Safe and Sound (2 page)

 
Lana’s lips turned up in a fleeting smile. “Hi, honey.
Did you start
supper?
”

 
Her skin
flushed
and she looked at the glowing red numbers of
the
alarm cl
ock on the stand beside
her bed.
“Of course I did. I do every
night
, don’t I?”

 
Her mother
’s face fell and Lola’s chest con
stricted.
She looked down so she didn’t have to s
ee the pain in her mother’s eyes
.
“Thank you for that.
I’m just so tired all the time.
”
Lana lifted a hand to her limp hair and let it fall to her side. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me,”
she mumbled, turning away.

 
Lola wanted to scream at her, to shake her.
She wan
ted to throw something, to hit the wall
.
Anything to get her attention, to force her to
wake up
.

 
You know what’s wrong and you do nothing about it!

 
Her hands fisted and she clenched her teeth.
The words she so desperately wanted to shout would have no effect on
her mother except to make her sad. And then
Bob
would get involved.
She knew from experience.

*
**

 
Lola worked most nights at
Granger’s
, the local grocery sto
re in Morgan Creek. Three to four
hours at the cash register on weeknights and usually six hours either Saturday or Sunday
, but sometimes both days
.
It was how she paid for her clothes and whatever else she wanted that
Bob
didn’t consider a necessity.

 
She’d been saving up for a car and had close to
one
thousand dollars in her savings account.
Another thousand and Lola would have enough to get a somewhat decent car.

 
The
temperature in the store
was kept cool and
the store
smelled of cleaning solution.
Low music played from speakers in the ceiling.
The wall near the registers was
made up of
windows. It was odd to look out at the dark night from the brightly lit interior; it was like a different world out there.

 
It was nine-thirty and she had half an hour left to go before the store closed.
It was slow and she and the other two cashiers passed the time by talking to one another.
Well, they talked, and she listened.

 
“Lola, you’re quiet tonight. What’s the matter?” Dorothy asked in her loud voice.

 
Lola’s face burned. She wasn’t being any quieter than any other night, but as Dorothy needed constant chatter, she could see how she would come to such a conclusion. She looked up from the uneven fingernail she’d been staring at.

 
Dorothy Dean was in her fifties, plump, and had a laugh that made others around her want to laugh as well. She was retired and said she worked part-time at the store so she didn’t go completely nuts from boredom at home.

 
Her green top and black slacks clung to her body. Her gray hair was short and spiky. Her olive green eyes always danced and Lola found herself smiling
more than usual
in Dorothy’s company.
But not tonight.

 
Dorothy and
Roxanne were watching her
.

 
“Nothing.
Everything’s fine.” She even managed a brief smile,
though it felt forced
. It
was
forced
.

 
Dorothy narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips. “I’m a mother. I know when something’s not right with a child. What is it?”

 
Lola bit her lip and looked away. What she wouldn’t give for her mother to
acknowledge
something wasn’t right.
Lana was in denial. Lola knew that.
It was
Bob
’s word against Lola’s and Lola’s didn’t matter.

 
She
felt like nothing;
like she was nothing and meant nothing to her mother.

 
“I’m fine,” she said in a shaky voice.

 
“She’s always like that, Dot, you know that,”
Roxanne said
.
“Might as well sav
e your breath and not bother
talk
ing
to her.”

 
Lola bristled, but kept her back to them.

 
“Roxanne. You hush,” Dorothy admonished.

 
Roxanne
Zanders was a year ahead of Lola in school.
She was also
most recently
Sebastian
Jone
s
’
girlfriend. Lola didn’t like her, but that wasn’t why. She didn’t like her because Roxanne was manipulative, sneaky, and mean.
To her, anyway.
Lola didn’t know what she was like to other people and she didn’t care.

 
Roxanne was tall, slender, had flaming red hair, and just as red lips. Freckles spattered her pale skin, somehow adding to her cold beauty. Her eyes were an unusual shade of green; close to lime, and flashed with dislike whenever they encountered Lola. Roxanne had a perfect body and liked to show it off in tight, short clothing. Even her work outfit molded to her lithe frame in a positive way.

 
Lola may have had a good body at one point, but it was too thin now. She didn’t eat much because her stomach was upset
all
of the time. She knew most girls her age would love to have such a
problem, but she would trade
with
them
without hesitation to be able to eat a large burger and fries and not throw it back up.

 
“I’m just stating a fact,” Roxanne said.

 
“Facts aren’t always nice
, nor do
they always need to be stated
,” Dorothy retorted.

