Page 49 of True Honey
“To speak to my son,” Bradley reiterated.
“Try his cell phone again,” I said calmly despite wanting to tear my own hair out.
“Good to know you’re useless as always Drew, have a good night,” he snapped before the line went dead.
I set the phone on the counter, closed my eyes to breathe, and peeled off the dress, leaving it crumpled on the floor. Then I stepped into the shower and let the hot water drown out the noise in my head. Closing my eyes I let the sound of the high pressured stream wash over me and create a veil of white noise that cut off the world entirely.
I pressed my forehead against the cool tile wall and tried to breathe through the violent panic that filled me. I’d fucked up bad tonight it was only a matter of time before Silas got sick of me and August as charity cases. I couldn’t do a single thing right for him.
I could feel the disappointment in my bones, heavy like cement in my veins. And there was nothing I could do to stop it. August’s heart would be broken. My head was so foggy that I hadn’t noticed the temperature change, freezing against my hot skin. I stood there as long as I could before I finally submitted and turned the water off, wrapping myself in a towel to find some pajamas.
I wandered back into my room to find a box on my bed that wasn’t there before. I looked over at the door, still locked and wondered if I had missed it when I came in but the dress I had left on the floor was also gone.
The note on the top was signed ‘Mom sent over a few things as a welcome to Harbor gift. Silas’,but looking inside the box it was clear that he had gone out of his way to pick all of its contents.
There were two new sets of dark silk pajamas, a brush, two bottles of shampoo that probably cost more than three tanks of gas, new makeup brushes and makeup, along with tons of snacks I’d never seen before.
With tears streaming down my cheek I rubbed the fabric between my fingers, unsure how I felt about the gifts when I hadn’t done a single thing to deserve them.
SHORE
The wrench slipped and pinched my skin hard enough to make me swear and hurl it across the garage, earning me a dirty look from Arlo.
“What is wrong with you?” He grumbled from behind the hood of Josh's car.
The one thing that usually calms me down was only pissing me off and I can’t get the look of disappointment and fear on Drew’s face out of my head.
“Nothing.”
Arlo leaned out around the hood further and narrowed his eyes on me. He was covered in grease up to the forearms from working all morning to get the damn thing running again.
“I told you I’d just buy him a new one,” I said to him with a sigh.
“Did you tell him that?” Arlo chuckled and continued to work. The thing needed just about new everything and by the time we were done working on it, it would basically be brand new anyways. But it was slow moving because Josh was determined to pay for every part on his own. “It’s fine, I like being out here.”
“Yeah me too,” I said, continuing to hammer on the bike.
We’d spent countless hours here over the last fifteen years. It was the only place where nothing was expected from us. We could work in silence or spill our guts and neither of us bore any harsh judgement toward the other. The garage had heard every little secret and every difficult conversation we had ever had. It was a sanctuary.
“Alright,stop,” Arlo said, coming around the car. “You’re going to break something yanking on it like that,” he warned. “I know something's wrong because you’re never reckless with that bike. You drive that thing like someone’sgrandma. What’s going on?” He demanded, cleaning his fingers on the rag, his dark eyes watching me carefully for any twitch that might give me away.
Don’t think about Drew. I pressed my tongue to the roof of my mouth, but her laughter was already echoing in my skull. I remembered how soft her skin was and how good she smelled tangled in my sheets, tipsy off whiskey. The ghost of her laughter and moans were making it hard to keep it together.
He started to laugh, a knowing smile pressing across his hard face slowly.
“You like her.”
“Who?”
“Don’t play dumb,” he warned. “You know who.”
I shrugged and Arlo lunged at me with his fist in the air. He playfully shoved me sideways making me lose my balance and tip back into the concrete, “stop fucking around, you like the red head don’t you?”
“Drew?” I played dumb, laying back against the floor and inhaled one long deep breath as a smile formed on my face.
“No, it’s not like that,” I said, pushing up onto my elbows to face him.
“You’re so full of shit,” Arlo snapped, crouching down in front of me.
