A Long Time Coming (7 page)

Chapter Seven

     The tires screeched on
the runway as her plane touched down, and Abigail cringed wishing now, more
than ever, that she could have slipped something brown and liquid into her
water bottle just to ease the tension grinding away at her nerves. She gripped
the armrest, pushing back in her seat as she squeezed her eyes shut. She was
completely frayed—relaxing was not an option, because Abigail and flying did
not mix, even though she’d done it many times. Well, really, it was mainly the
whole landing and taking off part that sucked giant monkey nuts, but the whole
flying through the air thing?—that was at least doable…unless of course you
threw in some wicked turbulence. Either way, she hated it.

She found her luggage easily
enough when her feet finally hit solid ground. Her eyes narrowed in observation
as she turned to hunt for the familiar brown–black set of curls that belonged
to her best friend. She slipped the strap of her carry–on bag higher up on her
shoulder as she dragged her pink suitcase behind her with a heavy click clack
on the tile through the airport. Her feet grew heavier the longer she walked,
but it wasn’t exhaustion that held her down this time, nor was it any sort of
physical pain. It was her heart doing the stressing and it was hanging so heavily
in her chest that there was no way she’d enjoy her mini vacation at this rate.
She was too damn worried about what she’d left behind, those things mainly
being David and her parents. But she was determined to give her insides an
emotional break. She didn’t exactly know how she was going to do that, but
dammit all to hell she had to at least try.

Seriously though, how many
times did a girl get to go to Santa Cruz to go surfer boy shopping in her life?
Not very many, that was for damn sure. And according to Harley, she’d be
getting her fill—times ten—this weekend. It was just too bad not a damn one of
them would be anything beyond a pretty face to look at. She only hoped that
they were the perfect distraction to all the crappy things that would not take the
hint and get the hell out of her mind.

     She sighed, nodding to
herself as determination took hold of her insides. She rounded the corner, with
her chin held high, ready to make this thing happen. Ready to take on the world
for one last weekend, before it all changed for good. And there, standing in
the arms of the boy who’d robbed her heart, was Harley and her big, ginormous,
and oh–so–contagious smile curling up at the edges of her lips.

Abigail’s heart swelled at the
sight. It’d been three hellish years for that girl, it was about time she saw
genuine joy in her dark, haunted eyes.

Feet picking up speed, as did
her heart, the closer she came to her best friend, Abigail sprinted her way
forward. Twenty feet, fifteen feet, Abigail blinked, pausing and stiffening for
only a fragment of a tiny second. Oh hell, was Harley’s sign meant for her?
Groaning she continued to move onwards until only ten feet separated their
reunion. But then she blinked again. Did that sign seriously say “It’s my best
friend’s first time in Cali, let’s find her a surfer boy!”?

Redness accompanied the smile
on Abigail’s face. She was
not
an easily embarrassed person, dammit. But
leave it to Harley to get to her for once. She shook her head, dropping her
bag, and darted the rest of the distance across the tile to close in on her.
Harley did the same, tossing the poster she was holding back towards Mason’s
readied arms, before racing the rest of the way forward.       They smashed
into each other, all girly squeals and screeches. It was like pigs mating—loud
and annoying—but necessary to keep the bacon pushed into production. A horribly
bad analogy, yeah, but it was what it was.

“Oh my God, Abigail, my mom
was right, look at you,” Harley’s arms loosened from around her waist, but
neither let go as they pulled back to look at one another, “You look exhausted!
What the hell? Don’t you sleep anymore?”

     Abigail’s grin faltered for a moment, and her breath
caught just in the base of her throat. She had to pull herself together. This
was a reunion, not a powwow over her newly–discovered health issues. So she
faked a grin, yanking Harley back into another fierce embrace. It wasn’t long,
though, before a real hug took over the faux one with a vengeance. No matter
what she was dealing with, seeing Harley always made things good, made things
seem feasible, even though her best friend had no clue what shocking revelation
she’d discovered only six hours beforehand.

