Motorcycle Girl

Chapter 18: Regret

Chapter 18: Regret

"You do it." Brenda hisses at Mason outside my bedroom door. I nuzzle deeper into the blankets, sighing.

They think I can't hear them.

"No." Mason says.

"Somebody has to do it." Harper whispers.

"I can hear you guys." I say, speaking up as loudly as I physically can, which isn't very loud.

I hear my door creak, and footsteps.

"You need to get up." Harper says, plopping down on my bed. I don't even bother opening my eyes.

"Get out." I grumble.

"Nate, Megan from work called." Mason starts slowly.

"Let me guess, I'm fired?" I grumble into my pillow.

He sighs slowly.

"We can't afford this place." He says carefully. "It's been two weeks."

I glance at Harper with my left eye.

"Did you get ahold of her?"

Harper is Odeletta's best friend, and all of my calls were ignored.

She sighs.

"Yes."

I asked her the day after it happened and that's the last time I saw Harper, but two weeks passed and I told my boss I had the flu and skipped class.

"You talked to Odeletta?" I ask, talking normally now. I sit up, revealing my bare chest. She adverts her eyes, nodding. "And?" I press.

"And what?" She asks.

"And how is she?" I demand, desperate.

She presses her lips together.

"I can't tell you that. I'm sorry."

I nod slowly and lay back down.

"Somebody is here to see you." Mason says slowly.

"Who?" I grumble.

"Don't get mad, alright? I didn't know who else to call and talk some sense into you."

I see a form in the entrance to my bedroom, but I don't know who it is. It's too dark in here.

I see the person move, flicking the light on.

The moment my eyes land on his face, I start rubbing them.

"Gabe?" I ask.

"Nate." He says.

Gabe. Gabriel, my cousin. He grew up thirty minutes away from me, in Millersport, the same town Odeletta's Dad grew up in.

My heart clenches at the thought of it, but I brush it away.

Gabe and I grew up with Mason. The three of us were inseparable. We spent so many summers at my aunts house with him, swinging off ropes into lakes. We talk on occasion, usually a text here and there with a conversation that lasts a couple of minutes. When Mason and I moved to Colorado, Gabe moved to Maine, and we grew apart.

Whenever we see each other, it's like we were never apart. He skipped out on holidays the last two years, so I've not seen him in a while.

He got taller, buffer, and the part of his chin that wouldn't grow hair finally has, but it's just a light beard that he has maintained.

"What are you doing here?" I ask.

"I hear you're in love." He says carefully.

I scoff.