I looked up to the sky.
Vera pointed and drew, pointing out The Big Dipper constellation.
“There,” she said. “That’s my favorite. I love the big one. The little one is dumb. And some of the others are just… eh. Like people get obsessed over Orion and his belt. I’m like, bitch, check out this. Right?”
I laughed. “Wow, I may have pegged you wrong.”
“Why?”
“Stars? Really?” I looked down at her again. “I wouldn’t have guessed that with you.”
“And why not? You’re just going to judge me? Fuck you then, Hil. Wow.”
Vera turned and walked away.
“Whoa, whoa,” I called out. “You’re bailing after that? Seriously?”
“Fuck you,” she said. “I wanted to show you something and that’s how you treat me?”
“Because of stars?” I asked. “Screw that. You messed with me first, beauty. And then you fucked with my guitar. Nobody touches my guitar. Ever.”
“And I played a song for you,” Vera said. “I figured you were an asshole, but not this kind of asshole. Don’t fucking follow me.”
She stormed away again.
I gritted my teeth.
My head was spinning.
I looked up to the sky and curled my lip.
Okay, I get it. Stars. Cool. They come out at night. Go away when the sun is up. There’s stories about them. Mystery about them. Cool. Fine.
I growled under my breath and started to go after Vera.
Following her. Again.
I found her sitting near the edge of the beach.
Hugging herself, staring out to the ocean.
Tonight she was in jean shorts and a hoodie. Almost normal looking attire.
And she traded the skater style shoes for sandals.
I noticed her toes were painted. It was either orange or red or something like that.
The moonlight wasn’t bright enough to give it away.
Seeing her calmed me a little.
“I almost beat the shit out of someone to find you, beauty,” I said. “I had no idea what your clues meant. So I did it my way.”
Vera turned her head. “What?”
“There’s this hacker dude I know,” I said. “If he doesn’t do what I say, I beat him up.”
“Wow.”
“He found a way to track you.”
“That’s totally cheating, Hil.”
I crouched down next to her and looked down at her. “I don’t see it that way, Vera.”
“No? Then how do you see it?”
“I see it as… I wanted to see you so fucking bad and kiss you so fucking bad I would have done anything to make that happen.”
She slowly smiled. “Okay. That’s a good one. Really good, actually. I’ll give that to you. You’re still an asshole. And you still need to leave me alone.”
“How are you getting home?” I asked.
“That’s not your problem,” she said.
“I can’t leave without knowing you’re safe.”
Vera laughed. “Oh, so now you want to be the hero. You want to make sure I’m safe and sound because you think we’ll end up kissing, maybe more.”
“Is that so wrong?” I asked.
Vera tucked her feet under her and stood up. “Okay. Fine. Let’s go.”
She started to walk again and I went with her.
We walked past my motorcycle to the main road.
And once again, there was a car waiting for her.
It surprised me and pissed me off.
“I’m safe and sound, Hil,” she said. “Thanks for finding me. It was kind of fun. Until you ruined it.”
I grabbed her hand. “I don’t get the stars thing. I’m not going to apologize for that.”
“Wow,” she said. “Honesty. Okay. See you around then.”
Vera opened the door and I pulled at her hand.
She looked at me.
“You want me to lie to you? Tell you how cool the stars are? Try to make it seem like I know what the constellations are?”
“No,” she said. “You’re honest. I get it. Goodnight.”
I leaned toward her.
She grinned.
But then she got into the car without a kiss.
Fucking with me again.
She shut the door and put the window down.
“Maybe just look for a second, Hil. Maybe it matters to me. Maybe it saved me. From life. From myself. Or maybe it’s just stupid. I don’t know. But I like it.”
She puckered her lips, kissed the air, and put up the window.
The car drove away.
And, again, she was driving me insane.
Fucking insane.
I turned and looked up and found the goddamn Big Dipper again.
I waved my middle finger at the constellation.
I told myself right there I needed to forget about Vera.
Before anything truly crazy happened.
I lit a cigarette and my phone buzzed again.
C u l8r… again…
I shook my head.
This was going to be a very, very bad situation.
Chapter 9
There was more than a single moment when I figured I lost her.
Which was maybe a good thing in a sense.
I hadn’t heard from her in a few days.
And I wasn’t going to be the guy who just sent text after text like a damn pathetic loser.
If you weren’t going to answer me, beauty, then go kiss the stars.
That was about it.
I wasn’t going to bother Aya about her cafe to play another show.
I wasn’t going to stand up on stage with Uly and worry about his delicate feelings because I missed a note or word or changed something to have a little fun.
Fuck all of that.
I looked up to the sky for a few seconds and shook my head.
First off, it wasn’t even dark out yet.
Second off, I wasn’t fucking around with the stars.
And better yet… she got her feelings hurt by me telling the truth about my feelings?
How was that my fault?
I lit another cigarette and scrolled on my phone.
Looking up constellations.
For what?
I had no idea.
“I hope this is some serious thinking over here.”
