I stared at Vera’s name.
And right on fucking cue, a text came through.
I know ur thinking about me Hil. Had to fly away again. Oops. Did you find ur ride?
I smiled.
I looked at BFH and shook my head. I looked back and saw Mookey slamming his truck door shut.
I thought about Werthwood’s car missing and all the craziness that seemed to just hang around my life.
And yet the craziest of it all was what I wanted most right then.
Fucking Vera.
Chapter 12
She was going to be out of town for another three days.
The first thing that went through my mind was she was doing something with her boyfriend. The one that didn’t exist, but maybe did.
To kill some time, I found Tommy at the end of the day.
Surrounded by his buddies.
I let out a quick whistle and they all scattered, running for their lives.
But not Tommy.
He stood and stared at me.
Eyes locked tight. Through his fucking glasses.
“You know what I’m going to do, right?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he said.
“You know what you did, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Was it worth it?”
“Kind of,” he said with a grin.
“You used my name to get a girl?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he said. “It worked, Hil.”
I grabbed his shoulder and looked around.
All of his buddies were watching. A few girls too.
That meant I had two choices with Tommy.
I could knock him on his ass where he probably belonged. Or I could make him royalty.
I squeezed his shoulder tight.
“Shit, ouch,” he whispered.
“I know,” I said. “So here’s the deal. Anything I ever need, you’re my guy. No questions asked. And you never fucking talk about it. Ever.”
“Okay… I’m sorry… Hil…”
I let his shoulder go and stepped back. I made a fist and he cringed.
But I just held my fist out.
“Do it,” I said.
Tommy threw his fist into mine.
I winked at him and turned away.
What the fuck is wrong with me?
I had no idea what was wrong with me.
I shook my head and looked at his buddies.
“What the fuck do you want?” I called out.
They all jumped and scattered again.
I looked to two of the girls staring.
“Come here, beauty,” I said. “I’ll write my name with my tongue in your mouth.”
They both looked down.
I snapped my fingers and turned back again and pointed at Tommy.
I motioned for him and he ran toward me.
See, that would have been a perfect time to punch him. Him thinking we were cool and then WHAM! he would be out cold for days.
Instead, I grabbed his shoulder again.
“I got some info about Werthwood’s car,” I said to him. “Heard some asshole all decked out in a black hoodie and sunglasses and shit was telling the freshmen about it. With the fucking car. Near the busy pier. Keep your eyes open, okay? See what the others say too. You’re a good, smart guy, Tommy, so use that and help me out.” I moved my eyes and saw the two girls staring again. “Now what I need you to do is light up a cigarette, choke back the feeling like you’re going to puke, and then go talk to those two pretty girls staring. Give them the best five seconds of their lives.”
“I don’t have any cigarettes, Hil,” Tommy said.
“Then get some,” I said.
I winked and walked away for good.
I spotted Tara as she started to get into her fancy little blood red race car looking thing that her Daddy bought her for staying another year in this world.
She was a broken home BFH’er. Her mother took off with a seven figure check and wrote back once in a while. And because of that, her father did anything she wanted him to do for her.
I loved a girl with a chip on her heart.
That wasn’t exactly Tara, but it was enough to chase away the thoughts of Vera in Vancouver with some boyfriend.
If any of it was true.
Before Tara could get into her car, I caught up and grabbed the door.
“Driving out of my heart, beauty?” I asked.
She looked up at me and smiled. She lifted her sunglasses and squinted her eyes.
“What do you want, Hil?”
“Just a little time, that’s all,” I said.
“For what?”
“Oh, come on, you know what.”
Her cheeks turned red.
“A long walk on the beach,” I said. “Me holding your hand. I can whisper stuff in one ear that will warm you up while the sound of the ocean in the other ear will cool you down.”
“Wow,” she said. “That’s smooth.”
I crouched down and grabbed her hand. “You know where to meet me, right?”
“Hil…”
“Just swing by after dark, beauty. I’ll be hanging on the rocks. Just sitting, having a smoke, thinking of you.”
“Ohmygod…”
She was flustered as hell.
Next to her, her phone started to ring.
She looked quick. “Shit. That’s Lorna. I have to go. I’m supposed to… I mean, okay. Fine. Whatever works. Just…”
“It’s okay, beauty,” I whispered. I pulled her hand toward my mouth and kissed it. “Just relax. Nothing to worry about. You don’t have to tell anyone. I’ll be your secret. I like that.”
I stood up and she just stared.
Confused… of course.
I was confused too.
She was the first girl I saw.
I needed something to take my mind off of Vera.
Sorry, Tara, you’re going to get your heart broken too in this war.
Her phone started to ring again.
“Fuck,” she whispered. She grabbed her phone and answered it. “Dammit, Lorna, I’ll fucking be there. Okay? I’m talking to someone.” She shook her head. “I’m not a bitch, you’re a bitch.”
