Chapter 2
Rounding the corner, I saw the neon vacancy light shining bright above the motel’s front office door. The dimly lit gravel parking lot crunched under the tires of my crying car. It was time to put more power steering fluid in for sure. I grabbed the plastic bottle of fluid from the floorboard of the passenger side and fixed the problem. At least there were a few things I could do under the hood of my car to make it run at a somewhat decent level. Growing up where most of the guys around built mud trucks had its perks from time totime.
Looking around as I made my way into the office, I noticed a few cars scattered around the lot, all with out of state plates. It was nice to know that other out-of-towners stopped there. It shouldn’t have made a difference, but it comforted me to know that other travelers felt safe enough to crash theretoo.
The bell chimed above my head as I walked into the small office that smelled like mothballs and stale pizza. A sweet girl peeked up from a school book the was laid out on the counter. “Hey miss. Lookin’ for aroom?”
I nodded. “Suream.”
“Smoking ornonsmoking?”
Even though I was a smoker, the thought of stale cigarette smoke embedded in the pillows made me want to hurl on thespot.
“Nonsmoking.”
“All right. I just need a credit card to hold the room. How many nights will you be ourguest?”
For not being more than thirteen, she was very articulate and polite. I was pretty impressed byher.
“I’m not sure, actually.” I dug my hands into my pockets; it felt unnerving as hell to not have any planwhatsoever.
“Longer than aweek?”
I shrugged. “Possibly.”
“We have weekly specials, you’ll save fifty bucks thatway.”
“Sounds like a plan tome.”
“Perfect.” She punched a few keys on the dinosaur of a computer that was in front of me. “If anything changes, just come on in and let us know.” Her kind eyes and sweet smile settled down my growing nerves as she handed me a key with a giant red plastic ornament-looking keychain onit.
“You’re on the first floor, three doors over on theleft.”
I handed her my credit card and license. “All right, Miss Hayes. You’re allset.”
“Thanks.” With a quick wave, I was off to finally lie down in a bed for a much needed night’s sleep, even though it was still theafternoon.
* * *
The light shiningthrough the window stung my tired eyes as I groggily started to wake up. I had no idea what time I had actually crashed the day before. I’d barely even had time to turn the lights off before I hit the pillow and passed out, let alone undress, take off my makeup, or look at theclock.
Rolling over, bright red numbers blared eleven fifteen at me as my stomach started to rumble. After peeling myself from the pillow-topped mattress that felt like a lumpy heaven, I dug through the duffle bag that contained my life until I found my favorite pair of jeans and a yogatop.
I glanced at the bright red smear on the pillow from my favorite lipstick and the black dots from my mascara. Thankfully I was not the one that was going to have to wrestle with thosestains.
Within minutes the faucet was pumping steaming water into the tub. A nice long soak felt like a dream for my tired body. The trip hadn’t been emotional until it all crashed onto me as I sunk to the bottom of that porcelain bath. I was free. I was finally freaking free, and I felt bad aboutit.
The image of my mom figuring out that I was gone broke into my mind and ripped my heart apart. But who was I kidding? If she hadn’t started blowing up my phone yet, she had no idea. She was probably still in a haze of meth and booze from another week-longbinge.
Right before I left, I could tell that’s where she was heading anyway. It was the perfect time to escape: I would be so far gone by the time she was halfway conscious that it wouldn’tmatter.
“Critter!” Her hollow cry came from the backbedroom.
I rolled my eyes at her dumbass nickname for me. Wasn’t my real name badenough?
“YeahMa?”
“Get me a fucking coke from thefridge.”
