Aftershocks

Aftershocks

By Monica Alexander

Copyright 2012 by Monica Alexander

ISBN: 978-1-4761-8919-2

Smashwords Edition

Cover image: Copyright 2012 by Monica Alexander

This story is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or personals, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Al Rights Reserved

No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from the author.

The information in this book is distributed as an “as is” basis, without warranty. Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this work, neither the author nor the publisher shal have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or aleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in this book.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Playlist

I sighed audibly for probably the fiftieth time that day as I thought about the fact that school was starting on Monday. It was a thought that had plagued me for the past few weeks as the calendar had flipped over to August, but my feelings of dread had multiplied exponentialy in the last week as I’d finaly faced up to reality – my senior year was going to suck.

I thought about complaining to my best friend, Wyatt, but I didn’t want to bum him out. He was loving life as a freshman at the University of Michigan, and sharing my petty fears that last year was going to repeat itself would just make him feel bad. I definitely didn’t want to do that. The
last
thing I wanted to do was remind him of how bad things had been.

We’d both been through what we’d started to refer to as a veritable shit-storm the year before and had found solace in each other.

Things had been beyond bad for months, but then they’d started to turn around . . . right around the time that Wyatt’s impending move a thousand miles away began to loom over our heads. We’d known for months that he was leaving, ever since his acceptance letter arrived in the mail in early January, but I hadn’t ever let it sink in that he wouldn’t be there to hold my hand when school started in the fal.

I knew he was excited to go to Michigan, to finaly get away from everything and everyone, and in truth I was happy for him, but if I was being honest with myself, and just a little selfish, I didn’t want him to go. He had been my best friend since middle school and the thought of not seeing him every day made my stomach churn. Fortunately cel phones worked in Ann Arbor so I could stil get my daily Wyatt fix, but it wasn’t anywhere close to the same.

As if he was telepathic and knew I was thinking about him, my phone started playing the Michigan fight song, letting me know he was caling. We’d been talking multiple times a day since he’d left six weeks earlier.

“How was the library?” I asked by way of greeting. I’d talked to him a few hours earlier as he’d trekked across campus, unloading on me the amount of reading he had to do for the two classes he was taking during the summer semester.

“Distracting. The eye candy on this campus is ridiculous. I need to seriously pul it in or I’m going to fail my finals.”

“Any prospects?” I asked, smiling to myself while simultaneously thinking he was being just a tad dramatic. I had it on good authority that he had an A in both his classes going into his finals and for as much as he’d been studying, there was no way he was going to fail.

Wyatt laughed. “I don’t know. My gaydar kind of sucks.”

I couldn’t help but laugh along with him. “I thought it was supposed to come naturaly to you. Are you failing at being gay already?”

He laughed again, and it squeezed my heart just a little. I so wanted to be walking with him across campus, seeing his face animate as we talked about something that had been a taboo subject for so long. Only since he’d left for school had we realy been able to joke about his sexuality, and it made me so happy that we finaly could.

The Wyatt who’d lived with me for close to nine months after his parents had kicked him out and refused to acknowledge his presence after finding out he was gay always seemed uncomfortable in his own skin. He hated that he was gay and wanted nothing more than to be just like everyone else. It pained me to hear him say that, and I wished he would just be okay with who he was. I loved him for him, and he knew it, but I also knew it wasn’t enough back then.

It wasn’t until I’d hugged him goodbye at the airport and he smiled so widely at me that I knew he was relieved to be leaving. It was like I could see the weight lift from his shoulders as he realized he was no longer under the watchful eye of everyone he’d lied to for so long and everyone who’d judged him for being different. He was no longer subject to the scrutiny he’d faced regularly as he tried to bring his life back to some semblance of normal. And he no longer had to see the guys he’d been friends with who hadn’t stuck by him when he’d needed friends the most because they were afraid he’d hit on them.

When Wyatt got on that plane to Michigan, he left everything behind and for the first time in his life, he could be himself. And the best part was, he was finaly okay with it.

“I wouldn’t say failing,” he said, and I could hear the sounds of students talking and laughing as he made his way back to his dorm. “I’m just figuring out how it works.”

“Wel, you’re new at this, so give it time. Maybe put off the gay vibe when you’re out next time and see what happens. See if they’l come to you”

I could tel Wyatt was shaking his head. I knew him that wel.

“And what exactly is the gay vibe, Abby?” he asked in the way he always did when I made what he considered to be a ridiculous, but he assured me endearing, statement.

“Wear a pink shirt?” I suggested, knowing my advice sucked. I was stereotyping and not even in an accurate way.

