Page 40 of Crybaby

Although I feel like a total ass for ditching Darcie, I know she’d understand. We do what we have to, to survive.

“I want to tell you about him. But…I’m not ready.”

And this is something I’ve also heard before.

“Well, I’m not interested,” I rebuke because I’m sick of the pedestal she has him on.

“You need to know. You need to know who he is. Who your—”

“I know who he is,” I reply. “He is someone who doesn’t deserve a second of my time.”

“Aug—”

“Mom, enough!” I repeat, suddenly irritated she has “seen the light,” only to talk about this motherfucker—he’s the reason she is the way she is. “I don’t have time for this.”

“Don’t have time for your mother?”

“For fuck’s sake,” I mumble under my breath as I ensure the coast is clear. It is. “You don’t get to do that. You don’t get to unload all your bullshit just because you want to have a chat. I’m not a little kid anymore. We are doing this my way.

“I need to drop Darcie off, then I’ll be home, and we can talk all you like.”

The moment I hit the sidewalk, I exhale in relief because that was fucking close. I don’t like close calls, which means I need to work harder to get out of here sooner.

“Who’s Darcie?”

“Just a girl…”

“There’s no such thing.”

And for once, June and I agree on something.

I never gave leaving this town a second thought, but now, I actually think I’ll miss it, and that’s because of the girl who’s set my world on fire—in every sense of the word.

“I—”

That sentence never eventuates, however, because a blood-curdling scream, followed by the piercing shrill of a car alarm, chills me to the bone…

And then they were done.

I had nothing more to offer.

Suddenly, I’m alone. The belt’s gone from my head. My mouth lays in a sticky pool of saliva against the bench seat. I lift my head, and my neck crunches. I begin to vomit. Hot bile from my stomach with the stench of whiskey.

I purge every last one of them from my insides out. I have no one to hold my hair back. My head is spinning, but I stand.

My hands are shaking, and every nail is broken with dirt filled beneath them. I wipe my mouth with my forearm.

A beast was born within me tonight.

I stomp out onto the wet grass and cross the field toward the dimly lit parking lot. I can see Rev’s car still parked there, watching me approach as if mocking me. I wonder if he’s in the back seat with someone from prom.

Marching forward, I swipe the frost from the driver’s window to peer in and then bang on the glass. No one is in the car. Where the fuck is he?

I begin to wonder if the evil trio had kidnapped him after leaving me. I knock on the trunk of the car. No one’s inside. Unless he’s gagged.

“Darcie?” a soft voice behind me asks.

It’s Carson.

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