Rock Bay 2 - Letting Go (3 page)

He sat up and took in his new bedroom, his first time seeing it other than in the dark or online. It was nice—or it would be, with some TLC. As the top floor in a turn-of-the-century mansion, filled with scarred wood floors and all kinds of funky, angled ceilings, his apartment had charm and whimsy built right in. His landlord had told him he could paint, and he was really excited to get to the hardware store to buy some color for walls that were currently the color of slightly aged skim milk, an unhealthy looking bluish white with watery gray washed around the edges. Yeah, it was kind of gross.

Mason was just thinking of the perfect pale gold to catch the morning sun when his phone vibrated from the vicinity of his nightstand. He flopped over and reached for the phone, toes pointed in the opposite direction for balance. With a smile, he dragged his mother’s name into the “answer” box on his phone’s touchscreen.

“Hey, Ma, how are things in the ’Scratch?” “Mason, don’t be disrespectful.” He could tell she was holding in a smile, though. “We’re fine. Your father nearly took his arm off again trying to fix the lawn mower yesterday afternoon.”
“I thought you were going to take the mower down to that repair shop in Auburn when Dad was at work last week.”

His mother giggled… yeah.
Giggled
. “I did. That’s why he almost cut his arm off. He wasn’t expecting the thing to actually start.” The giggles turned into outright laughter.

“You didn’t tell him it was fixed?” Mason was having a hard time not laughing himself. It was a constant battle with his dad, always wanting to do things himself.

“No! He’d kill me for wasting the money.”

Which was probably true.
“So he thinks that old thing miraculously fixed
itself?”

“I’m not volunteering any information. I’ll let him think whatever makes him happy.”

“True.” He grinned. “Stubborn old goat.” “Mason! Don’t call your father names.”

He smiled into the phone. “I’ll stop if you do.”

His mother tsked, but he could tell she was smiling as well. “How was your drive yesterday? Did I pack you enough food?”

He’d stopped at his parents’ house on the way down south, which was a bit of a stretch, since Enumclaw wasn’t actually on the way to anything except for a few ski resorts.

“Yeah, it was great, Mom. Saved me from buying fast food.”

 

“I can’t believe you moved to Oregon. It’s so far.”

Mason rolled his eyes. “Don’t be dramatic, Ma. There’s only a bridge between me and Washington. I’m not in Egypt. Besides, it was a good job, you know that.”

“There weren’t any openings at Harborview or Swedish?” Those were two of the big Seattle hospitals where he’d done internships. They were both pretty intense. Harborview even had helicopters airlifting accident victims to the ER. It was too much for him. Besides….

“You hated me being in Seattle.”
His mother sighed. “I did. I always worried.” She’d hated his ex, Todd, too. Everyone had.

Sometimes he wondered why he hadn’t seen the signs. Mason looked at his clock and realized he’d slept a lot longer than he’d originally intended. “So, Ma, I’m going to head out to find a hardware store and get some paint for my place, okay? You’ll have to come see it soon.”

She’d never been to visit him in Seattle, but she hated the city. Maybe she’d like Astoria. Mason did miss his mother. There was no way he was going anywhere near home, though, for more than a day or two on the holidays. She’d have to come to him.

“Okay, baby. I’ll talk to you in a couple of days.”

It took Mason a while to find the hardware store. He ended up nearly crossing that scary effing bridge over the Columbia River and into Washington. He managed to make the turn-off before he was hundreds of feet in the air. He hoped he would rarely have to cross that thing in the daylight. At least in the dark, you couldn’t see how far it was to the water. Luckily, though, he managed to find a Home Depot in Warrington, the next town over from Astoria, and he didn’t have to go into Washington at all.

He stood deliberating in the paint department for ages (and probably driving the employees nuts) before he finally picked a warm yellow for his room that would contrast nicely with his black wrought iron bed, a pale apple green for the main areas of the apartment, and shiny black for his trim, since he thought that would look good with both colors and with his furniture. Mason figured it would take him a while to get all the rooms done and probably be a shit ton of work, but he wanted to make the place feel like home if he was going to be there for a while.

