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Her door is closed, but I quickly push it open. My gaze goes to the bed. It’s still made up from this morning. The bathroom light is on, and the door is open. However, the silence coming from the bathroom has my feet feeling like lead.
Summer is not a quiet person. Even when she’s working there’s always music playing or her humming. This silence feels eerie.
Slowly, I head to the open door. My head throbs in fear. As soon as I walked in, I notice a few things. Her clothes are tossed on the floor. An empty bottle of alcohol is lying near the toilet, and an empty glass is sitting by the tub. Lying in the claw foot tub with her long braids hanging off the back and her arms over the side, is Summer.
I walk over to the bottle first, picking it up.
“It’s non-alcoholic,” she says just as I read the sparkling grape juice label.
She snorts drawing my attention. “I know, lame right. I needed a hit so bad I had to use the imitation.”
She starts to laugh, but it quickly turns into deep sobs. Placing the bottle down, I grab her large white fluffy towel and walk over to her.
“Get out the tub,” I demand.
“He’s right you know. I’m trash. No matter what I do I will always be the fucked-up drug addict with PTSD. You really should have picked a better woman to have a baby with.”
Kneeling beside the tub, I place the towel over my shoulder. Grabbing her face between my hands I use my thumbs to wipe the tears that are rapidly falling down her face.
“What happened?”
She shakes her head, trying to turn away from me. I force her to keep her eyes on me.
“No, I don’t want to talk,” she shouts, shooting up from the tub. Water runs down her naked body. She grabs the towel off my shoulder. I come to my feet.
She climbs out of the tub in a rush, nearly falling face first. I wrap my arms around her to catch her. After steading herself she pulls away from me and wraps herself up in the towel.
“Talk to me, Summer,” I plead.
She shakes her head. “Why, it won’t change anything.”
It’s clear something triggered her. I try to think back on her schedule for today. She was supposed to go see her sponsor at the park and then drop off some jewelry at the boutiques. What could have happened that upset her.
“Tell me what happened.”
She tosses one hand into the air. “I got hit with the truth today. Just a reminder of something I already know.”
My brows pinch, I’m still not understanding. What truth? What does she already know.
“What do you know?”
She kisses her teeth. “I ran into Andrew at the bookstore Gabe and I visit. He let me know that no matter what I do I’ll never be more than my past. He reminded me of how unworthy I am and I’m never going to be on anyone’s list.”
“Fuck that list,” I growl through clenched teeth.
My anger at her tears and her pain has me seeing red. I shut my eyes to drown out the voices.
“Let me out to play, Gabriel,” the deep sinister voice comes out of its cage.
I was expecting mother or Priest. I wasn’t prepared for this one. “Get back. Get back,” I fight against myself to push the voice away.
“Easy for you to say,” she replies cutting into my internal battle.
Her voice is just what I need to refocus. The dark voice is put back in its place. I open my eyes to find Summer pacing in front of me.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I ask.
She scoffs, turning to glare at me. “You don’t even want to be here.”