“Ah hell, I missed you too, Harley!” Their mutual squeeze
was full of so much emotion that Abigail wouldn’t be surprised if they were
going to explode into a real life Hallmark card. It was moments like that when
Abigail knew that life would
eventually
find its way back to a normal
state.

They giggled in unison,
pulling back to face Mason just as he released a low, pitiful groan, “Jesus you
two, if I would have known you were gonna get all hot and heavy in the middle
of the airport, then I would’ve brought my video camera,” he waggled his
eyebrows teasingly, winking as he reached for Abigail’s suitcase.

Abigail shook her head,
breaking away from the hold of her best friend’s arms to grab her bag off the
floor. “And hi to you too, Mason,” with his hair just barely grazing the tops
of his shoulders, and a five o’clock shadow that said lazy summer days all over
it, Mason Daniel looked older than the last time she’d seen him, and most
definitely the epitome of California, sexy surfer boy. But he was one hundred
percent Harley’s. Always had been, and probably always would be. The two of
them deserved every damn bit of that happiness they could get. Nobody deserved
to live through the shit the two of them had. But they
definitely
earned
the rainbow that happened after their storms. And if the pot of gold showed up
too, then she wouldn’t complain if they took it all and didn’t share.

     “Yeah, it’s good to see
you too!” She smiled as they began to make their way to the exit. The boy was
still just as chivalrous as ever, holding doors and carrying suitcases. The
sweetest punk–head alive, “I’m gonna run this stuff to the car real quick,
Little Beast, then I’ll meet the two of you across the street at Jo’s Cafe.
Sound good?”

Absolute worship centered in
his eyes as his gaze focused solely on Harley. Heat brewed between the two of
them as he inched in closer to her front. Abigail’s eyes wandered between their
googly looking faces, but it was as if she wasn’t even there, like the only two
people in the world who existed at that point were the two of them.

She smiled sadly. Damn how she
loved love. But with her moony thoughts, came a tiny pull that yanked the hell
out of her heartstrings, forcing her to finally look away just before their
lips connected. Yeah sure, she was ecstatic for them, ungodly happy as a matter
of fact, but she didn’t need to see the kiss. Nor did she need to hear it
either. Abigail wasn’t jealous of their happiness by any means, especially
since they deserved it so very much. But she was only human and one of the only
things she wanted out of life was what the two of them were lucky enough to
find.

     She cleared the emotion
from her throat and shook her head, getting back to business as she went to
stand at Harley’s side again. She nudged her in the ribs with her elbow,
grinning down at Harley’s blazing red face, “Man, are you two getting hitched
or something? Because you kind of make me sick with all that lovey–dovey crap.”

Abigail turned to face Harley
full on, expecting to see anger or even annoyance in her best friend’s eyes at
the assumption. But instead, all she could see there was hope. And maybe even a
little bit of fear. Abigail’s eyes slowly bugged from her head. Hell no. Miss
sensible Harley couldn’t possibly be considering the big M, at nineteen years
old, could she be? After multiple nudges, Harley still didn’t respond, nor did
she even flinch at the unrealistic words coming from Abigail’s now slack–jawed
mouth.

“Hello, Harley Ann? Are you in
there?”

     “Huh?” she
finally
blinked, seemingly coming back to life from her apparent love coma, “I’m sorry,
I didn’t hear you.”

Abigail rolled her eyes and
shook her head, leading them towards the exit. When in the hell had the two of
them gotten
this
bad?            “Nothing,” Abigail sighed, looping her
arm through Harley’s, “I gotta go pee. Show me to the toilet, would ya?”

Harley smiled, leading the
way, “Yes ma’am, one bathroom coming right up.” Her best friend continued to
smile, but there was a knowingness on her lips too, as well as a set of
secrets. Abigail was dying to question her about them all, but then again, was
it really even her business what they did and how they loved one another? Nope,
not at all.

     “So, tell me. Did my
dumbass brother call you yet?”

