Pieces by G. Benson

Author:G. Benson [Benson, G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ylva-Publishing
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

The rush of cold air against Carmen’s cheek was bracing, and her stomach fell. If she didn’t think it would just bounce off his overly bulging muscles, Carmen would throw something at Dex. She opened her eyes and was greeted by Ollie’s wide-eyed stare. “But, uh, I knocked it out of his hands?”

Ollie was looking at her like she didn’t know her, and that made Carmen’s stomach ache. As much as Carmen hated it, Ollie really didn’t know her. And that was Carmen’s fault.

“How?”

“Fast reflexes?” Carmen tried.

She wanted to kill Dex. Though at the same time, she wanted him to spill everything for her so she didn’t feel like she was holding it all back.

“But you’re really okay?”

“I am.”

“You shouldn’t walk alone. Can’t someone from the group home pick you up or something?”

If only that was the biggest of Carmen’s problems. That divide filled with everything Carmen kept from Ollie grew a little at the issues and problems Carmen had submerged herself in, at the lies she’d muttered when she’d thought she’d been saving herself, protecting Mattie. But how could Ollie ever understand it if Carmen never gave her the chance?

“I’ll be more careful.” Because what else did Carmen have to offer but false promises? Ollie’s accepting silence left something hollow in Carmen. As she sat farther back on her stool, the distance expanded between them.

The evening was a slow one, time passing in fits and starts. Even in the moments when Carmen was serving and cleaning and clearing, it dragged along. She could feel Ollie’s eyes on her the entire shift. When things quieted down and Carmen sat on the stool next to Ollie, their knees knocking between them, or when Ollie stood across from her on the bar, their elbows on the bar top and mere inches of air drifting between their skin, time raced by. She was left unsteady when she had to move away from their easy conversation to serve a beer or wipe down some tables. Dex floated between them, only rolling his eyes once. That Carmen noticed, anyway.

Mattie knew she would be late today, and Carmen was just happy he had agreed to stay behind more the last few days. He’d panicked the morning he’d seen her eye, and she had told him the truth: she tried to protect him from some things, but also needed him to understand that the world they were in was filled with things that sought to bring them down. Carmen felt like she had when she’d been tiny, no more than five, and had slipped on her mother’s shoes and tried to walk in them: she was carrying things too big, too adult, walking a path too large for her, yet stumbling was not an option.

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