I made my screen go dark and turned my head to see Uly approaching.
I sat on a giant ass rock near the ocean, wasting away another day in my life.
Uly jumped up on a rock next to me and took out a cigarette.
“Ash will be here in a minute,” he said.
“Wonderful,” I said. “My day is made.”
“Asshole,” Uly said.
We smoked in silence for a minute.
Then I looked at him. “Where’s your dork of a girlfriend? Studying something?”
“Fuck off,” Uly said. “You’re just jealous because you can’t even spell your name still.”
“Wow, that was hurtful, man,” I said. “You really got me there.”
“Oh yeah?” Uly asked. “Okay. Fine. What the fuck are you doing chasing around that girl? Are you kidding me? She’s just fucking with you. For fun. And you look weak when you let her do that. It’s like when you were…”
Uly stopped himself.
“Like what, Uly?” I asked.
Like with Penelope?
I saw movement from the corner of my eye and lucky for Uly it was Ash.
Shit, it was lucky for me too.
I wasn’t in the mood to fight Uly again. Not over the same old scars. Even if they still bled from time to time.
“Ready to talk now?” Ash asked.
“When weren’t we?” Uly asked.
“When this asshole didn’t show up to BFH today,” Ash said.
“I was sick.”
“Sick?” Ash asked.
“Love sick,” Uly said. “Chasing ass that he’ll never grab.”
“You know, once again, for the record here, I could have had both of your girlfriends,” I said. “Belle wanted it. Begged for me. And Mara? That girl never had a fun night in her life. Still hasn’t.”
“Yeah, if you say one more thing about Belle, I’m going to smash your head off this rock and throw you into the ocean,” Ash said. “Just keeping it simple.”
“I’ll keep that in mind, Ash,” I said.
“This is good,” Uly said. “We’re supposed to be kicking ass and keeping control of BFH. But look at Them.”
“It’s part of our charm,” I said to Uly. “If we’re in control and we’re willing to beat each other up, it just proves how fucking crazy we are.”
“Yeah, let’s steer this to crazy,” Ash said. “Mookey heard chatter. That’s what he said.”
“Did you break his jaw?” I asked.
“Werthwood showed up again,” Uly said. “You weren’t there for it.”
“Werthwood thought you were out doing something else,” Ash said to me.
“The guy is paranoid as fuck,” I said. “Wow.”
“Yeah,” Ash said. “But Mookey didn’t hear shit directly from anyone. It was just a chatter. A murmur. Whatever you want to fucking call it.”
“Meaning everyone was talking about it anyway,” Uly said.
“So it spread fast,” I said. “So it’s a fucking set up.”
“That’s what I was thinking,” Ash said.
I flicked my cigarette through the air and slid off the rock. “Of course it is. Someone grabbed Werthwood’s car. And then quickly spreads the word. It catches fire so fast nobody knows where they heard it because everyone is talking about it.”
“So what do we do?” Uly asked.
“We keep digging,” I said. “Put it on Mookey.”
“How?” Ash asked.
“If he doesn’t get something we make his truck disappear,” Uly said.
“We make him disappear,” I said.
“Fuck, that’s BC shit,” Ash said. “Go up there if you’re going to talk like that.”
“I’m just making a point, Ash. Calm down. We’ll figure it out.”
“Hey, what’s this shit you were talking to Tommy?” Uly asked with a grin.
Ash started to laugh.
“What’s so funny?” I asked.
“Tommy thinks you and him are friends now,” Ash said. “He’s using your name to pick up girls.”
“What a fucking prick,” I said. “I’m going to bury his head…”
“You asked him for help?” Uly asked.
“It was an emergency.”
“No it wasn’t,” Ash said. “You’re walking a fine fucking line, Hil. Wow.”
“It’s what I always do,” I said. “I like it. Okay? I’m a guy who can ride with it. So fuck off and leave me alone.”
“Not a problem,” Uly said. He dropped his cigarette to the sand and jumped off the rock to step on it. “I’m going to meet up with Mara.”
“And study some bullshit stuff,” I said.
“At least I know where my girl is,” Uly said.
“Mine too,” Ash said.
I nodded. “Take your shots at me. That’s fine. At least I’m not tied down. Looking at my phone. Worried about what time it is. I can do whatever I want.”
“Of course you can,” Uly said. “As long as it involves that girl. This is what you do, Hil. You get hooked. And I mean hooked. You just…” Uly shook his head. “Why the fuck do I care right now?”
“You’ve always had a jealous thing for me, man,” I said.
“Fuck you,” Uly said.
“It’s the music,” Ash said.
“What?” Uly and I asked at the same time.
“The music,” Ash said. “You two are on to something huge again. And it’s like the same shit is happening. In a way.”
Uly and I looked at each other. Then we looked at Ash.
He showed his hands, taking the hint.
This was nothing like Penelope.
I wasn’t even sure what we were doing with the music. We were just jamming. Having fun. Playing shows. Keeping Them in some sense of a limelight to make sure anyone and everyone at BFH knew who we were.
