He looked so absolutely fearful that I couldn’t help but believe him…and that only made me angrier. He saw the venom in my eyes and recoiled in terror, his hands up.
“Wh-wh-what are you doing?”
“Taking out the trash,” I smiled evilly.
After roughing him up across my living room and knocking him out, I carried him outside over my shoulder. I strolled over towards the line of trash bins outside, contemplating throwing him into them as one last fuck you.
Nah.
No reason to piss off the garbage crew.
Instead, I tossed him to the curb and told him to get the fuck out of here. Brushing my hands, I pulled out my phone.
There were some calls to make.
I needed a plane and a car.
There was only one lead to follow.
I hoped with all my heart that it would be enough to track her down.
26
Angel
At least half a day before Trent would be back home, I was already back out of the bus and quietly, miserably waiting at my destination.
And that life, as I knew it, was long gone.
I only had to wait at the bus station for about two hours before Mom showed up, pulling up in her battered, ancient sedan. It wasn’t surprising to me to see that it was still marked with dings, dents, and a crumpled backseat door.
“Angel! Good lord, girl, I thought I’d never see you again!”
Proudly boasting ratty, unkempt hair and loud makeup choices, Mom gave me an awkward car hug as I climbed into the passenger seat.
“Where have you been all this time?” She suddenly demanded to know.
“I think I was staying…with a friend, or something,” I told her reluctantly. “Nowhere near here. The last little while, I’ve been living with…well, I guess it’s not really important.”
“I see,” she nodded, kicking us into reverse and peeling out from the bus station. “All that really matters is that you’re back now. God, Angel, I was so worried about you these last years, I had no idea if you were dead or alive…”
“I’m sorry, Mom. I didn’t mean to scare you like that.”
“Then maybe you should have considered not running off in the middle of the night,” she sternly lectured me. “What the hell were you thinking, disappearing into the dark? I searched for you for days! Weeks! Months! We put out a report and everything!”
I found that odd, especially since I’d only really been a few hours away. Granted, it was the middle of nowhere, so maybe the report didn’t make it out there?
Mom briefly turned to me, a sympathetic look on her face. “Why did you leave, honey?”
I shook my head.
“Now’s not the time,” I whispered, trying to change the subject.
“Well…just stay with me for now, and we’ll get you taken care of…won’t we, dear?”
“Okay, Mom,” I nodded. “So… What happened to Roger?”
Panic seized my chest as I uttered his name, as if he’d jump out of the shadows at any second.
“Like I said on the phone, we got separated a few years back,” Mom smiled at me with freshly whitened teeth. “It hit him pretty hard when you ran away… Especially after all the time he spent helping you in the hospital. The man was in a panic.”
I bet he was… I thought to myself.
“He…he isn’t still in town?”
“No, sweetheart,” Mom said. “I’m sorry. We fell out of touch. Haven’t heard from him all year.”
My panic began to settle down.
“Okay…” I said quietly, trying not to alert her to my fear. Mother would blame herself if she ever knew the truth…
“Mhmm,” she nodded, steering us onto the highway. The sun was setting, and there weren’t too many cars on the road.
“Listen…I’m sorry to call you up, out of nowhere,” I tried to tell her. I felt compelled to apologize. “I know that it’s a lot, asking for help out of the blue…”
“No, no, not at all,” Mom reassured me. “I’m just so happy to have you back. You have no idea. A mother should never be separated from her daughter when they need each other.”
I thought on this, and a silence developed between us. Mom took the time to turn on the radio, flicking through a few stations.
I caught a brief snippet of Wicked Wilds as she flipped from signal to signal, and it made my heart sink.
Oh, Trent, I despaired to myself.
If only we could have been together.
I miss you so fucking much.
“Ah, here we go,” Mom chuckled, settling on a contemporary country station. Immediately, the twang of a wailing, energetic acoustic guitar sang out, accompanied by the rich but depressed voice of a rugged cowboy singer.