Love Wasted by Shirl Rickman

Author:Shirl Rickman [Rickman, Shirl]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Love Wasted
Publisher: Shirl Rickman
Published: 2017-06-20T16:00:00+00:00

Past

Cass: Age 18

Paxton: Age 20

When I step through the door of my apartment, I stagger over to the sofa, exhausted and slightly intoxicated. I snuck out of Bobby’s party thirty minutes before the clock struck midnight. I whooped and hollered then say my goodbyes. It’s an every year thing on New Year’s because I don’t do the kiss.

It’s one of my rules to live by—never kiss at midnight because it never leads to anything good, and more often than not, it ends with expectations. I don’t do expectations either.

Reaching for the remote, I push the power button and begin flipping through the channels. Before I know it, I’ve watched nearly the entire two hours of When Harry Met Sally. Laney loves this movie, and my friends would never let me live this down.

I glance over at the clock; it’s getting close to midnight back home. I’m going to call her.

Searching around for my phone, I finally find it on the floor next to where I’m lying on the couch. I quickly tap my favorites and find Laney’s number then hit the call button. It rings and rings and just when I’m about to hang up, a singsong voice flutters drunkenly into my ear.

“Laney’s phone, Happy New Year!”

She sounds happy and bubbly. It’s been a while since I’ve heard her voice, and she still sounds the same, which I guess is a dumb thing to think. I try to picture what she looked like when I left two years ago for school. With that nearly white-blonde hair hanging well past her shoulders in waves and an athletic, five-foot-nine-inch frame with tawny skin, she’s hard to forget.

“Cass, is that you?” I ask, although, I know the answer to the question.

A giggle. “Who is this? Wait, don’t tell me, let me guess. Say my name again.”

I can’t help smiling. “Cass.”

There’s silence on the other end of the line. “Oh, fuck.” That word coming out of her mouth makes me laugh. “Paxton?” There’s a certain reluctance in the way she says my name.

“The one and only,” I tease. “Happy almost New Year, Cass.”

A long pause. “Happy almost New Year, Pax.” Her voice isn’t quite as bubbly as it was when she answered the phone. “Let me find Laney, hold on.”

I don’t know why, but I stop her. For some reason, I want to talk to her more. I was missing home and thought I wanted to talk to Laney, but strangely, speaking to Cass instead feels exactly like what I need. I’ve missed her too…such a strange revelation, one I’m not going to explore.

“Wait, Cass,” I say, my voice unusually desperate. “Tell me what’s going on. What have you been up to?” Again, another long pause. More silence. “Cass? Are you still there?”

“Uh, yeah…yeah, I’m here.” She pauses once more. “Not much, just school. Normal life of a college student, you know how it is.” Her voice sounds a little less hesitant.

“That’s great. What about Laney?” I still feel a little in a liquor fog.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.