Then again, it was really fucking cool to be playing shows again.
Uly and I looked at each other again.
“I’m out,” he said. “I’m going to go spend time with my dork of a girlfriend.”
“Belle and I will join you,” Ash said.
“Maybe I’ll crash your little party,” I said. “Get both of them revved up for you.”
“Catch you around, Hil,” Ash said. “If you get into any trouble, give me a call.”
“Me too,” Uly said. “I want to take pictures.”
“Trouble?” I asked. “What kind of trouble could I possibly get into?”
At least that was something the three of us could laugh at.
* * *
Pick me up Hil.
Luckily she didn’t give me any clues and I didn’t have to go visit Tommy again. I still had a mental note to visit him because he was owed more than a few smacks to the head for telling people that I needed his help finding someone.
I was hoping to get a look at the house or life that Vera had been living, but no such luck. Her directions took me to a corner store on a random street just outside of the BFH area. Some three story antique shop where tourists with horny credit cards would spend anything to get a piece of something from the past.
She stood on the corner and finished her cigarette before climbing on the back of my motorcycle.
We didn’t even so much as say hey to each other.
The only thing she did was grab my shoulders and pull her lips to my ear.
“Take me to the beach! I want to go swimming!”
That was the command. The want. The need.
And I was all in on that.
I could handle seeing Vera jumping around in a bathing suit in the water.
So I took her to the beach.
I knew a perfect spot where we could be alone.
A spot with some private areas with big rocks and even a pier if we felt like taking a little walk.
It was all good with me.
Best part… it was just about to get dark out.
The sun had been setting all day (how fucking poetic) and there was about an hour of daylight left. The sky was slowly starting to turn different colors and then it would only be a matter of time before night overtook day.
I had to park my motorcycle about halfway between the road and the beach.
Vera climbed off first.
I took my helmet off and turned to face her.
Without hesitation, I touched her face.
She gasped. “What are you doing?”
“I found you. I get to kiss you.”
“No. That’s not how it works.”
“That’s how it worked last time.”
“This is different.”
“So it’s a new bag of tricks each time I see you?” I asked her.
“Yes.”
“That can get old really fast, Vera,” I said.
She grabbed my arms and pulled my hands from her face.
I nodded. “Thought you bailed on me, beauty.”
“Yeah? You were missing me?”
“Not missing… just… missing…”
“Oh, right,” Vera said. “Had to take a quick trip to Vancouver.”
“Yeah?” I asked. “For what?”
“Why’s that your business?”
“It’s not,” I said. “I’m just curious.”
“Because you want to know about me,” Vera said.
“Eh, fuck it,” I said. “Hope Vancouver was fun. Or not. I don’t give a shit, Vera.”
I turned and walked down to the beach.
As much as I didn’t really understand the stars, I definitely understood the ocean. Which was probably fucking stupid to admit. But the waves were good. I appreciated them. There was no nee
d to announce it. Or write songs about it.
I just liked it.
Simple as that.
“You like the ocean, Hil,” Vera said.
“Not really,” I lied. “I usually don’t swim in it or anything. I grew up here so I’m used to it.”
“I can see it in your face,” she said. “It’s the same face when you’re playing a show.”
I looked at her. “Yeah?”
“Totally.”
“You have a tell too, beauty.”
“Do I?” Vera asked.
She smiled.
Her eyes were so dark and crazy. With little spots of lighter brown to them. Like there was some good and normal because of the wildness. Her lips were as pouty as ever, today with a pink shade of lipstick.
“Well… what’s my tell?” she asked.
“That’s my business,” I said.
“Give me something here…”
“When I kissed you the other night, you liked it,” I said. “You liked that I found you. And just now, when I touched your face. You liked that too. You’re just trying to play it as some tough chick around me. I get it.”
“No, you don’t,” Vera said. “Want to know why I was in Vancouver?”
“Nope,” I lied again. “But you can tell me.”
Vera bit at the lower right side of her lip.
“Okay, you wanted to know…”
Vera put her fingers to her lips and sighed.
“I went to Vancouver with my boyfriend.”
* * *
The word boyfriend went through me hard.
I didn’t say a word though.
She slowly turned her head to look at me.
“Did you hear me?” Vera asked.
“I heard you,” I said.
“Well?”
“Well, what?”
“Well… you kissed me. And I’ve been flirting so much with you.”
“Your point?”
“What I just said!” Vera yelled.
I curled my lip, seeing my chance to kick open the door to knock Vera on her perfect ass.
I turned and slipped my hands to her face again. “If it was anything real, you wouldn’t be here with me. And if you think I’m afraid of what you just said, I’m not.”
I brought my lips to hers and she gasped again as I kissed her.
It was a slow, soft kiss. As much as my tongue begged to taste hers again, I pulled away.
As I moved away from Vera, I got a cigarette and lit it.
HIL: a bay falls high novel Page 8