Abigail worried her lip,
shaking her head. No, he hadn’t called. But Harley didn’t need to know that
she’d seen her favorite and only brother, face plant and have a seizure on the
floor of a party only four nights ago. “Nope,” she shrugged, keeping her
expression as neutral as possible.

“I swear, Abigail, I don’t
know what’s up with him lately. Mom says that he’s been an agitated mess for
almost two months now. It’s weird too because his mood seems to have worsened,
like he’s harboring all this crap inside of him again. I thought he’d gotten
passed that, you know? I thought once he got the prosthetic, that things would
be…well—”

“Better?” Abigail sighed. Her
insides churned at the lie she was keeping. She squeezed Harley’s shoulder,
hoping she was sending her reassurance through touch, even though she wasn’t
sure if it’d help. Harley’s guilt over her brother’s accident would never
waver, she knew that, but she’d come so far with her issues, that telling the
girl how bad her brother had looked would only break her down again. It was
Abigail’s job to protect the ones she loved, and she would always and forever
protect Harley, even if it meant keeping secrets. “David will never
be
better
again, Harley. But he
will
get by. He’s tough. You know that as much as
I do.” Abigail shrugged, needing to move on from the subject. This lying
business was going to brutally murder her stomach soon if she wasn’t careful.
Sure, Harley deserved to know the truth, but it wasn’t her secret to share, nor
was it her issue to reveal.

They continued on their way,
weaving through the parked cars on the street as they headed towards the
restaurant. Mason sat on a bench right by the front door of the tiny little
diner, just like he’d promised. His smile was bright like always, and his gaze
was focused fully on Harley, like she was the only thing he ever saw. Abigail
knew more than anybody, how true that sentiment was.

He stood, gleaming from ear to
ear, moving at the speed of a superhero to reach them. Abigail fought another
eye roll. God though, how pathetic could this guy be? It’s like he hadn’t seen
Harley in years, rather than minutes. Abigail wanted to snarl in disgust, but
get all giddy at the same time for the two of them. Her emotions were all over
the place. She was a living and breathing messed up pile of hormones.

He waved them over, and Harley
literally ran the rest of the way to see him. Arms and hugs, and more kissing,
it was blissfully…disgusting. Abigail shook her head, fighting a smile anyways,
“God, don’t you two ever get tired of kissing like that? How are your lips not
broken by now?” Mason turned to face her, winking
again
,
but no
words left his smiling mouth
.
Oh he was a shit–eating bastard and
Abigail clutched her bag just to fight the urge to deck his ornery grin. She’d
always had a soft spot for him though, because underneath all his wickedness,
was an emotional guy who loved harder than any person she’d ever known. She
couldn’t blame him for that, especially since he directed that love towards her
best friend.

“Oh, Abs, you just wait until
it happens to you.” Harley giggled, as they wrapped their arms around each
other’s waists, losing focus on the world once more as they pressed their lips
together for
another
brief, agonizing moment.

“Um, no, if I ever get all
giddy and swoony like you two, then kick my ass, seriously,” really though,
just the thought of kissing David and simply holding his hand in a public place
for the world to watch as they declared their love with PDA, was
exactly
what
she
wanted. She was all tough and crap on the outside, but she was
secretly a girl who longed to be romanced the hell off her feet.

Harley smiled sadly, nodding,
as if she could read her thoughts. Abigail looked away, red in the cheeks as
she waltzed into the quaint little diner that boasted about their fantastic
pancakes right there on the door. But the moment the booths appeared, the
moment the scent of eggs and hash browns and bacon assaulted her nose, her
stomach soured to that of curdled milk. She was so going to hurl. Hell, it was
a wonder she was still standing as it was. She covered her mouth, her body
racing towards the bathroom door only seconds later. And it definitely wasn’t
just to empty her bladder this time.

Damn it all to hell…

She hovered over the toilet,
sweat pouring down her temples and onto her neck, soaking her tank top to an
icy cold temperature. She shivered, squeezing her eyelids shut as she retched
into the toilet. Holy, freaking hell—this wasn’t good.