Page 133 of As a Last Resort
But I knew how gossip was on the island.And I knew how my mom could blow things out of proportion.With her, it was like the telephone game with a firework finale; everything explodes by the end.
I was tired of letting elephants in the room squeeze me into the wall until I couldn’t breathe.It was time to stop fleeing.
The moment I turned onto Austin’s street I saw it.The bright red sports car was parked in his driveway like a flashing neon sign against all the little cottages.Leave it up to Vanessa to have an obnoxiously loud and irritating car that you just wanted to throw a rock at.
But maybe it wasn’t hers.Maybe he had a new friend over.Maybe Rex bought Lexi a new car.Or maybe he had a toilet leak and the plumber happened to be a car fanatic.
I slowed the car down just before his house.The big picturewindow in the front of his house had the curtains pulled, but there was a little sliver of light popping through on one side.I couldn’t see anything from the car.I’d have to get out to get a closer look.
If he saw me, it’d just look like I’m walking to the front door.I just needed a tiny peek to see if it was her or the plumber.Easy fix.
I pulled my car a house down just in case, and my feet carried me up the shell driveway until I could see the kitchen counter through the window.There was one barstool nestled underneath, and a pair of fair ivory legs, wrapped around the metal legs of the other.
My eyes wandered up.She looked more like a porcelain doll, one that would break if you shook her hand too hard.Her lips were a deep red, and against her ivory skin and long black hair, she looked like a version of Snow White if she didn’t have all those dwarfs to take care of and got a boob job instead.
She was glowing.
And she was smiling.
And he was laughing.I heard it.I couldn’t see him, but I knew that laugh.That was the laugh he gave when he was embarrassed.The one that started small like a chuckle then rumbled deeper in his chest.It was the laugh he gave me when I sat up on my knees in bed and lifted my arms above my head, waiting for him to make the first move.
She cackled and threw her head back.He leaned onto the counter and I caught a glimpse of his face.His head cocked to the side with a small smile creeping across it.It felt like watching a movie.A movie where you yelled at the screen, because the hero was about to kiss the girl who killed his mother, or kicked his dog, or cheated on him with his best friend and he didn’t know.
A scene where two people who knew each other so intimately barely looked at each other and all their clothes just fell to the ground.
I stepped back.I was going to throw up.It couldn’t be happening, but it was.She finally came to her senses and of course he would give her another chance.There was a time his entire life revolved around her existence.She had been his fiancée at one point, for heaven’s sake.They had spent almost a decade together.It didn’t matter that she had cheated on him.Or run off.
He had planned his entire life with her, and she had finally come home.
“Who are we creeping on?”I jumped at the voice from behind me.
“Mr.Crenshaw!”I whispered, swiftly backing up.“I was just leaving.”
“Anything good going on?”he asked, trying to peek around me through the curtain.
“Umm, I don’t know.I was just dropping something off.I’m done now.”I turned and beelined it for my car.
“I’ve got something I want to show you,” he whispered after me, hot on my tail.
“No!Definitely not.”I ran down the driveway and to my car.
I looked in my rearview mirror at Mr.Crenshaw, and a bright red sports car responsible for the knife through my heart.
I had missed my chance.
40
SAMANTHA
My cursor hovered over the SUBMIT CHANGES button for a solid sixty seconds.If I clicked it, I could make the last flight out.
I paced around my childhood room as I drafted five different texts to Lexi, each explaining in various ways how I’d miss the rehearsal dinner and wedding.They ranged fromHey!So I’ve got this flesh-eating bacteria thing happening so I can’t make ittoHey!I’m in love with your brother but he’s moved on with his skank ex and my heart is in a trillion pieces all over the floor and I can’t find enough superglue, soooo sorry!
I could hop on the plane and go back to my apartment in the city.Ivy would buy me a new fern.Again.I could put a picture or two up in my apartment.Buy a pillow that was an actual color.Maybe I’d even let her put me on a dating app, as long as she filtered out guys named Robby.And Austin.I could pretend Austin was just a fling.Like he wasn’t the most amazing person I’d ever met.I’m sure the feeling of drowning all the time would lighten up.Eventually.
I didn’t need to face Austin and have him hand my tattered heart back to me on a platter with theVword watching from the front row.
But fleeing was exhausting.Hiding was getting old.I was tired enough from the visit with Mom and running away took so mucheffort.I didn’t need Austin’s ghost haunting me for the next seven years.
