Page 22 of Saving Micah

“You say that about every one of them.” She giggles a little because she’s right. She smells nice no matter what she wears. It’s her natural scent that I smell through all the fragrance.

At Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, we all sit down at a table in the middle of the open room. Micah has her hand on my knee. I know it is for stability and I like it.

My mind constantly fights with me.

She needs me. I can help her.

I’m nothing but a bad memory for her. I need to walk away.

Right now, I am ok with staying with her. Every day isn’t that simple. I’ve wanted to move away more times that I want to admit but, I also never want to leave her.

Therapy has gotten stagnant for me. I need something new to restructure myself. Fix myself. So, I can help her in the future. Hopefully.

We laugh at all the shrimp choices. Levi tries to say them all really fast but keeps getting choked on his laugh.

“Man, shut up and order one of them. I’m starving over here.” I tell him.

He whines, “I don’t know which one I want.” Then he looks serious for a minute. “How about we order all of them and all six of us eat whatever we want?”

“That sounds good to me. What do you girls think?” I ask as I look at Micah and then Kelly and Macy.

They all nod their heads in agreement.

“Ok. Let’s pick the six best things and we will eat off each plate or something.” Everyone looks at the menu to choose something.

“I think I’m going to just order the fried shrimp. That’s what I want the most.” Micah says, next to me.

“That sounds great. Save me one.” I tell her as I shoot her a wink.

She smiles.

Our waitress, who has Levi’s full attention, comes to take our order and I let Micah tell her what we want, with Levi helping her out some. Once she walks away with a slight pep in her step, we all start to converse about what we plan to do tomorrow.

“I don’t want to get up super early, you guys. This is supposed to be a vacation. Don’t you get to sleep late on vacation?” Kelly says from her place at the end of the table.

“Yes. You are supposed to sleep late on vacation but, sleeping until lunch time isn’t what that statement means.” Chance says as he stares at her.

When she blushes, I bite my lip to keep the laugh inside.

Kelly - she will sleep her whole life away if she could. That woman could put Sleeping Beauty to the test.

One day last summer, we didn’t hear from her for two days. When Micah went to check on her, she was still in her pajamas that she had on the last time Micah saw her.

Three days before.

“I know that. I’m not talking about that late, you dork. I’m talking like ten or something.”

Micah speaks to Kelly like only she can. “Honey, you can sleep as long as you want. This is your vacation too. But be warned, you may miss some things as we all can’t do that.”

Kelly just nods her head and takes a sip of her drink while she side-eyes Chance.

After eating, we decide to head out to the beach to just walk the shore.

We want to enjoy the feel of the sand and the water and the wind.

I park the van in the parking lot and we all take our shoes off to leave in the car. As we make our way towards the water, I pull out my phone and turn on some music.

It’s dark, even with all the lights from the hotels on this side of the highway.

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