The line went quiet for a few seconds. “Consider yourself lucky that I’m not standing next to you right now because I’d probably be punching you in the arm.”

“Love you,” I said sweetly, trying to redeem myself. “If I was there I’d be your wing girl.”

“Fag hag,” he corrected me in a teasing sort of way that made my nose scrunch up.

“Makes me sound ugly. I’m not a big fan of that title.”

“Smoking hot wing girl it is then,” he acquiesced, as I laughed, enjoying the addition he’d put on my self-appointed title.

“I’l like that. I think I’l put it on a t-shirt. Maybe I’l even wear it on the first day of school.”

“It might catch you that boyfriend you know you want,” Wyatt said, and I knew he was only half-joking. My love life, or lack thereof, had been a topic of conversation as of late.

“You know I’m not interested in starting a relationship when I’m moving in a year,” I said, just like I always did when he tried to tel me I needed to start dating again. I’d been using that excuse for at least six months.

“Liar,” Wyatt said, caling me on the carpet just like he did every time I made the same ridiculous statement.

We both knew I was deluding to myself. I hadn’t dated anyone in a year, and I wanted to meet someone in the worst way. I wanted my stomach to flip over and my heart to race and to get al flushed just because the guy I liked had smiled at me in the cafeteria. I wanted someone to kiss and someone to go on dates with and someone to fal in love with. The problem was there were slim pickings at our school. I’d known most of the guys in my class since elementary school and wasn’t interested in one of them.

“Whatever. It’s not like I’m going to meet someone here, so unless I happen upon a cute transfer student, I’m shit outta luck.”

“Yeah, you’re right about that.” I could hear him letting himself into his dorm, his voice echoing in the stairwel as he hiked up to his room on the third floor. “So any big Saturday night plans?”

“Nada,” I said, stretching out in the late afternoon sun as it streamed through the open window of my tree house where I lay stretched across two bean bags, basking in the warmth. “You know I have no life, Wy.”

“Cal Jack. Hang out with him.”

“Have you talked to Jack lately?” I asked, not able to hide the snotty tone in my voice.

Jack West was the only friend of Wyatt’s who hadn’t cared that he was gay. He’d shrugged off the news like I had, and because of that Wyatt would always be loyal to him. The three of us had hung out together throughout most of last year, but right around the beginning of April, Jack had gotten together with Kerry McCarty, who wasn’t a big fan of me, so I didn’t see him much after that.

I’d heard they’d recently broken up and Jack had taken it pretty hard. Knowing this, Wyatt had encouraged me to cal him. I think he felt bad that he wasn’t around to support his friend, so he wanted to me to do it for him. He couldn’t understand why I was so hesitant to reach out to Jack when the three of us had been so close.

And if my past hadn’t colided with Jack’s in the way it had, I probably would have caled him, but the truth was I’d felt sort of awkward around him ever since we’d hooked up over Spring Break. Jack and I had sort of a history of being friends with benefits. We’d hooked up a time or two over the years when we’d both been drinking and single, so normaly it wouldn’t have been a big deal, but that night we were realy drunk, things had sort of progressed further than either Jack or I had intended, and we’d ended up sleeping together.

The bad thing was that he’d started talking to Kerry right before Spring Break, so he regretted what we’d done immediately. Since we agreed it was just a one time, drunken mistake, we decided to pretend it never happened. He made me swear not to tel anyone, and I never did – except Wyatt because we don’t keep secrets from each other.

The problem was forgetting it happened was harder than I’d expected. Not that I was hung up on Jack, but every time I saw him after that night, al I could think about was the fact that he’d seen me naked. Cue the cheeks flushed from embarrassment, as I wondered if he was indeed picturing me sans clothes.

He never seemed fazed by our past, and in true Jack West fashion, seemed to relish in the idea that he’d been my first. This knowledge, in his apparent opinion, gave him carte blanche to flirt mercilessly with me whenever we were alone. I knew he was madly in love with his girlfriend, and his flirting had no meaning behind it, but it stil made me blush. I honestly think that’s why he continued to do it.

Jack had always been a flirt, and being the hottie he was, he never had a shortage of women to pick from, but he mostly had girlfriends.

He wasn’t as big of a slut as he could have been. Then Kerry broke his heart, and apparently he did a one-eighty, and spent his summer whoring around a bit from what I’d heard. My friend Nicky, who went to every party anyone ever threw, always knew the good gossip. It had been from her that I’d heard about Kerry dumping Jack, their subsequent fights and his recent endeavors with many members of the female student body.