She ended the call and looked up at me again.
“You better get going,” I said. “I’ll see you later.”
I shut the door for her.
Through the tinted glass windows I saw her mouthing something.
It was something along the lines of ohmyfuckinggod.
Tara drove away and behind me I heard clapping.
One set of hands.
Little hands.
I knew who it was.
I turned and folded my arms.
“Wow,” Belle said. “I mean… should I set up a memorial for her right here? What the hell are you doing, Hil?”
I moved toward Belle and curled my lip. “Don’t give me that shit, beauty. You know what I’m doing. And there’s only one reason you care. Because you’re jealous. Because you know what I’m capable of. No. You think you know what I’m capable of. You remember that day at the beach, right? My motorcycle… what happened…”
Belle reached up and grabbed my mouth. “I don’t live in the past because I don’t want that, Hil.”
She puckered her lips and kissed the air.
She took her hand away and I kissed the air too.
“There,” I said. “It’s like you just cheated on Ash with me.”
Belle laughed. “Whoever this Vera girl is, she’s got you all fucked up. I kind of like it.”
I reached for my phone.
Nothing from Vera.
At least tonight I had something to take my mind off of her.
* * *
In general I wasn’t into the guitar thing on the beach. It was fucking stupid. And cliché. It was the easiest way to pick up girls and something about that just bothered me. You wanted me to play guitar, you better have something to offer me. And not just some rum stained eyes and a cute smile with t
he promise of maybe one night.
I could get that with a lot less effort than playing tunes that should have been on the fucking radio and streamed a few billion times.
But it wasn’t the worst idea Uly ever had when he texted me to bring my guitar to the rocks.
His theory was we were going to work on new songs.
I couldn’t pass that up.
So I got a fresh pack of cigarettes and threw my guitar over my back and rode my motorcycle to the beach.
Ash and Belle were already there. Playing some kind of flirting splash game at the shore. And then they started writing mushy shit in the sand only to let the water wash it all away.
Uly finally showed up with his guitar in one hand and Mara’s hand in the other.
I picked my favorite rock to chill on.
I lit a cigarette and got my guitar out of its soft case. That was the only way I could throw the damn thing over my back to ride with it.
After I tuned it, I started playing a little.
“Hey, beauty,” I said to Mara with a smile.
“Philip,” she said.
“You go that way, it’s going to end bad,” I said.
“Oh yeah?”
“I can make you blush and cry all in the same sentence,” I said.
“No you can’t, Hil,” Mara said.
“Oh I think I can. I’ve seen your mother. She’s pretty… well…”
“Stop,” Mara said. “No. Don’t. Just… don’t…”
“See?” I asked.
“Can we just write a song?” Uly asked.
“I’ve got one,” I said. “About the hot mama…”
“I hate him,” Mara said to Uly.
“I can hear you, beauty,” I said.
“I hate you,” Mara said to me.
“That hurts,” I said. “I’m sorry to hear that. You want to go write it in the sand? Like Belle and Ash are writing messages? So you can watch the water sweep it away? Like the tide takes your bad feelings away…”
“Hey, that could be a song,” Uly said.
I lifted my eyebrow at him.
Fuck… maybe it could be…
I strummed my guitar and stared at Mara with a grin.
She leaves her footprints in the sand, my heart the same. The water washes it all the fuck away. I reach for her hand, but it’s gone like the breeze, left with lavender shadow and my shaking knees…
“Come on, let’s do this,” Uly said. “We can do something about the water, the sand and shit.”
“That’s a good song title,” Mara said. “The water and the Sand and Shit.”
I pointed to Mara. “See? You have an edge to you. I like you even more now. Pretty Mara. Sexy Mara.” I strummed my guitar. “The one with the hot mama…”
Mara walked away.
I laughed.
Uly wasn’t laughing.
“Just fucking play a song, man,” I said to him.
“Yeah,” he said.
We ran through one of our old songs together, just to get in tune and ready for new stuff.
The ocean concept for a song was so fucking cliché but I was in a mood and let Uly take the lead on it. I mean, the ocean was cool. Kind of like the stars, right?
Fucking Vera.
I couldn’t get her out of my head again.
Running to the shore, take it all off, dancing in the wind, the white caps are your blanket, beauty, and you have nothing else to be afraid of. You can tell any story and I’ll believe you, because I’m too stupid to tell you to go away.
I growled.
Uly stopped playing. “What the fuck was that for?”
“What?” I asked.
“You growled at me.”
“I growled at myself.”
“Why?”
“Trying to put something together here.”
“Your screaming shit part?”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “You mean the part that saves the song?”
“What?”
“Oh, fuck off, Uly,” I said. “Singing about footprints in the sand? Messages to get washed away. Write a fucking message over here and I’ll piss on it. There. It’s washed away. Big fucking deal, man.”
