Page 8 of Thunder

“Whew, I almost got taken out by a tumbleweed flying out of that thing when you opened your legs. Luckily, the creaking gave me enough warning to avoid the projectile.”

“Oh my, God, Lex. You are the worst friend ever,” she bitched, but Nestea plunged beside her.

“Just because I’m not a slut, doesn’t mean I can’t be happy.”

“Wait, are you calling me a slut?” The mock offense in her friend’s voice was glaring. Lexi was comfortable with who she was in every way possible. She was also one of the best people Andy knew. She would give a kidney to a stranger, hell, she had done just about that. She’d given bone marrow to someone she’d never met. Never boasted about it, never complained, never posted about it on her social media, just did it quietly. Even when she got a post-extraction infection and had to stay in the hospital, Andy was the only one who knew.

“Duh. You know you are.”

Lexi interlaced their fingers as they stared up at the ceiling. “Yeah, I am, but I’m happy and not hurting anyone else, and isn’t that all that matters?”

They laid there in silence for a while before Lexi turned and rested her head on Andy’s shoulder. “That’s what I want for you, to be happy again. You haven’t had that spark for three years. Not since you stopped fighting.”

Andy missed it so much, but the truth of the matter was, she was scared. Not much in life had ever scared her but taking another blow to the head did. If she weren’t able to create beautiful works of art on people’s skin, she would die inside. Fighting was great. Hell, most of the time it was better than sex. The rush anyway, and it lasted longer, but tattooing was her Zen.

“Honestly, Lex, it isn’t fighting that took it away. I mean, I miss it, but it’s something else. Something that’s lost to me and I don’t know what or how to get it back.” Andy had seen countless doctors over the years. Even tried hypnotherapy in an attempt to remember those few hours before the fight and the fight itself.

Everyone told her to leave it alone, it wasn’t important. Everyone but her best friend who understood her. Lexi had channeled Nancy Drew and pieced together so much of her night. Because her smoky eye and mini-skirt had beenon point—asLexi had told her when she’d left the apartment that night, it meant something. She remembered that and saying goodbye to Fern.

Good thing she’d looked hot as fuck—Lexi’s words—because a lot of people remembered her. Lexi had collected enough information and a few cell phone pics to cobble together most of her night. All but about twenty minutes of it.

But it was those twenty minutes that haunted her. No more than twelve hundred seconds in her entire life, but they felt like very important seconds.

“Maybe something major happened to you, maybe nothing happened to you. What I do know is that twenty minutes is robbing you of all the future minutes you have. You refuse to live. Hell, you won’t even really date.”

Andy looked down at her friend’s head on her shoulder. She flexed to show her displeasure. Lexi’s words hit a little too close to home. That didn’t sit well with her.

“That’s not true at all. What do you call tonight? Hmm, Miss Slutty Pants?”

“I call it, ‘I was already forcing you to go to this party with me and you just caved into Blast because he was in your chair for four hours, and you were already going.’ That’s not a date. That’s a ‘hey, I’ll have someone to talk to if Lexi heads to a room to get her daily dose of vitamin D.’ That’s what I call that.”

“That’s not…” Andy trailed off; it was true. She was already going to the party and Blast was a nice guy. She felt bad turning him down cold, so she played it safe.

Lexi raised her blonde head and rested her chin on her hand. Making uncomfortable eye contact with Andy before speaking.

“Look, I get it. Twenty minutes isn’t a long time in the grand scheme of life, but twenty minutes you can’t remember is massive. Especially when it nags at you because you have an emotion attached to it you can’t explain. So, I am not making light of how you feel. But is it worth obsessing over for years?”

Lexi was one hundred percent correct.

“Let’s see, twenty minutes. Maybe you hit the Lotto—”

“This is Nevada, we don’t have Lotto.”

“Look, smartass, I am trying to make a point. Maybe you crossed the line and bought a winning ticket. Maybe all your numbers hit in Keno. Maybe you ate the most perfect piece of cheesecake that was ever made, and you wept like a baby. Maybe you met the love of your life and he was waiting at McCarran for hours to whisk you away before he gave up and moved on. I get it. Missed opportunities eat all of us alive, we wish we could get a do-over.”

Tears started to sting Andy’s eyes. “Yes, that’s exactly how it feels.”

“But, isn’t it equally likely, that you drank a warm energy drink, ate something salty and bad for you from a vending machine, and spent the other fifteen minutes taking a shit in a public bathroom? Maybe you stepped in gum and that time was devoted to cursing and scraping.”

Lexi stood and pulled Andy to her feet. She cupped her cheeks and looked at her exactly how a best friend should. With all the love in the world but laced with reality and hard truths.

“I’m not saying you give up trying to figure it out. All I’m saying is don’t focus so hard on those seconds of your life that you turn a blind eye to what’s happening now. Moments yet to come even. Moments that will never be if you are living in the past.”

Lexi is right.

“Blast is a great guy, one of the best. Hell, all the Phantoms are. Give it a chance. Go to this party with him, not me. See what happens. If there’s no spark, well, at least you had a good time and met some new friends. Besides the guys you’ve already met at Horns.” Lexi went into the closet.

“Oh, Ripley and some of the Angels might put in an appearance, so you’ll be right at home.”

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