by Lucy Snow
I didn’t really know. I just knew that my father’s voice had sounded different this time, and it had alarmed me, and his words still echoed in my ears — “this one time, you’re going to show up with your father calls.”
Yeah, this time I’d show up, and we’d set each other straight, I’d show him all that I’d built, tell him all about what I’d seen in my travels around the world. The people I’d helped, the lives I had made better.
Even if he didn’t understand all that, I’d show him the numbers from the business I’d built while on the road, from the computers he still hated so much. He’d have to understand that.
We’d sign a peace treaty and end this war between us one way or the other.
And then…we’d get to the other issue.
Because of course, between a father and son, there never was just one thing.
My father was old school. He’d built his business on relationships, both with his employees and his biggest customers. And sometimes sealing those relationships, inking them in ink that never ran, took a little more than just a handshake over a dinner table, or a big contract worth more money than either party could imagine.
Sometimes they involved setting up your kids together and subtly and not-so-subtly trying to push them into getting married.
I’d resisted. She’d resisted. Both of us had resisted, and lamented how super awkward all of this had been over the years. I’m sure she was a lovely girl, but we didn’t know each other, and there was no way in hell I was going to even test things out, not with our parents watching from afar and gleefully rubbing their hands together.
We saw each other at parties and joked about it every so often. Sometimes it felt like an inevitability, but I could see it in her eyes and I was sure she could see it in my eyes — neither of us wanted this.
Our parents didn’t seem to care.
Nope. Not gonna happen. Not to Eames Beckett.
I knew my father’s side of the equation - I’d kept up with news about his company during my travels. Things weren’t going nearly as well as they had in the past. People were buying fewer cars these days — ride sharing services meant that cars were lasting longer and being used more, which lowered the overall demand for cars.
Car manufacturers were, in turn, buying fewer parts, both for new cars and for repairs. My father’s business was hurting; not quite on the rocks, but things weren’t looking great.
Her family’s business was in a similar way, and made different parts that worked in conjunction with ours. If we were to merge, I knew, the company would be in a much better position to get better terms from its customers and keep things going as the dynamics of the market changed.
But like I said, my father was old school. Her’s too. Neither of them liked the idea of a merger, not without each of them having some skin in the game, something to hold over the other.
And if that had to take the form of my father’s only son and his business partner’s only daughter getting married, well, that would work out just fine.
Except I wasn’t the kind of guy to go in for a marriage of convenience, so as soon as I turned 18 I dipped right out there and headed off to the first spot the globe stopped spinning, and hadn’t stopped for almost a decade. I was running away from two things that had been decided for me without my permission — a career and a marriage — neither of which I was willing to compromise on.
And now I was headed back.
What the fuck was I doing?
Fixing this.
The twists and turns of the hills came rushing toward me as I picked up a little speed.
I just wanted to get this over with.
I looked out the windshield up at the sky, keeping one eye on the road. This storm was going to get worse before it got any better.
Hopefully I’d miss the bottom.
CHAPTER 05 - AVERY
The curves of the hills we passed through didn’t make this trip any easier. The driver had slowed the bus down, but it still felt like we were going a little too fast, and each time we went over a bump, the churning in my stomach caught some air like when you tossed pizza dough up and spun it around before catching it. Needless to say I wasn’t really enjoying this trip anymore.
At the same time, as I pressed my face against the window to watch the storm batter the land around us and I marveled at just how much distance I had managed to put between me and Meridian when I had chosen to come to school here. It wasn’t that obvious all the other times I’d traveled along this road — which I didn’t do very often, because I mostly preferred to stay at school, but even so, this time felt different.
I finally realized it was because this time we were making the trip so slowly — it was as if we were agonizing over every foot traveled between the two, as if asking the question each time — are you really sure you want to do this?
I was more convinced than ever that going away to school was the right idea for me, if only to be away from the bright lights and constant sounds of the big city. Nature had its own sounds and lights, to be sure, but there wasn’t the sense of buzz around that never seemed to leave you alone while you were in Meridian.
