What the Elf? by Kate Benson

Author:Kate Benson [Benson, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-11-28T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Abby

When I first moved here for school, I was absolutely terrified.

Marissa and I had just been through hell, we’d never been apart and there I was, throwing myself out into the world to potentially be eaten alive. After I acclimated to my new life here, I thought for sure that was behind me. I thought that all those months of hard work and determination to survive on my own would be enough and I’d never have that same fear again, especially after taking a job relatively close to the small town just outside of campus I’d called home over the last four years. Somehow in my quest to graduate, to close this chapter of my life and move onto the next, I never considered that starting over again is exactly what I’d been preparing for all along.

Somehow, it didn’t even occur to me until I was in the coffee shop, talking to Dex about Allentown.

It isn’t long after he leaves that I gather my things and head back toward the cabin to spend some time with my sister.

I walk inside, the warmth from the fireplace wrapping around the snow-soaked ankles of my jeans more than welcome.

Growing up in the South, our winters were never anything like this. The first night I had to scrape the ice from my windshield, instantaneously morphing into a one-woman show in the middle of the crowded parking lot of my dorm, was one of the longest of my life.

I was fresh out of high school, on my own for the first time ever and didn’t know much of anything. However, that night, I was absolutely positive of two things: The first is that I don’t like the snow. Not even a little. And the second is that in a pinch, every woman has at least three things in their car at all times that can be used to eventually rid a windshield of ice.

My items of choice that first night? An old sweatshirt from my gym bag, the back of a hairbrush and my student ID badge.

Yeah. Good times.

Over the course of four years, I’d learned a lot, grown up a little. Not only am I now a wizard at de-icing a windshield (the secret is a mixture of two parts rubbing alcohol, one-part tap water, then scrape, scrape, scrape), I’ve also learned heartache still exists long after you think you’ve endured the worst kind.

When we lost our parents, I didn’t think I’d ever feel normal again. I’m still not sure I do, but I do know that one day, I woke up and I didn’t feel quite as messed up as I had before. It wasn’t much progress, but looking back on it now, I know it was more than I’d ever hoped for. I was sure that the only silver lining of going through something like that so young was that we’d both become unbreakable. Like somehow, we got through the unthinkable and came out on the other side, so now nothing will ever be capable of hurting either of us again.

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