He dropped his head, eyes disbelieving. “Right.” He took one last quick hit of the cig, licked the pad of his forefinger and thumb, and pinched the cherry off with a sizzle. “Have a goodnight, Hailey.”
He balled the butt between his fingers, flipped the bottom of his jacket back, and shoved his hand—cigarette butt included—inside his pocket. Then turned and walked toward the door.
I felt stupid correcting him. “Harlow.”
Linc paused with one hand on the side door and glanced back with a grin.
A second later, the door echoed behind him.
We stood outside the club with Sidney’s new fuck friend, deciding what to do next. I used her height to hide behind and dug through my purse for my small zip lock bag. I scooped the white powder with a fingernail. Someone bumped into me, and the mystic stuff floated to the ground. “Son of a bitch.” I groaned.
“I’m out,” Sidney said. That was her goodbye.I’m out.
Knowing it wouldn’t have been long before she would have bounced on me, I already had my phone in my hands, screen blurred and ready to text Heidi to find out where she’d run off to.
Before my thumb hitsend, tires of an antique Chevy C10 stopped before us, holding up traffic and stealing my attention.
The truck idled in front of the bar, stormy clouds from its chromed tailpipes coughing into the stale night air. The window rolled down, and a tattooed arm hung out the window, palm flat against the black paint job. I hadn’t noticed the cobalt blue in his dopey eyes until now. The shade of blue girls died for.
“Last chance,” Linc said.
4
#getoffmyshade
HARLOW SAINT JAMES
It wasa hot summer night punctuated by an ocean breeze. I hadn’t realized how drunk I was until the cars passing by in a blur made me woozy—gave me that sick to my stomach feeling, like dropping altitudes in a jet plane. It took more than four or five drinks to get me to the throwing-up stage. I dwelled in this dizzy, lived in it like a second home.
Some remix toI Can Feel Itplayed low from the dashboard’s old speakers in a crackle. Both windows were cracked, and the wind whistled as he drove. The bass vibrated my seat. I threw my head back against the headrest and closed my eyes to catch a calmness.
The truck smelled like gasoline and leather. Amansmell.
I imagined myself driving off into the night in this truck, running away from Los Angeles and going back to Orlando, where everything in my life had been fine up until I’d auditioned for the role of Rudy. I could get out of LA like Mom had. Abandon this life before it killed me. I could do that in a truck like this.
Linc’s Chevy was so different, not like the hundred Range Rovers or Teslas I’d been in, soaked in cologne that had a French name.Prends moi...
The moving stopped. I opened my eyes.
A food cart was in front of us. A sign that read TACOS in big red neon letters. I looked over at Linc. “Where did you take me?”
“You need to eat something.”
I was deposited onto a concrete bench. The matching concrete table was cool against my cheek. I heard Linc in the distance talking to a man inside the food cart like they were old pals.
They were about to close, I gathered, and Linc ordered ... and that was where my mind was pulled away. People whispered as they passed me, but they couldn’t see my face. It was hiding inside my folded arms. The feeling came again, though, that someone was watching me. When I lifted my head to catch the stalker, Linc appeared, dropping a greasy brown paper bag and a large frosty drink in front of me.
“Jamaica Fresco,” he said, sliding onto the bench across from me. “Eat. It will soak up the alcohol.”
“But I don’t want to remember you.”
“Ouch.”
I’m not that fucked up, I should have said instead, but all that came next was a groan when he pushed the greasy bag closer. The thought of eating street tacos on the side of the road brought a disgusting taste in my mouth, a grimace on my face, but the scent of mouth-watering food slipping from the steam overpowered it.
I dug an arm through the bag to see where the scent was coming from. Fried tortillas stuffed with chicken and guacamole and onions and some green things.
My teeth sank into the taco, and guacamole squirted at the corners of my mouth.