At school I’d managed to take long walks alone, just listening to the soft ambient sound of the regular world, untouched by hustle and bustle of city life. As we drove through the darkening hills, it felt like I was getting a slowly moving movie version of that through the window of the bus, only this time I had to stop every couple minutes and wipe off the frost that kept forming.
It was absolutely worth it to be able to sit in this kind of heat, though - I was thankful for the bus driver for keeping the interior warm.
Every mile we drove took me closer to my family, and the pit in my stomach got bigger and bigger. I knew the conversation with them wouldn’t go well, and might take days to really get out there. At the same time, I knew it was for the best - I needed them to understand that this was my life and that as much as I loved them and wanted them to be happy, I needed to find my own path.
Naomi would be in the room, figuratively of course. Even though she’d been gone for years now, she still lived in the same house with my parents, and more than once I had wondered if, when no one else was around, they still talked to her like she was alive.
I knew they’d never really fully recovered from her passing, and at the same time , I knew they never really would. I wondered if it were possible. Naomi was older than me, and our age difference was enough that she and I hadn’t been close in a long time. I felt her passing more as an idea rather than something concrete, and I suppose I’d never really wrapped my mind around it either.
“How you doin’ back there?” I shook my head as the sound came piercing through the low hum of the bus’ cabin. It took me a moment to realize the driver was asking me — which made sense, cause I was the only other person here.
“F-fine,” I said, meeting his smile in the center rearview mirror.
“Gonna be just fine, rest of the trip,” the driver called back.
I waved, and he smiled back at me.
And then everything fell apart.
The next thing I knew the driver was cranking the steering wheel as hard to the right as possible, curses coming out of his mouth in a wave as the entire bus whined, trying to turn right.
I looked out the left side window on the other side and saw nothing but empty space filled with falling snow. Then gravity kicked in and I felt myself pulled to the side, straining against the seatbelt I was suddenly glad I was wearing.
We turned a long corner going way too fast and the sounds of grinding gears got even louder as the driver fought against physics to keep the bus right side up.
He was unsuccessful.
The last thing I remember was the anguished look he gave me through the central mirror before all the lights came crashing down and then I knew nothing.
***
Cold. The first thing I felt was cold.
Everything hurt and nothing was alright. I could fee
l the pain lancing through my body, arcing all over the place.
Even more than that, something was wrong.
Balance.
Gravity.
Something was off.
When I opened my eyes the world shifted from black to white in an instant. The sound in my ears was almost deafening and I felt more lightheaded than I ever had before.
My arms were outstretched, swaying in the harsh wind that whipped around me. I blinked, trying to dispel this bad dream, but no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t make anything go away. It was all real.
Finally my eyes focused and I was able to look around, and, slowly, when things finally started to fall into place and make sense, I realized that I was upside down.
Where the hell was I? What was going on?
The wind kicked up again and I shivered, clasping my hands together below my head to keep my fingers warm.
I was hanging by a seatbelt, the belt I was wearing on the bus…the bus from school to…Meridian! The holes in my memory filled themselves in slowly as I swayed back and forth, shivering.
Buses weren’t usually supposed to be upside down like this. At least not any buses I’d been on before.
A creaking noise, like metal tearing apart, emanated from all around me and I felt the bus shudder, like it was threatening to turn over again. I jerked my head around in fear, still trying to make sense of what was going on. How had I gotten here?
The driver. Where was the driver?
I was facing the back, so I gripped the belt around my waist and pulled on it till I turned around, looking toward the front of the bus. The driver’s seat was empty, and the floor, or, rather, the ceiling, underneath it was too.
He must have been thrown from the bus during the slide. The windshield was mostly gone, and a layer of snow had begun to form on the new floor.
I was all alone.
I pulled on the belt again, spinning around as slowly as I could not to disturb anything. Pieces of memories leading up to the accident floated back into place as I tried to figure out how I’d gotten here. There was a cliff, and a turn, and speed…
I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts. I could figure out the why later. First thing I had to do was get myself out of this belt and back down to the ground - I couldn’t concentrate with all this swaying back and forth doing a number on my already precarious sense of balance.
I reached up and gripped the seatbelt’s buckle.
“Stop!” A voice cried out, harsh and loud, even through the wind and the haze of the storm.
