las Vegas or Reno area. It made sense because the better-paying jobs that people wanted these days would be there, not here in town.
She saw the names of some who had become friends and recognized others who had been just acquaintances. Real friends stick with you or you meet again and it’s like no time had passed, she thought to herself. Those are the ones you remember most.
Pausing as she scrolled through photos, she blinked and stared. Holy shit. Maria still lives here. She remembered all the trouble they had gotten into growing up. That girl was hotter than a jalapeño. I wonder if she still is...
They’d gotten drunk and pulled over by the cops. Then there was the saran wrap over all the toilets in the girl’s bathroom and the laxatives in the chocolate pudding—yeah, they were little troublemakers. And she couldn’t forget the time when Maria’s dad caught them skinny dipping in their neighbor’s pool with their boyfriends.
That wasn’t such a great time. Especially for the boys, who had run screaming and naked down the street after her dad grabbed his shotgun and chased them off. She’d learned all kinds of filthy words in Spanish that night.
They had fallen out of touch when Kayla went to college and Maria had gotten pregnant, married, and started raising a family. There had always been a Christmas card with a letter, but Kayla felt guilty that she hadn’t kept track as much as she should. But now that she was back...it would be fun to meet up. She still had Maria’s old number in her contacts list, but would it still work? It had been more than a few years since they’d talked. She could text her, but if that number had been reassigned to someone else, that could make for a real mess. No, she’d play it safe and simply try. If it wasn’t Maria, she’d apologize and hang up.
Picking up her phone, she entered the numbers and crossed her fingers....
“Hola, chica...”
