Page 91 of Driftwood Daffodil
That couldn’t be it, could it? Out of everything I’d done to her, it couldn’t be a simple kiss that got under her skin. Fuck sakes, I tried to kill her twice. Full on strangulation murder her, and she never looked at me like she did when I kissed her.
I replayed the moment in my mind, going over all of her mannerisms. The way her anger spiked while she hugged herself, and backed away. That’s when it hit me… Novalee was hiding. Not from me, but from something else. Herself maybe? I needed to find out.
NOVALEE
After a long day of hard work, there was nothing like enjoying an iced cold refreshing drink out in the cool breeze. It was an almost perfect end to an otherwise crappy day. There was only one thing that could make it better. The slow and painful demise of Gio Mancini.
Swallowing down a mouthful of Maw Maw’s sweet tea, I leaned back in the patio chair and kicked my feet up on the banister. The cool liquid flowed down my throat, easing tension out of my muscles. The last time I felt like this was after running a marathon in school. Okay, it was more like laps around the gym but still… Phys Ed was cruel and unusual punishment as far as I was concerned.
Kind of like Gio Mancini. I bet that asshole loved Phys Ed. The athletic genius was all buff and in shape. It was seriously annoying. I found running to the bathroom exhausting. Maybe laps weren’t a bad idea.
The key to defeating one’s enemy was to think like their enemy. But did I really want to be one of those people that got up at the ass crack of dawn to go for a run?
That seemed like a monumental waste of time when I could simply have a sharp object on hand. Besides, I was more of an evening person. Everything looked a little magical in the moonlight. The trailer park was a perfect example of that.
I glanced around at the various porch lights glowing in the night.
Sault Saint Marie Estates wasn’t what I would call a picturesque place, but in that moment when the sun began to sink below the horizon, I could almost see the beauty that used to be here. It was as if the possibilities and dreams everyone had still lingered in the air, just out of reach, but close enough for hope to hang on.
Of course hope was an illusion. This place, with its potholes and plastic fences, was just as run down as the people in it. Once upon a time Mr. Garabaldi had a wife, or so they said. It was hard to imagine him in anything other than a bathrobe, let alone with a woman on his arm. The fantasy was nice though.
“Nova…”
Speaking of fantasies…
I inwardly grimaced at the sound of my sister’s voice.
Was it wrong that I missed the drugged out of her mind version of Veda I came home to the other night? At least she had some pep in her tone then, instead of the dull whisper of a voice she was using now.
Maybe Rita would give me some of those pills? If Veda wouldn’t take them, I could always use them. There were a fewthings I’d like to forget. Such as the taste I’d been trying to wash out of my mouth for the last four hours. Blueberries and sin should not be that sweet. Bastard probably ate healthy too.Pfft, prick.
Stupid Gio and his dumb soft lips could fuck right off. He’d clearly lost his damn mind, otherwise he wouldn’t have done what he did. And what he did would not be referred to as a kiss. Kisses were small gestures leading up to foreplay.
Or in Simon’s case they were bad attempts at cannibalism. Either way, kisses weren’t supposed to be soul sucking tingly sensations that left me weak in the knees. But that didn’t matter, because said not-kiss would only be referred to as ‘the event that shall not be named’–because as far as I was concerned it never happened.
After all, one didn’t name a mistake. Unless that mistake came in the form of a child, then it might be called Novalee. Although my mother said I was determined and not a mistake, since I defied all methods of birth control.
“Nova,” Veda called again. “Where are you?”
My mother also said that one day I'd want to be around my sister. Clearly her words of wisdom weren’t as insightful as I thought.
My teeth gritted as the screen door creaked open.
“Are you out here?”
If I said no would she stay in the house?
Veda’s footsteps smashed that hope to bits.
I took another sip of my drink while Veda shot me a scowl and dropped her hand on her hip. “Didn’t you hear me calling you?”
If I said no would she go back in the house?
“Are you just gonna stare at me?”
Was that an option?
Veda eyed the glass in my hand and took a step. “Are you drinking?”