I turned around slowly, relief washing over me that someone else was here, even if he could have been nicer about it.
“Help me!” I shouted back as I turned, scrambling till the voice came into view.
“Hold on, just stay there and don’t move.” The voice sounded a little closer now, and I heard more creaking, like things were moving.
I didn’t think he understood just how scary this was. “Get me out of here!” Still spinning, still trying to get a good look at whoever it was, but I was still groggy and nothing made sense.
“Will you shut the fuck up for a minute? I’m trying to keep you alive!” came the retort. Whoever it was, they were being a dick.
“I’m the one stuck up here!”
“And if you don’t let me work, I’m gonna leave you there.” The voice was closer now, deep and rumbling. Or maybe that was the storm, I couldn’t tell anymore. Looking out the broken windows of the bus, I could see snow all around, and more falling.
“You wouldn’t dare!”
I finally turned all the way around and came face to face with an upside down man’s face. “Why are you upside down?” The words sounded wrong as soon as I said them.
“Listen to me,” he said, moving his face in close. “You’re the one who’s upside down. You’ve been in an accident.”
“No shit I’ve been in an accident!” I yelled back, trying to figure out what he’d look like if he, or rather, I, were right side up. “You think I like to hang out like this for fun!?”
He held up his hands, and for a moment I was afraid he would clap one of them over my mouth. “Keep it down!” He leaned back in and I could feel the warmth of the steam coming off his breath. “I don’t think you quite appreciate the situation you’re in.”
“Get me down from here!” As soon as I started shouting I heard a low rumble underneath.
He Shhhhh-ed me with one hand and lowered the other like he was taking something’s temperature. “That’s what I’m talking about, that right there. You feel that? Do you even know where the fuck you are?”
“I’m hanging by a seatbelt in a bus in a storm, with someone being really unhelpful right now. Does that about cover it?!”
He chuckled, and I saw the beginning of a smile forming on his upside down face. Dark hair, dark eyes. Chiseled, angular facial features. Cheekbones that could cut glass. “There’s a little more to it than that. The bus you’re in is at the edge of the cliff and there’s a snowdrift pressing against it. Make too much noise and it might send both of us flying a long way. I didn’t pack a parachute, did you?”
I tried to take all of that in but my mind pretty much shut down. I did understand the part about keeping my voice down. “Get. Me. Out. Of. Here.” I hissed as loudly as I could, immediately thankful that I didn’t hear the same rumble as before.
“I’m working on that, but you’re being a little difficult.” Again that grin. I hated it already. So smarmy, like he had all the answers.
Like anyone had any answers in the middle of a blizzard like this.
“I’m being difficult?! Who the hell are you?!”
Just when I closed my mouth I heard a catching sound, like a release, and then the world whirled and blurred as I flailed my body around, falling downward. In the moment before I hit I braced myself to hit the frosted-over ceiling of the bus below me, but just as I felt my fingertips brush against the metal, I landed in strong arms and felt my downward momentum stopped, way more gently than I had expected. My eyes were clenched shut.
“Relax. You’re alive, Princess,” the man said.
“Don’t call me that,” I whispered, before opening my eyes, one at a time, still unsure whether I’d go crashing to the ground as soon as I moved.
I felt us move a few tentative steps to one side before he spoke again. “This isn’t that kind of threshold, Princess,” I gasped when he said that last word, so soon after I had told him not to, “so I’m going to let you down now. You might want to open your eyes for this part.”
I opened my eyes one at a time just as I felt my feet hitting the ground - I could feel the cold snow through my shoes, even though they were the thickest pair I owned. Why didn’t I wear boots? With this storm coming on? Jeez, Avery. Way to plan ahead.
When I finally felt stable I waved away his hand and got a good look at him, such as it was, considering most of his head was covered by the hood of his thick jacket. What I saw could only be described as the very definition of tall, dark, and handsome. Those dark eyes, the hint of the short black hair peeking out from the front of his hood, the way his stubble just….mmmmm, now was definitely not the time for this.
“Take a picture, it’ll last longer.” He whispered, that grin coming back. OK, from the right side up it was way sexier, but also just as smarmy and self-assured. Maybe even more so, I couldn’t tell right now.
