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Music in the bar played loudly and the crowd was only growing thicker and louder. It was beginning to be too much. It wasn’t enough to drown out the thoughts in my mind anymore. My emotions were trickling into the cracks of my heart and I needed some kind of peace. I only stayed at the bar long enough to finish my drink and pay my tab before I wandered out to the beach.
I kicked off my shoes and held them in my hand as I felt the grains of sand slipping beneath my toes as my feet sank in deep. I preferred the beaches on the Gulf Coast or at the Keys, but there was something about the ocean regardless of where it was that had a way of grounding me.
There was a figure in the distance walking along the shore under the moonlight, but I disregarded them as I got close to the water and sat down after dropping my shoes. I was just far enough away that I was still on dry land. My knees were bent in front of me and I hung my arms over the tops of them, lacing my fingers together as I stared out at the ocean.
I needed to find a way to get through to Winter and I had no clue what to do.
The figure that was yards away was now only feet away. I hadn’t noticed them as they moved closer. I glanced over as they walked through the water in front of me. It was a girl who looked oddly familiar, but I couldn’t figure it out until she turned to look over at me.
It was Nico’s younger sister, Giana. She paused in front of me as a smile pulled on her lips. She raised her hand to wave at me, but didn’t speak a single word. Giana suffered from permanent hearing loss when she was a kid.
I lifted my hand up to her, but gave no indication that I wanted to speak with her. Giana’s feet left the water and she walked over to sit down next to me as she pulled out a small notepad. It was too dark that it would have been difficult to read any signs. Giana always carried around a notepad and pen or used her phone to type to communicate with people who didn’t understand ASL.
I watched as she scribbled something down and handed it over to me.
Nico said you were back in town. How have you been?
A sigh of irritation escaped me and I handed her the notepad back without writing back to her. Giana was only a couple years younger, but we weren’t exactly close friends. I only knew her as Nico’s little sister. She and Winter were friends because they were both bookworms, but that was the extent of what I really knew about her.
I never truly paid attention to anyone except for Winter. She was the only one who ever mattered to me.
Still an abrasive asshole, I see.
I stared down at Giana’s phone with a typed out message to me. My face did not display a single ounce of amusement as I lifted my eyes to hers. She lifted an eyebrow at me and pushed her phone into my hand.
An exaggerated breath left my lips and I took the phone from her and typed my own response.
Not in the mood for any company.
Giana took the phone and responded back immediately.
There’s no surprise there. Half the time it only seemed like you tolerated my brother.
She showed me her phone and I narrowed my eyes at her as I pushed it away.
“What’s your point, Giana? What do you want?” I questioned her with a bite in my tone. She couldn't hear it, but with the way her lips pursed, she got everything she needed from my expression. I knew it was hard for her to read my lips in the dark, but I wasn’t in the mood for conversation. She typed something else out on her phone before showing it to me again.
I just wanted to see how you were doing. Nico was worried about you after he saw you and said you were here on a ghost hunt.
I stared at her for a moment. “It’s not a ghost hunt. She’s here.”
Her head tilted to the side as her eyebrows drew together.
Winter moved back home?
I nodded as I rose to my feet. “Go see her. I’m sure she could use a friend.”
Giana climbed to her feet with a look of confusion on her face. Her phone screen lit up her face as she furiously typed something on it and shoved it back in my direction.
Why could she use a friend? What did you do to her now?
“Excuse me?” The venom dripped from my tongue as I lifted my head to glare at Giana and her assumptions. “What exactly are you implying?”
She shook her head at me after reading my lips. She wrote something else out for me to read.
She was never the same after you broke her heart.
“How would you know?”
