Salt

I spent my time over the next three days going between my job at The Shell Shack and arguing with Ambrose. I'd barely seen anyone outside of that, aside from grabbing a quick lunch with Lu. I didn't know why, maybe they'd forgotten about me?

I didn't like to think so, but what if they were distancing themselves from me? From the danger I had scarcely escaped from at the lake. I say scarcely because I was reminded every day that they knew I was alive, likely plotting scheme number two in the list of ways to kill me.

I was surrounded by uncertainty, molded it to my entirety, that anything else was a luxury. Any other feeling; or anything at all.

Zoey wasn't talking to me much either, when we sat down at the dinner table, she would demolish her meal as if she hadn't eaten in days, and retreated back to the oblivion of her room. I didn't want to side with my parents, but she was avoiding the elephant in the room.

Speaking of, my folks hadn't argued at all today, it was... strange. How sad was it that I literally couldn't recall a time when they hadn't screamed murder and threw fragile objects at each other?

Instead, they sat on opposite ends of the love seat, feeding into the irony of it all. My mother was reading one of her wishy-washy romance/pornography novels while my dad wrote up a report on his dinosaur of a laptop.

This was such a rare occurrence that you could consider me intrigued. Of course, I didn't want to see or hear my parents clawing at each other's throats, but it still made me uncomfortable. Had they exhausted themselves out that much and decided to relinquish all red flags for the meantime?

I didn't comment though, since I knew I was likely still on thin ice from the way I spoke to my mother last. We hadn't shared much since, waiting the other out until one of us would undoubtedly crack.

How pathetic, I thought, rolling my eyes.

I continued to exchange banter and complaints with Lu, who judged my family from the side lines, and was also the first person to make me laugh since God knows when. It was little moments, tiny quirks, and perks, in this friendship that sealed the fact I could never accuse him of hurting anybody, much less me.

Pacing the kitchen, while looking out to our back garden, I noted the shining silver gleam that illuminated our perfectly mowed green lawn, cast faint shadows on the porch, reflecting off the shine of our water fountain. The angel trickled water out of its arrow head, looking to soar but instead falling into the granite pit.

Mesmerized by it for some reason, I was startled when my phone began buzzing incessantly, flashing Fletcher's name on the harshly lit screen.

He didn't make calls often, so I answered, in the indistinct hope that he came bearing information.

"I originally wanted to video call, but I forgot you've got a shitty flip phone as a back-up." Blowing a raspberry, his voice still retained a groggy sound. "Thought we were due a catch up and I wanted to see your pretty face."

Laughing with him, I rolled my tongue between my teeth. Fletcher and I were so at ease with one another that, besides Lu, he was the only one who could compliment me like this and it would never be taken seriously. The banter between us was unrivaled.

But I felt his words, the pang within them. I'd have loved a video call too.

"Did you just wake up?"

A slight pause, then; "Maybe,"

And so, I exchanged witty and coy conversation with the Chief of Police's son. He feigned a bruised ego and extreme sadness when I told him he wasn't my type, nor would we be having phone sex.

"Well, that's my dick soft for tonight. Goodnight, bitch." I could mentally visualize him sticking his tongue out, and I bit down on my finger to hold myself back.

I'm crazy, I must be, to reject such a fine specimen like Fletcher. He was a spoonful of sugar, mixed in condensed milk, and chocolate. So sweet, so bad for you, that it attracted people to him even more. He was strictly off-limits for so many girls that defying those rules you set out for yourself, would make devouring him all the sweeter.

If he and Jesse didn't run in the same circle, and I hadn't known him inside and out for countless years, I probably would have thrown in my fifty-thousand coins. No second-guessing, I'd make it apparent how much his stupendous face made me tingly between the thighs.

But I couldn't. He was more than Jesse's friend, he was mine too, and to jeopardize all those years of trust over what would turn out to be no more than one-night stand? I don't think I could ever forgive myself if I'd done that.

Besides, he wasn't the only hot male in our circle. I mean, I dated Jesse for more than a year, after all. He just happened to be the plum in a bowl full of peaches.

"Sorry, babe," I teased, sliding open the back door and entering the crisp, cold air. "Can I ask you a question though? As an officer."

The sharp rumbling of him sitting to attention somehow parched my throat even more.

“Off the record?"

"Yeah," When he didn't contribute more to it, I decided it was best to be blunt. "Say I received a threat addressed directly to me, is there any way – even if I said it frightened me – you'd possibly let it slide?"

The silence was palpable, disrupted only by our breathing, the muted buzzing of the bugs on the light, burning like Icarus getting to close to the flaming sun, plunging to their inevitable deaths.

The smoke fizzled out of the lamp, as if it was blowing out a puff of smoke after a glorious round of coitus.

"As an officer of the law, no. That shit needs to be taken seriously, especially for someone in your situation. It would be more than just launching an investigation, you would be placed under constant supervision, you'd have to report every detail you think may even be remotely related to the case, and it... it will be trying,"

I closed my eyes. Of course, he wouldn't let it go. This was going to be his job, he had to be all in from the get-go.

"As your friend?" He sighed. "There's no chance."