He got to work when he got home, humming along to his iPod and dancing while he covered his floor and moved his furniture. He thanked his lucky stars that his mom liked to repaint all the time at home, so he had some idea of what he was doing. If not, it would’ve taken even longer for him to finish the place.

The yellow looked great with his black furniture and the glossy black trim. It glowed warm and cheerful in the afternoon sun. The green in his living room was fresh and happy, and it was nice against the wine color of his leather couch. After he was done painting, he set up his bookshelves and put away his clothes and his dishes. By the end of the weekend, which had admittedly been both really long and far too short, his apartment was starting to feel like home.

Even though Mason’s first weekend all by himself in the quiet of his apartment felt a bit lonely and long, Monday morning and everything that came with it, was quick… and very early. He rose at, God, what felt like midnight, and showered sleepily before dressing in a pair of threadbare scrubs he had left over from nursing school. He imagined he would have a chance later in the day to get some new ones, and he honestly hoped so, since the old pair he had on had seen far better days. There were a few boxes he’d not managed to unpack, and one of them clearly had his coffee maker in it.
Damn
. Mason made do with some toast with butter (he was glad he’d found the grocery store the night before) and a key lime yogurt. He left his dishes in the sink and grabbed his keys and iPod so that he’d have a few desperately needed minutes of wake-me-up music in the car before he got to the hospital for what was going to be a long-ass day. Then he locked his door and tiptoed down the main stairwell of the building so he didn’t wake any of his neighbors long before the crack of dawn.

His car started slowly, seeming to protest the morning as much as his sore body had. He didn’t regret working hard on his place all weekend, though. It would have sucked to start work and have an unfinished apartment to come home to when he was tired and grumpy and only wanting to curl up on his couch and veg. He was glad he’d ordered his cable and Internet too. They’d been hooked up the day before, and he could watch old movies and the Food Network to his heart’s content. He had to have something to do, after all, if he wasn’t going to have a boyfriend. And he wasn’t. Not for a long while. The last one had been enough fun to last quite some time. Fun meaning, well, kinda scary and a whole lot of overwhelming.

Columbia Memorial was only a few minutes from his apartment. It was one of the reasons he’d chosen his place. It didn’t give him much time for wake-me-up music, that morning it happened to be Britney, but luckily there was one coffee place open early, so Mason pulled through and got the largest latte they had and downed it in the last few blocks before the hospital parking lot. He was a few minutes early, so he sat in his car and tried to calm his first-day jitters.

Columbia Memorial Hospital’s emergency room was quiet in an odd moment of early morning repose. The desk clerks looked sleepy and pointed him lethargically to Personnel, where he was supposed to check in before he started his shift. He filled out all of the required paperwork at Personnel, and they paged the nurse, Amy, who he’d met when he came down the month before to interview. Mason chuckled to himself a bit when he remembered Logan’s reaction to the fact that he thought she was a lesbian. He was going to have to forget that if he ever wanted to look her in the eye without laughing. Mason shuffled his paperwork together and turned it in before heading back toward the ER.

Amy met him in the hallway halfway there with a smile.
“Morning. How’d you like the wake-up time?”
He held back a groan and smiled. Had to make a good impression after all. “It’s not bad.”

Amy laughed. “You just tried so hard not to look like you were in pain.” She nudged him. “Don’t worry. You’re going to be on my regular shift. We’ll start at lunch and go until ten. I do doubles sometimes, but I hate the early morning crap.”

“How did I get that shift? I thought newbies usually got the worst of the worst.”
Amy grinned. “Maybe you have someone on your side. It’s good that you impressed the boss.”
Mason grinned at her appreciatively. “So what are we starting with today?”
Amy was still smiling, but he could see she’d switched into business mode. “Okay, here’s the rundown of our ER….”
She proceeded to go through the nurses’ station, and pointed out procedures that were specific to their operation and, thankfully, others that looked familiar. Then she started her summary of the staff. This was done very quietly. Mason was glad that Amy trusted him enough to tell the truth and not just what was politically correct.
“Most of these people will be on shift with us at one point or another.” Amy gestured at a middle-aged guy with a red beard and pale skin. “That’s Leroy, nicest guy in the world. If you need any supplies or anything and you can’t find me, let him know, and he’ll help you out until you’ve got the system down.”

