Page 5 of Hot Summer's Prey

Dawn and I watched a few ocean documentaries once, but I double-fisted the main feature with a few pimple popping videos on my phone, so I don’t remember much. I’m not very good at paying attention to videos. Well, other than the pimple popping ones. Seeing the release just makes my brain happy. Usually my brain just filters out stuff if it’s on a screen.

“It says you have to go down, like, a hundred feet to see it.” Taara reads further.

“Maybe that’s what it was then,” Anelisa murmurs over the phone.

“So, how far out are you guys?” Zephyr asks, suddenly getting impatient with the conversation.

“Well, I had to pull over,” Dawn starts.

“You’re acting like you weren’t excited to see it!” Anelisa grumbles. “You were so excited!”

Of all of us, Dawn loves animals the most, which is saying a lot considering Zephyr fosters and I have a season pass to the zoo. I mean, Dawn does too. We go together. A lot.

“I dunno, maybe I’m grumpy from driving and also from not getting to see whatever you saw,” Dawn sighs.

“I’m sorry, I really tried!” Anelisa soothes.

“So how far?” Zephyr repeats, playing with the door handle on the car to sate their anxiety.

“It says we’re still an hour out from the cottage,” Dawn says.

Zephyr’s jaw sets.

“Cool, see you then,” they say before tapping the end button on Taara’s phone.

She and I share a look as Zephyr swings around to the driver’s side. Without a word, we hop in after them—Taara in the front this time. Zeph was already naturally moody before their grandma died, but ever since, the sudden changes in demeanor come even more unexpectedly. They’re not as receptive to my perky ways in this particular state. I’m better at the cheering up from mopey-sad thing, not the frustrated-angry kind of sad. Taara is much better at empathy than I am—much better at figuring out how to break through that kind of darkness. We all have our skills.

Meanwhile, I try to fight the selfish part of me that wishes this could just be a super fun trip where nobody had to feel any big feelings. As if this was a real vacation. One we all need—because fuck if LA doesn’t suck the soul out of you sometimes. I’m not that big of a fan of the somber mood. It gets me thinking about work and the last few years and I do NOT want to think about her.

Great, I’m already catching on to Zephyr’s dark mood. I pop my earbuds in and blast my 90s playlist. Something about road trips always makes me feel nostalgic. Maybe because I spent so much time in the car while my mom was at work.

I stare out the window, watch the coast pass by as the succulents give way to bona fide foliage and rocky cliffs turn to luscious sand. Twisting, winding roads fill in the remaining twenty minutes to the cottage. Though once I see it, ‘cottage’ doesn’t seem the right word.

It’s huge, for one. At least three stories, it teeters at the top of a cliffside that juts up unexpectedly. I always think of cottages as white or brown, but it’s blue—which checks out, as this road trip has proven it a popular color for seaside houses. I pop out an earbud, curious to hear what Zephyr thinks, coming back after all these years.

But there’s no noise—except for the sound of our breath, the ebb and flow of waves in the background, seagulls cawing across the open waters. Something fills the pit of my stomach—dread—that this will be the mood for the whole ‘vacation.’

But I can’t blame Zephyr, they’re grieving. Instead, I’ll blame Taara for talking me into coming. Even if I needed desperately to get away from Hollywood people (ignoring that most of us are Hollywood people).

“It’s so much smaller than I remember,” Zephyr says finally.

I snort. “I’m sorry. Is this petite mansion not big enough for you?”

Taara shoots me a look in the rearview mirror. I roll my eyes. Zephyr lets out something halfway to a laugh as they shake their head.

“I just don’t get why me. Why did she leave it to me?”

“Because you’re the main character in a horror movie. I don’t know, Zeph. Are you really going to be this self-flagellatory the whole time?”

Shoot, that probably came off a little harsh. Ugh, the mood, but honestly, it probably has more to do with Zephyr looking this gift horse in the mouth. My mom worked her ass off after leaving her husband, taking three boys and me with her. It didn’t matter that her husband was abusive, where Lola came from, you stand by your man—and it was worse that Mom ‘took’ my brothers. The boys. So my Lola disowned her—which seemed pretty hypocritical if family is supposed to mean so much.

All the other nurses had some sort of timeshare thing with babysitting us, where one of them would sacrifice a day off to look after the other kids. Mom always packed us good food, but we could tell the other houses were so much better than ours—like they were actually houses and not apartments. We all went through phases where we didn’t even want to be home. Until our Lola finally welcomed us back into the family and her home—when my oldest brother knocked a girl up. At that point, I wanted a grandma I could love so badly, I did everything I could to please her. With all of us living in the same house, I almost had to. Survival. She and I became so close that when she passed, it hurt like hell—even with all the messed up stuff.

But she was never well off. She left most of what she had to my brothers, the two of them that have kids—including her house to the eldest. A couple of silver coins to my mom and I…Which is just to say, I don’t know what it’s like to even have the chance to inherit such a nice ‘cottage.’ I’m just grateful I get to dance for a living, even with people like—

Nope. I am not dealing with it.

“She means you can feel your feelings however you want,” Taara says sweetly, still glaring me down.

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