AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Wade in and retrieve it. No one is around to see…no one butme.
See, I have a conscience.
I toss the bottle into the truck bed with enough force to shatter on impact, but my aim is off and a giant crack spiders across my rear window. Countless blue words swirl through my brain.
Blasted truck. I’ve loved this pickup since the day Tripp cut me a good deal on it. Now…feels like another of his lousy, sanctimonious ways. Charity for the less-thanfriend.
The tailgate sinks under my weight as I dangle my feet. The ever-present sea breeze picks up, a cooling flow from the storms bubbling up over the water. Figures even my pity party would get rained out.
I twist the cap off a second bottle. I feel nothing from the alcohol. For me it’s at least the third that starts the process.
The process. The high, the low. The toilet-hugging. The bleary eyes and blaring headache. A wasted day after.
Amazing that once upon a time I considered that fun, and it’s been a while since I tied one on good and tight.
Lowering the bottle, I stare at the circular rim until it crosses into a Venn diagram. There’s something sad about getting wasted on the beach with no one but the gulls to share the moment—and it will be nothing short of pathetic come morning when I’m yacking my guts up on the sand amid the night’s haul of seaweed and broken shells.
I upend the amber potion, puddling the sand with a burst of better judgment.
Suddenly, I want nothing more than to be home. I want my mother, my sisters. I want to meet my baby niece and kiss her fuzzy head and toss a football with the nephews. I want tamales and salsa and Mama’s homemade, steaming hot tortillas.
I’ve stayed away too long, done my own thing too much. Work and my own agenda claimed the top slots of my life, leaving family a distant contender for time and attention. Too often, Mom’s hopeful, love-filled voicemails get choppy texts filled with the right words but empty promises.
I stare at the sand between my dangling feet. I’ve hurt her. All of them, especially lately. Maria and Marisol have their own lives, but Rachel is in high school now, and I hardly know her. Sometimes we exchange silly selfies and goofy memes, so there is that, but no real depth. Yes, work keeps me busy and out of touch for stretches of time, but that’s nothing more than an excuse. I’m not always on assignment, and I am an official government employee with up to three whole weeks’ vacation each year.
My brain is tired. Every part of me is at its endpoint.
But I’m not going to get wasted and be that much worse tomorrow.
My duffel is up against the cab, so I scoot back, avoiding the glass, stretch out, and use my bag as a pillow. The breeze off the ocean is cooling, almost too much so when combined with the clouds over the sun. My eyes close, and after a while, I begin to drift. The waves and the gulls comprise a soothing symphony I need.
When I wake up some time later, the storm has moved ashore. I hurry to the cab, tossing my duffel in ahead of me. As I let the fury of the storm wash over me, my own wrath subsides. I’m not forgiving Tripp—that friendship is a thing of the past—but I’m not going to let him get to me either. I’m better off without a traitor in my life.
When the rain abates, I kick it into four-wheel drive to get out of the sand, then take the highway a little further south until I come across a hole-in-the-wall joint boasting the best burgers on the coast. In a gas station? You never know.
The place reeks of decades-old grease. There’s a single bar for eating, and I slide onto one of the half-dozen red vinyl stools. I’m the only customer in the place.
The waitress looks every bit of forty but in reality is probably about my age. A smoker’s crease has already dug in above her lip. Her hair is bleached, and she has a giant tattoo with arrows and hearts right below her ponytail. However, it’s the inked ivy snaking from her collar, up her neck, that has me intrigued. Intrigued in that train-wreck sort of way. She may be a perfectly nice person, but if I’ve seen her type once, I’ve seen it five dozen times—which is why I’m not surprised when she gives methe look, the one she saves for her loneliest customers.
Yeah, I’m lonely, and I’ll bet my last bucks she is, too, but I’ll be dadgum if I’m taking a lady back to my…pickup, and besides, didn’t I recently swear off that kind of thing? At least until I get my bearings again. Don’t want to run my own train off the tracks any worse than I already have.
Sitting at a bar waiting on a burger only swirls up thoughts of Annalise, and it’s impossible not to compare her to the weathered waitress. Looks-wise, Annalise has got it all over this lady, except I happen to know her life isn’t exactly roses and sunshine either.
Maddie assures me Annalise is recovering, physically, at least, but what dragged her to this low point? Much as I’d like to lay the sum total of the blame on Kyle, I’d be a simplistic fool to think her issues didn’t run deeper than a single creep. I blow out a breath, digging my fingers through my chaotic hair. No, Kyle wasn’t the only jerk in her life.
The burger doesn’t come close to living up to its billing, and when I ignore the waitress’s more subtle attempts for my attention, she pulls out the big guns and flat out slips me her number and informs me her shift ends in an hour.
Groan.
I’m polite when I decline, but what I really want is to tell her to knock it off. To not give herself away for nothing. To no one. She’s worth more than that.
I pay, leaving a much larger tip than I can afford and head north again. The rain has lingered, turning the afternoon storms into a true weather event. The tropical deluge makes driving a hazard, and I quickly tire of fighting for control of my vehicle. When the same picnic area from earlier appears, I turn in and check my weather app. I’m going to be here a while. I lower each of my windows about an inch, enough for some air but not enough to get doused.
I peruse every single app on my phone until my eyes feel weighted. I slide my seat back as far as it will go and let the sound of the rain and the surf carry me away.
I jerk upright, dazed, confused, and in search of the pounding that has ripped me from slumber. A blinding light lasers in from the rain-glazed passenger window. It takes me a second to make out the form of a police officer holding a flashlight and calling for me to wake up.
Great.