 
Lola’s lips curved up
and a small, but significant weight lifted.
She looked at Dorothy and mouthed, “Thank you.”

 
A few
customers straggled through
Lola’s
checkout lane and
the store closed for the night. She went about her closing duties with the register, pulled on her white hooded sweatshirt, and grabbed her purse.

 
She shivered in the chilly night air.
Street lamps offered a little light in the parking lot
, but not much. Two cars were in the parking lot
; o
ne a blue Nissan and the other a silver Pontiac.

 
Dorothy squeezed her shoulder as she passed.
“You have a good night, sweetheart. Don’t let Roxanne get to you.”

 
Lola knew it was stupid and weak of her, but her eyes pricked at the thoughtful gesture.
She watched as Dorothy contorted her large frame into her little blue
car
and drove off
.

 
The door opened to the other car and Sebastian got out. For one brief, dizzying moment, Lola thought he was there for her.
Then reality set in.
Roxanne
brushed past, bumping her shoulder, and skipped over to him.
She flung her ar
ms around him and kissed him long and hard
.

 
Lola felt sick and turned away. She
began to walk toward home.
Her mother didn’t have to be to work until eleven, but she never offered to pick her up.
And the one time Lola had asked,
Bob
had ridiculed her so badly she’d never asked again.

  She
kicked at a rock with her tennis shoe.
She walked to and from work in the winter, in the spring, in the summer, and in the fall. No matter the weather; no matter how cold or hot it was.
Dorothy was nice, but even she had never offered to pick Lola up or drop her off.

  Lola
was alone. There was no one.

 
Sebastian’s car slowed beside her. Lola didn’t acknowledge its presence. The window rolled down and warm air taunted her cold body.

 
“
Need a ride
?” Roxanne asked, not sounding the least bit happy about it.

 
“No,” she bit out, teeth chattering.

 
Only six blocks to go. If you get too cold, you can run them.

 
Lola didn’t want a ride from them, especially if Sebastian
was so chicken he
made his girlfriend ask
;
his girlfriend that
loathed
her
.

 
One more reason for her to hate me.
Great.

 
“She said no. Let’s
go
.
Come
on
, Sebastian.
”

 
Lola kept her eyes trained ahead, wishing they would leave.
She hunched her shoulders against the cold.
What she wouldn’t give for a scarf or gloves. Winter was supposedly over, but maybe someone should have told April that.

 
She didn’t realize the car had
stopped until a door
slammed.
Lola halted only when Sebastian placed himself directly in her path.
His hair was windswept. He wore dark jeans, a black leather bomber jacket, and black boots.

 
His jaw was clenched in that
stubborn way of his, his brows lowered over stormy gray eyes.
Lola’s breath caught. She’d forgotten how stunning he was up close, especially when he turned
his intense
gaze on her.

 
“Get in the car, Lola,” he said in a low voice.

 
Lola
lifted her chin
, though her body quaked
.
“No.”

 
It had been so long since he’d talked to her, so long since he’d spoken her name. A tidal wave of conflicting emotions crashed over her; the most prominent one resentment.

 
She didn’t know what she’d done t
o make him stop speaking to her;
she didn’t know why he’d decided not to be her friend anymore. She’d
needed
him. She’d needed him to be her friend; he’d been her
closest
friend, and he’d just…
left her
. He’
d abandoned her. When she’d needed him the most, he wasn’t there.
Sebastian never even had the decency to explain
why
.

 
It still hurt. It would always hurt.

 
“Sebastian, really?
She said
no
. I’m cold and I’m tired and I don’t have
time
for this.”

 
They stared at each other, not speaking.
Lola put everything she was feeling into her eyes and she hoped he choked on what he saw.

 
Sebastian finally looked away. When he turned back, there was renewed determination e
tched into his features. “It’s thir
ty degrees out. You can’t walk home. Get in the car.”

 
“You have no manners.
And you’re bossy.
I never realized that before. Better now than never, right?”

 
His jaw clenched and he took a quick step toward her. Lola took one back.
He stopped and narrowed his eyes at her.

 
“Sebastian!” A car door slammed and Roxanne stormed over, putting herself between them. She gave Lola a look that blazed with
animosity
.
I will get you for this
, those eyes promised.

 
Roxanne crossed her arms. “She doesn’t want a ride. She said so herself.” She turned to Lola. “
Right
, Lola? You don’t want a ride.”

 
Agree
, or I will
make your life hell
, she said without
uttering
a single word.