Page 32 of All Along

“You shouldn’t be in here.” My voice wavers.

“W-w-we shouldn’t be in here?” Harry pretends to stutter as he prowls toward me.

“You heard me,” I force the words out and Harry stops in the middle of the kitchen a few feet from me.

Alan cackles. “We did? You barely spoke louder than a mouse.”

“Holy shit!” Joe shouts. “It is a mouse. It’s Mouse from junior high school.”

I cringe at his use of my old nickname. I thought the nickname would be forgotten after these three moved away from Smuggler’s Hideaway. But now they’re back. I hope they’re not back for good. They don’t belong on the island. Smugglers aren’t assholes. Sneaky troublemakers is more our style.

Harry crosses his arms over his chest. “Poor mouse working all alone in the kitchen and missing the party.”

Alan elbows him. “She probably wants to miss the party. It’s much too scary for a little mouse at such a big party.”

Joe sneers. “The little mouse doesn’t have a defender anymore.”

I wish Caleb was here now. He’d wipe the floor with these idiots.

“Who would defend her?” Harry asks. “She’s just a mouse.”

“Who could love a mouse?” Alan adds.

I flinch. His words hit much too close to home. It’s hard to feel loveable when the people who should love you unconditionally label you a traitor and refuse to have anything to do with you.

“Ah, look at her. She’s cowering in the corner. Poor little mouse.” Harry sticks out his bottom lip in a fake pout.

“You need to leave.” My words are barely above a whisper but I said them. “This area is for personnel.”

“Personnel?” Harry snorts. “The mouse who thought she was too good for us in junior high school is a dishwasher.”

I’m not a dishwasher but I don’t care to correct his assumption. It doesn’t matter what he thinks. He doesn’t matter.

“You need to leave,” I repeat a bit louder.

Joe pulls on Harry’s sleeve. “Let’s go. This is boring.”

“Yeah,” Alan says. “There’s nothing to see here.”

Harry nods in agreement. “Just a little, unlovable mouse.”

They stroll toward the door. Joe and Alan walk away without a backward glance, but Harry turns around to wave. “Bye, little mouse. Have a nice life living all alone on this stupid island.”

I watch as the door closes behind them. I wait a few seconds before allowing the tension in my body to release.

I’m glad those assholes left the island after graduating from high school. They don’t embody the feel of a smuggler.

But were they correct?A little voice asks.Am I unlovable?

All my insecurities come roaring back to life. Insecurities I thought I’d left behind after I moved out of my parents’ house. I’m not a nobody. I finished college. I founded a brewery. I helped make the brewery a success.

All true. But what about love?

Chapter 13

“How hard can it be to cook dinner? I can stare down insurgents.” ~ Caleb’s famous last words

Caleb

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