“Wait a second,” Gia said. “Sorry… but just…”
“Are you going to throw up?” I asked.
“No,” Gia said. “I kind of feel sober right now. I’m kind of… yeah…”
“What is going on?”
Gia got to her feet and reached for my hand.
She pulled me up and started to charge down the beach.
I ran to catch up to her. “What are you doing?”
“Just watch.”
We raced toward Gia’s beach house.
“Stay here,” she said.
She disappeared under the steps of her deck.
When she emerged a minute or so later she was holding a can of paint.
“What’s that for?” I asked.
“We’re going to paint something. Okay?”
“Sure,” I said. “I think. What are we painting?”
“Follow me,” Gia said. “Oh, and when we walk by your place, run inside and grab that bottle of vodka.”
I listened to Gia, which was risky because she was drunk.
At my mother’s beach house, I ran inside and grabbed the vodka bottle.
Then we hurried down the beach, bumping shoulders, sipping vodka, Gia giggling so much that I started to giggle too.
For no reason though.
The walk lasted all of ten minutes before she stopped and pointed to another beach house.
She took the bottle of vodka from me and handed me the can of paint.
“Pop that top and paint that deck,” Gia said.
“What?” I asked. “Why?”
Gia smiled. “I want to help too.”
“With the paint?” I asked.
“Xavier is my brother, Winter,” Gia said. “I know more than most do. Maybe it’s time I don’t keep my mouth shut anymore. You know? What they did to you… what Xavier’s parents did to my mother… I want in on this.”
“Gia…”
“Shhh,” she said. “Turn around and go paint that deck.”
“Why?”
Gia smiled with a devious smile.
She pushed at my shoulder.
“That’s one of Easton’s beach houses…”
It took me a few minutes to get the stupid lid off the paint can.
By then I was nervous, sweating, and just wanted to be out of there.
Gia was drunk and upset. She was going from being super happy to super sad and everywhere in between.
I didn’t want her to end up getting hurt in all of this…
“Do it!” Gia yelled.
I cringed.
Her screaming outside Easton’s beach house wasn’t going to help things.
The proof in that was when a light on the second floor turned on.
“Shit,” I said.
I got the lid off the can and froze up.
Easton was home. He was going to find me.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I whispered.
I backed away and then froze again.
The accident, Winter. What did they do to you? And then he had the balls to try and convince you that you two slept together…
I wanted to scream but couldn’t.
Finally, I jumped forward and grabbed the paint can.
I tipped it over and threw paint in every direction I could.
My heart raced so fast I was dizzy.
But as the thick, pink paint clung to the deck… to the siding… to the windows… I started to smile.
It was fun. Freeing.
It was going to be a mess for Easton.
I ran to the steps and threw the paint can somewhere on the beach.
I ran to Gia and locked arms with her as we ran off into the night together.
A part of me waited to hear Easton yell. Or see us and chase us down.
But the beach was super quiet.
There was no sound other than the sound of myself trying keep my breathing steady as I ran with Gia. Of course, for Gia this was merely a jog. Or walking fast.
At the deck steps to my mother’s beach house, we stopped.
I took a deep breath and shook my head.
Gia was breathing just fine. Like nothing happened.
“That was fun,” Gia said.
“For you.”
“Come on… that was fun for you too,” she said.
“Yeah. I guess.”
“Not quite as dangerous as blowing up a car, right?”
I let out a quick laugh and then looked to my left.
I swallowed hard.
Was that guilt trying to go through me?
“Hey, Gia,” I said.
“Yeah?”
“You think they’re happy?”
“Who?”
“Noah. Easton. Xavier. Do you think they’re happy?”
“Why does that matter?”
I shrugged my shoulders and looked at her. “I’m starting to see things… I mean, they can’t be happy. Their lives are shit.”
“So?”
I opened my mouth but knew what I was going to say was going to make me look bad.
Fuck.
“You should crash here,” I said to Gia.
“As long as I can have more to drink,” she said.
“Duh,” I said.
We ran up the steps together and went into the beach house. After a quick stop at the kitchen, we hurried up to my bedroom.
I crashed to my bed and was wide awake, yet still tired.
Gia sat up in the bed next to me, staring forward, drinking.
I kept a close eye on her, and when the time came, I swiped the bottle from her hand.
She looked down at me and frowned.
I shook my head. “We’re good, Gia. No need to get sick.”
“I am sick, Winter,” she said. “Right?”
“No. Not sick. And even if you are, you’re taking care of yourself. Tonight wasn’t a good night for you. What you had to talk about. I feel the same things you feel. Hate. Anger. Being let down. I don’t think there’s anything you can do to really stop those feelings. I think we need to just live through them. At least that’s what I’m feeling right now.”
Gia slumped down and put her head to a pillow.
“Does it make you feel good when you get back at them?” she whispered.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I guess a part of me does, but I don’t know. It’s dangerous. When I was in the hospital… then when I got out and I was just… it made sense to do.”
“You can stop,” Gia said. She turned her head. My eyes met hers. “You can stop. You can talk to someone. There’s ways…”
“Talon already said he’d rat me out,” I said. “Fucking Trocs.”
Gia frowned.
Her eyes slowly began to shut.
She was out a few seconds later.
I was still awake.
I knew I would be for a while.
That was okay.
I was on my back, staring at the ceiling.
I had only one thought.
What’s going to happen next?
Chapter 5
writing your name
Gia was like a rock star.
She popped up the next morning like nothing had happened the night before.
I was the one who was groggy.
I felt like I had a hangover, but it was just from the strange sleep schedule.
She ran downstairs for coffee.