Why did my shoe fall off?
“Get the truck unlocked,” Cole tells her.
The door squeals in protest at being opened. Zoey climbs in first, taking the middle seat, and Cole shoves me in beside her.
“I’m going to be sick.”
“Don’t throw up on me!” Zoey shrieks in horror.
Leaning out of the truck, I empty my stomach on the ground. Cole groans, muttering, “At least you missed my shoes.”
I don’t remember the drive back to their apartment, but I do remember getting dragged up the stairs and dumped on the couch.
“Sleep it off,” Cole commands. He doesn’t sound disgusted, just worried. I don’t know why. I’m fine.
“Whatever you say, Dad.” I kick off my shoe, Zoey still has the other one, and drape a blanket over myself.
“Goodnight.” Zoey ruffles my hair as she passes by me.
“Mmm,” I hum back.
Cole chuckles from the area of the kitchen.
Crooking my arm over my face, I fall asleep.
“Wake up.” Zoey shoves what I assume is her foot into my ribs. “Cole’s making breakfast.”
“Food,” I grumble, waking to the smell of bacon. As I become more aware, I realize I have to take a piss. “Ugh.” I sit up slowly, head pounding. Cole knows better than to let me fall asleep after a night like that without drinking water and taking an aspirin. Fucker probably just wants me to suffer today.
“Go wash up.” Zoey comes into focus, her curly hair pulled up on top of her head. “You smell like a zoo.”
“Thanks for the compliment, Mom.”
“You’re welcome, Fido. Who’s a good boy?” She pets the top of my head. I playfully swat her hand away.
My body creaks and groans as I manage to stand and waddle down the hall to relieve myself. I feel loads better having an empty bladder. Grabbing some of Cole’s toothpaste, I put some on my finger and swipe it over my teeth before rinsing. It’s better than nothing. I steal some of his cologne too, dabbing it on my skin so I won’t smell like the zoo Zoey accused me of.
When I leave the bathroom, breakfast is ready. My stomach rumbles with the promise of greasy bacon.
“How are you feeling this morning?” Cole lifts a cup of coffee to his lips, eyeing me over the rim.
“Like death or close to it.”
He chuckles. “You were really pouring it in last night.”
“Yeah, well,” I stir my fork around in my scrambled eggs, “I miss her.”
“None of this makes any sense,” Zoey says softly, like she doesn’t want to startle me, which is unusual for her. Normally she loves to give me shit.
I shrug indifferently, like none of this matters. Taking a drink of orange juice, I go over that night again, pouring over every detail in my mind. I always stop, coming back to the fact of my father trailing behind her. Things were good with us, I’m not that oblivious, and I know in my gut he has something to do with this, but if I can’t get her to talk to me, what am I supposed to do?
I must say the last part out loud because Zoey gives me an incredulous look. “Jesus, Teddy, I don’t know maybe send her flowers or something? Girls really aren’t that complicated.”
Cole chuckles into his eggs. “You stay out of this,” I grumble at him.
He only laughs harder. Jerk.
I leave their apartment and return to my dorm, grabbing another sheet of paper and writing down my thoughts. I feel a little better when I finish writing and fold up the paper, but it still doesn’t entirely erase the ache settling into my bones. The only thing that will fix that is getting Vanessa back.
40
Vanessa
My feet ache from being on them for hours working. I’ve been picking up extra shifts when I can, needing to save every penny I can because I refuse to move back to White Claw. I love my parents, but I can’t go back there and deal with my sister and Tristan who will no doubt begin popping out kids soon.
I need distance to build my own life and focus on my dreams. Am I going to have enough money to go to New York City? Definitely not, but maybe I can make it work somewhere else and build things up and then get there. Dreams don’t come true overnight. They take work.
I sit down for my break with a glass of fresh lemonade and a B.L.T. sandwich with fries. I know I need to eat, I barely ate breakfast, skipped lunch, and it’s past dinnertime now, but even looking at food has my stomach rolling.
It’s been two weeks since I broke up with Teddy. Stupidly I thought by now I’d feel better, not worse. Every single day I wake up aching all over, my heart heavy in my chest. I did this to myself, I know, but I had no choice. Teddy is too close to gaining access to his inheritance to lose it because of me.
Fixing my ponytail, I glare at the plate of food like it’s personally offended me.
“What’s wrong with you?” Hailey, one of the other waitresses asks me.
“Haven’t been feeling the best.”
Her lips purse in speculation. “You’re not pregnant, are you?”
“No,” I scoff, offended by the suggestion.
She shrugs. “It was just a question. Don’t get so pissy.” She moves away from me, checking on one of her tables.
Resting my head in my hand, I nibble on the end of a fry. When it goes down okay, I eat another. My classes wrap up this week, with graduation the week after. I should be excited, downright ecstatic, but I feel numb. I hate that such a monumental moment is being ruined for me all because I fell in love. Love is stupid. I should’ve known the day I returned to campus and couldn’t get into my dorm that it was some sort of omen. Clearly, I didn’t listen to what the fates were telling me.
A body slides into the booth across from me, and I jump at the surprise intrusion. Jude places his muscular arms on the table, lacing his fingers together. Lowering my eyes from his stare, I push my plate away. I had no appetite to begin with, and now I really don’t have one.
“Haven’t seen you in a while, so I thought I would drop by.” He picks up my discarded straw wrapper, ripping it into tiny shreds.
“You’ve gotta stop showing up to my job like this.”
He rolls his eyes. “Maybe I really want a burger. Who are you to judge?”
“Tell me why you’re here and stop wasting both our time.”
He leans back in the booth, draping his right arm along the back. The shiny red vinyl squeaks as he moves. “I guess I’m waiting for one of you to get your head out of your ass and fix this.”
“Jude.” My shoulders deflate. “Let this go.”
“Listen,” he leans forward, “I’ve been through a bad breakup before. Had my heart ripped out of my chest and everything I pictured for a future ruined. Something unforgivable happened, and I knew there was no fixing it, so I guess I have to ask you—is this fixable?”
“It’s not like that.” I look at the wall beside the booth, there’s an old Corvette poster framed there.
“Then what is it?”
Letting my hair out of its ponytail, I smooth it back and refix it. “I can’t say.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Vanessa.”