Mason nodded. He wished he had a notebook. Amy tipped her chin at a nurse with dyed blonde hair. “That’s Phyllis. She’s about five years from retiring and really doesn’t want to work anymore. Don’t ask her to do anything. She likes to complain to Personnel when anyone dares to ask her for help. If you need something from her, ask me or Leroy. We know how to get around her.”

He must have looked a little overwhelmed because Amy smiled.
“That there is Kate. She actually should’ve retired six or seven years ago, I think, but she likes the job and is amazing still. We’re happy to have her. She’s been here practically since the place opened. Knows every doctor, nurse, hallway, and file folder, and will be very helpful. Just don’t mess with her paperwork. She’ll have a major fit if you do.”
Mason nodded and looked around. The ER seemed to be well run and organized. Better than the hospitals he’d worked in in the city. Of course things were quieter, and for that he was grateful. The big city ER had been terrifying some days. He’d seen more gunshot wounds than he wanted to see in his life. He figured there would be some of those here as well, but at least they’d probably only be from hunting rifles instead of teenagers on the losing side of a gang war.
He took a deep breath and tried to ready himself for the day, the new job… his new life. Then he looked at Amy and smiled.
“So what would you like me to start on?”

“
D
UDE
, guess what I heard?”

Drew looked up from his desk to see a very excited Brock standing at the door to his office, noticeably windblown and pink cheeked. It had been a blustery spring so far—then again, maybe Brock had been drinking. He’d been known to dip into the sauce before lunch on occasion. Drew tried not to roll his eyes.

“What did you hear?” I’m really trying to get some work done for once. Can’t you just take the fuck off?

 

“No, seriously, it’s important.
Tally’s
here.”

Wait… what? Impossible!
Drew’s breath caught in his throat. “What do you mean, Tally’s here?”

“I heard he just got back into town, like yesterday or maybe the day before. But he’s
here
. Like, right now. Isn’t that nuts?”

“Yeah, right.” Why the hell would Tally come back to town after everything that had happened before he left?

“No, I swear.”

“What’s he doing here?” Drew tried not to notice the way his pulse leapt.
“I don’t know. I’m going to find out, though. It’s so fuckin’ cool that he’s back.”
Whatever, Brock. You didn’t think Tally was so cool back when you were ignoring him after his dad shot himself and he was the town scandal. Did you even try to be friends with him after he moved to Seattle? He cringed. Of course, I didn’t either. Drew wasn’t sure if he could ever face Tally after how little friendship he’d shown back when they were kids.

“Yeah, it is pretty cool that he’s back.” Drew used his best customer voice. The kind that he hoped would get the conversation over with so he could get Brock out of his office.

I am so moving to Portland. I hate this fucking town.

Drew
had
always felt really bad about what happened with Tally, though. Whether he was back in town or not, it was something that Drew thought about regularly.

Back when they were seniors, probably four months or so before graduation, Tally’s dad had been caught with a prostitute, or maybe it was just a girl who worked at the city office where Tally’s dad was the mayor. Didn’t matter. He was screwed either way. The whole thing blew up in record time. Tally’s dad had ended up shooting himself right after the news broke. No one could believe it.

After that, all this other shit came out about Tally’s dad stealing money from the city and sleeping with kids, and who knew how much of it was even true and how much was total bullshit. At the end of it, every friend Tally’d had disappeared. Drew included. He’d wanted to go see if Tally was okay, but his mother had forbidden him from going to “that house,” and Brock and the others had basically said that no matter what, they were keeping out of it.

So they’d all ditched their friend and leader. Drew could imagine how alone Tally must’ve felt back then, with no one but his bitchy mother to turn to. And then he’d just disappeared. After he left for Seattle, no one had heard from him or seen him again. It was like he’d vanished from the face of the planet. Until Brock’s statement just a few moments ago.

Drew tried to play it cool. “Has anyone actually seen him, or is it just a dumb rumor?” He rolled his eyes, making a show of not being as interested as he was. “People have no lives around here, you know.”