“Hey, fuck you,” Uly said. “What do you want to write about? Your bare ass hanging out because you let some fucking psycho bitch steal your motorcycle and now you’re all mad about it?”
“I’ll fucking wreck you right now.”
Uly put his guitar down and jumped off the rocks.
I did the same.
“Oh, shit,” I heard Ash say.
“No!” Mara yelled. “No way this is happening. Uly, if you hit him I’m not going home with you.”
“Hear that?” I asked. “She’s not going home with you. I’ll take her home.”
“Say something again about her,” Uly said.
“Her or her mother?” I asked.
Uly jumped at me.
We only ended up grabbing each other’s arms.
Mara screamed like we were stabbing each other.
I broke my right hand free and made a fist.
Then I saw headlights from the corner of my eye.
I smiled and pushed away from Uly.
He slammed his hands into my shoulder.
“Cut it,” I said to him. “Someone is here for me.”
He looked.
Everyone looked.
It wasn’t Vera, but it would do.
* * *
Tara sat next to me on the rock. I leaned toward her and nudged my shoulder to hers.
“You can tell everyone you got a private show, huh?”
“Yeah,” she said. “You and Uly are really good. I remember when you used to play those shows…”
“We play now.”
“Yeah. But I mean back then. It was crazy. Weren’t you guys going to get signed?”
“Maybe.”
“I heard so many rumors.”
“Like what?”
“Just… stuff…”
“Give me something, beauty,” I said.
I slid off the rock to put my guitar away.
“Just… you were tied into Filthy Line.”
“Oh, right,” I said. “That was kind of true. Their manager was sniffing around. The label and shit too. It was a fun time.”
“What happened to it all?”
“Uly got stage fright,” I said. “Pissed himself in front of everyone.”
“What?” Tara called out.
“No,” I said. “I’m playing. It wasn’t that. It was…”
“What?” Tara asked. “I’ve always wanted to ask. But I never…”
I zipped up my guitar case and grabbed her hands and pulled her off the rock.
She let out a playful yell and put her hands to my chest.
“Some things are just secrets,” I said. “And if you want me to start spilling deep, dark secrets, then you better put something on the table that’s worth it.”
She let out breath and shook her head. “I don’t know what this is… but… it’s…”
“The problem with pretty girls like you is that you think too much.”
“Oh? So ugly girls don’t think?”
“They have no choice but to go with the flow,” I said.
“That’s kind of a dick thing to say.”
“Have you met me?”
Tara bit her lip.
Fighting that sense of regret already attacking her.
But we had plenty of time to work on that.
“I’m sure you have your secrets, right?” I whispered.
“Of course.”
“And all those wild rumors.”
“Wild rumors?”
“Yeah. Parties. You know…”
“Who told you about that?” Tara asked.
I laughed. “I wasn’t talking about anything in particular. But now I’m interested.”
Tara pushed herself away from me and covered her mouth. “Oh shit.”
“It’s okay,” I said. “You can
tell me anything.”
My phone buzzed on the rock next to my guitar case.
My attention moved to it in less than a second.
I dove for the rock.
“I guess I can tell you,” Tara said. “Just as long as…”
Tara’s voice droned on as I smiled when I saw Vera’s name on the screen.
But my smile faded when I saw her text.
Hil - come get me out of here right now. RIGHT NOW.
Chapter 13
I didn’t have time to really ask Vera what was going on or why. Just reading her text was enough to change all my plans for the night.
Ash, Belle, Uly, and Mara were still playing down at the water. Like a bunch of rich kids that had never seen the ocean before. Think of every cliché thing worse than writing I love u in the sand and that’s what they were doing.
Now, as far as Tara went, she had keys. She had a car. And she knew who I was.
I grabbed my guitar case, tossed it over my back, and told her I had to go.
Tara being Tara, shocked that I even gave her three seconds of my life, just stood and stared at me as I ran to my motorcycle.
Maybe she thought I was kidding.
Maybe I thought to myself I was kidding too.
In what world did I live in where a girl would text me and I would ditch another girl for that girl? Because I knew damn well with Tara it was going to be a decently fun night. Or at least fun enough that she’d walk the halls of BFH blushing tomorrow, wanting to hang out again. For even more fun.
Nope.
I was on my motorcycle, taking off out of there.
I didn’t even say goodbye to Them and the girls.
I picked up as much speed as I could for a few minutes but then had no choice but to slow down because I needed to know where the fuck Vera was.
I thought she was out of town? Away again? What’s happening?
As I came to a slow enough speed to ride with one hand, I texted Vera back. It was a sloppy text, but I was coming to get her. I just needed an address. A general direction. Anything.
Fuck, do I need a plane?
My mind started to figure out how to fly to her.
Ash’s father had a private jet.
It would take a lot of lying and coaxing to get him to listen to me, but I could pull it off if need be.
I was almost at a snail’s crawl when Vera texted me an address.
I read it twice.
HIL: a bay falls high novel Page 11
