Ashes by Abbi Glines

Author:Abbi Glines [Glines, Abbi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
Published: 2023-12-19T08:00:00+00:00

Nine Years Ago

I had no memories of a happy Thanksgiving in this house. All the Thanksgivings I’d had with my mom had been at my grandparents’, and as hard as I tried to hold on to every memory I had of Mom, they were getting harder to remember clearly, the older I got. Asking Dad to talk about her was a mistake I wouldn’t make again. He’d shut down on me for weeks after I brought her up.

Granny was always willing to tell me stories about my mom and the things she had done with me. It was because of Granny that I had the memories I did. She made sure I didn’t forget her, and Mom hadn’t even been her daughter. My mom had never known her parents, but Dad’s parents loved my mother like she was their own. Granny always said my momma was like a ray of sunshine that could light up any old, dreary day. No matter how bad it was, my momma had brought the happiness with her. I liked to think about that. Especially when the day was as dreary as this one was turning out to be.

Leaving for college had been hard enough. I missed Wilder every day. Sneaking home without my dad’s permission just to see Wilder last month had made my stepmother furious, and Dad told me not to come home again until I was on a break. By now, it really shouldn’t sting when my dad didn’t want me around, but I wasn’t sure that rejection would ever go away.

Wilder had been thrilled to see me though. We spent twenty-four amazing hours together. He had refused to do more than kiss me, and he’d sworn it wasn’t because he didn’t want me, but because he was respecting me. Giving me time to grow up more. I was eighteen. How much more grown did I have to be?

This visit home from college was different though. Just like how his texts and calls had dwindled the past week. Normally, I woke up to a text from him every morning, and we had a video call daily. But this week, we hadn’t had one. He texted me a handful of times, and when I’d asked him if everything was all right, he’d just said he was busy. That was it.

My stomach had been in knots since I had gotten home last night. I had wanted to come home sooner, but I didn’t have a car, and I had used all my extra money on last month’s bus ticket to come see him. I’d called him when I got here, and he hadn’t answered.

So, I had been at the mercy of Anthony Jordan to give me a ride on his way home to Atlanta. He was a junior, and I’d met him through my roommate, who had dated him last semester. They weren’t together anymore, but I kept in touch with him because he was the only person I knew at Ole Miss who had a car and lived close enough for me to get a ride back to Madison.

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