Page 55 of The Bridges I've Burned

I can’t say good-bye to my brother.

So, I didn’t.

I just kept driving, got on the ferry, and never looked back.

“You are a fucking coward,” I muttered under my breath as I took the exit that led to the Norfolk airport.

I’d been driving for hours without a single break, like I was punishing myself for sneaking away this morning.

I hadn’t even said good-bye to Elena.

Just a single text, after stealing her number when she let me borrow her phone.

Way to be both a jerk and a creeper at the same time, Z.

I pulled into a fast-food restaurant and parked, leaving the car idle as I let out a deep breath for probably the first time in hours.

I needed a minute before I drove into that airport.

Okay, maybe more than a minute.

A family walked past, the mother shouting ahead to watch for cars as the young girl and boy sipped from little apple juice boxes and pointed at something in the distance. Their parents smiled at each other fondly and reached out and clasped hands.

My parents had never looked at each other like that. I wasn’t even sure I had a memory of the two of them together that wasn’t coated in misery. What would Macon and I have been like if we’d had a childhood like those two kids? If our mom hadn’t died? If our dad had cared more about us than booze?

Would it have made a difference?

I looked down at my phone for the first time since I’d disembarked the ferry.

I had a few messages from Macon and one from Lance. I wasn’t ready to read the ones from Macon yet, so I skipped ahead to the one from Lance.

Lance

Call me ASAP.

That didn’t sound good.

He picked up on the first ring.

“Are you still in North Carolina?” he asked. No hello. No hey, how are you? Just straight to the point. That was how Lance rolled when he was working. He rarely let our personal relationship bleed into his role as my manager, and I respected the hell out of him for it.

“On my way to the airport,” I answered, which was technically true. He didn’t need to know that I was currently sitting in a McDonald’s parking lot, having a bit of an existential crisis as I pondered my life choices and berated myself for bailing on my brother.

“Any chance you’d want to stay for a bit longer?”

Now, that got my attention. I sat up in my seat. “Why?”

“Check your phone. I just sent you another text.”

He couldn’t just tell me?

I pulled the phone away from my ear and tapped on a celebrity news post he’d sent.

My world tilted.

Zander Tate reported to replace Mitch Zegler as lead guitarist for Manic at Midnight.

“You still there?” he asked.

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