AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Kara isn’t having any of it. She flips her hair and asks, without tearing her eyes away from the horizon, “What the hell do you want?”
“Well for one, I feel obligated to warn you that you’re probably trespassing. I don’t know what kind of jails they have on Ibiza but I doubt they’re pleasant.”
Kara’s suspicious eyes flick to mine. I attempt a smile. It’s not returned. But she also doesn’t tell me to fuck off. Progress.
Instead, she traces her long nails through the sand that’s accumulated on the flat edge of the railing. “What do you know about jail?” she mutters.
Good question. I turn so that I’m resting against the railing, my back to the sunset, my arms crossed.
“I know the food is complete shit,” I say. “And that bathroom doors are a privilege, not a right.”
Now I’ve gotten her full attention, but only to try to call me out on a lie. “You’re full of shit,” she sneers. “Everyone knows they don’t send rich guys to prison.”
“Oh no, that’s absolutely true,” I say. “I could run over a baby with a motorcycle and I’d be just fine. But I wasn’t always a rich guy.”
Kara crosses her own arms. “Lemme guess,” she says. “You struggled your way to the top from a middle class suburb and didn’t get enough love because your parents both worked to save money to send you to Harvard.”
I snort. “Well first of all, it was Yale.”
Kara rolls her eyes.
“And second… well let’s just say I’ve yet to see a middle class suburb in person. Or a two-parent home. As far as I know they’re only myths spread by well-adjusted people.”
Kara fully abandons any pretense of playing in the sand and steps back from the railing. Her sharp eyes bore holes straight through my head. “Oh come on,” she says. “You’re gonna try to tell me that a guy like you came from the projects?”
“No way,” I say with a small chuckle. “But I went to high school with a lot of people who did. I was lucky enough to live in the apartment above my pop’s bar in Hoboken.”
“Bullshit.”
“It’s true.”
“Where’s your accent?”
“Where’s yours? You’re from Brooklyn, right?”
I have her there. She works her jaw and then says, “It comes out when I’m angry.”
“Mine too.”
Kara catches herself about to smile and her expression quickly sours. “Look, I know you’re just up here trying to save your deal…”
“That’s not true,” I say. At a look, I add, “Well that’s one part of it.”
“And the other part?”
“I hate to see someone else getting caught up in the shit cyclone that is Evie’s ex.”
Kara lets out a rueful exhale.
“You know Cheryl’s lying about Evie, right?” I ask softly.
Kara is silent for a long time. Finally she says, “Yeah, I know. I was just angry. I’m still angry. I thought—” She stops herself, glances at me, a look of shame on her face.
I raise my hands. “Let it out,” I say. “I’m not here to judge. Or to repeat anything.”
Kara doodles in the sand. She draws a star, then a heart. Then she wipes both away with a frustrated, angry gesture. “Things were supposed to be different, man!” she says. “I got it all, the fame, the money. I’m selling out shows. I’m making my art. But it doesn’t feel like anything’s changed at all.”
“Changed from what?” I ask after she goes silent again.
