Just So Many Places by Jessica Stilling

Author:Jessica Stilling
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: LGBTQIA+, contemporary, Iceland, lesbian, bisexual, interracial, established couple, professor, lawyer, Scandinavian folklore and culture, civil rights movement, teenagers, young adults, teen pregnancy, sheep farming, family drama
Publisher: NineStar Press, LLC
Published: 2021-10-21T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

It wasn’t out of the ordinary to hear noises at night; Marissa knew that. The sheep were loud, and the sound was beginning to resemble the crickets at the country house or the rush of cars, even horns in the city—background noise you get used to. Cars went by the road near the farm with odd regularity considering how out in the middle of nowhere they were, but Iceland was a funny place. Noises came at the most off-kilter times. Still, things going bump in the night, really and truly, were something new.

It was the creaking at first. Marissa awoke, not with a start, groggy, and turned to see Calypso lying on her side, completely asleep. She usually slept with plugs in her ears because she heard every little sound, which woke her with a start, and she could never get back to sleep. Calypso blamed it on being a product of the Bronx, but Marissa thought the chicken might have come before the egg. If she’d only let herself get used to little noises, she wouldn’t have to wear the earplugs and, therefore, turn her alarm up so loud that some neighbors in the city complained.

Marissa was about to go back to sleep when she heard more movement. She couldn’t put her finger on what it was, out of place noise, and it took her a second to realize that a door had been opened and there were voices downstairs.

After throwing on a pair of yoga pants and a long T-shirt, Marissa opened her bedroom door, taking one last glance at Calypso, who was still sound asleep and covered with a pile of blankets.

The light was on in the kitchen, and Marissa followed it.

“The pub crawls were supposed to be crazier. Whoever called them the height of debauchery was dead wrong.”

Marissa recognized the voice as Stephen’s, Xander’s friend. She walked with heavier footsteps, hoping the impromptu party would hear her before she had to announce herself.

“I think it was fine,” a girl with shoulder-length brown hair said. “Better than Denmark. I’ll give it that.”

“I need to get back to Denmark,” said Jacob, Xander’s good friend, as Marissa stepped into the light.

“Hello?” she said as she peered into her kitchen. She could picture how she must appear—fortysomething, red hair thrown up in a messy ponytail, no makeup—to four twentysomethings sitting in her kitchen, drinking the leftover orange juice she’d squeezed that morning. There didn’t seem to be any alcohol out; that was a good sign. But then Marissa remembered she didn’t have any in the house. Must be a disappointment, she thought as she glanced over at the girl. She seemed normal enough, nicely dressed, hair neat even if she seemed tired so early in the morning. But it was the annoyance on her face, and judgment, that got to Marissa. “I heard you guys… I guess you were coming in?”

“Mom,” Xander said. His shaggy blond hair showed under his skullcap, and he seemed as if he might have lost a little weight in the few days he’d been gone.

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