Page 83 of Starry with a Chance of Nightshade

ChapterTwenty-Eight

Astria

“What’ll it be?”asked the man at the window, looking bored with life and his job. I didn’t recognize him as someone who had worked there when I had.

The teens at the side table kept watching Stratton closely as they whispered to one another. Three of the boys pulled skateboards out from under the table and nodded to the others. They then took off, cutting through the parking lot, jumping a divider, and landing in the parking lot for the business next door that was currently closed. They kept going, skating behind it and out of sight.

Stratton stared at the overhead menu and curled his lip. “Do you have a salad or something like that?”

I snorted as the man gave Stratton a look that screamed “what do you think?”

“Uh, I’ll take an un-breaded, grilled chicken sandwich with no bun, but with extra lettuce. And an unsweet tea,” said Stratton before glancing at me. The man had just invented his own version of a salad there.

“Yankee,” mouthed the man at the window as he wrote down Stratton’s order.

I ordered their standard chicken on a stick and fries, along with a soft drink, earning me a nod of approval from the man at the window. He shook his head as he glanced at Stratton one last time before Stratton paid him.

I laughed. “How in the world did someone like you end up here in Grimm Cove?”

“Someone like me?” Stratton asked as he led me to an empty table.

I took a seat and much to my delight, he sat next to me rather than across from me. “If you’ll recall, I was there when your coffee order was announced. Kind of stands out around here.”

He straddled the bench, a leg on each side as he faced me. “I guess it does.”

“Stratton is an interesting name. Were you named after someone?” I questioned.

“My family is sort of fond of offbeat names,” he replied in an evasive manner. “What about you? Astria isn’t common. How did you come by it? Family name?”

I shook my head, my attention going down to my hands as I folded them and placed them on the checkered tablecloth. “My mom, she loved looking at the stars. Loved everything to do with the night. She named me Astria because of that and when I was little, she’d take me out back and look through a telescope with me. I have really strong memories of that time with her, but limited ones of anything else. And sometimes, I forget her face. I don’t have any pictures of her. I did for a while but they weren’t able to travel with us with each move.”

“Did your parents split, or did she pass?” he asked.

I swallowed hard. “She died when I was little in a car accident. I went to, um, live with my aunt. She raised me and was very good to me. I just wish at times that I had a picture of my mother. Something to remember her by. Something more than her smell, her laugh, and her hand touching the telescope. That’s burned in my brain, but her face—it’s not anymore. The face that I can remember for her, it’s not a good one. It’s the one she had after she passed away.”

I left off the bit about her getting turned into a monster by my insane father.

Stratton’s hand slid over mine. “I can try to track down a photo of her if you want.”

I tensed. “No. Thank you though.”

He caressed my hands. “You said you went to live with your aunt. What about your father? Wasn’t he in the picture?”

I glanced away.

He eased closer and I was fine with that. “This isn’t me interrogating you, it’s just me making conversation. I was kind of hoping you’d tell me a little more about yourself.”

I took a deep breath. “My father, he lost custody of me when he ended up in jail. Before you ask, yes, he’s still there.”

Not the total truth but not a total lie either.

I glanced at Stratton. “Aren’t you going to push to know what he did?”

“No,” he said. “If you want to share it with me, you can. If not, I understand. I just like getting to know you better.”

I took a few moments before I spoke. “My father was involved in a series of murders. There are other things he did, things too horrible to talk about. I’m glad he was put away. I hate knowing people died because of him. I just wish what he did ended then and there. It didn’t.”

Stratton put his hand on my upper back and rubbed it lightly.

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