wouldn’t be mad at
me, but she’d be sad that I got myself into this situation. But to
be honest, Andrew is the first real man who paid any attention to
me. I didn’t have many friends who were female simply because they
annoyed the crap out of me. It is all about fun and parties, and
‘look at me, look at me,’ all the time. I didn’t like to draw
attention to myself at the time, and sometimes I still don’t. I’m a
lot more comfortable with my size than before, but sometimes, I do
feel a pang of regret that I didn’t exercise more. Sure, I have
lost about five pounds, but it is because I am hungry and only
eating what I can afford, which isn’t much.
I met Andrew through a few girls here in
town. They said it would be fun so we all met during Mardi Gras,
Andrew was from my town, and we seemed to hit it off. He didn’t
even comment on how much larger I was than the others. If anything,
he made me feel special. It went pretty good the first few date
nights, but warning bells went off later on with him. He called or
texted me at least three times a day, wanting to know when I got
home from work, where I was, what I was wearing. Then during the
six or seventh date he showed his true self. He demanded I cover up
more, unless I was planning to pay for the meal in other ways. I
got offended and cut the date short, telling him I didn’t think it
would work out anymore. But the texts and phone calls from him
didn’t stop. It didn’t seem to stick with him and Andrew started to
show up at work with flowers, roses—go figure—and said I was his
soul mate. He became obsessed. It got to the point I had to I get a
restraining order against him, but it didn’t work. He showed up at
my old apartment and slapped me around saying he could get to me
whenever he wanted and no one would stop him. Stupid cops did
nothing, of course, because Andrew left. It went on for a good two
months, until he killed Penny. I was a wreck and they had to arrest
him. But being he is from here, they let him go on bail, and now
I’m back to square one; however, I now have Hawk and Wolf after him
too.
I need something distracting so I click on
the radio to bring me back to the happy place I want to be in. The
radio is blaring some music and I feel pretty good as I sing along,
and way off key, but I don’t care—my car, my radio. Giggling
as I sing some more, I almost miss the large amounts of cars up
ahead. It is odd, not many cars come this way. But that’s when I
notice a large billow of smoke starting to fill the air. Panic
starts to seize me, is a house on fire? There are only five houses
on this road, and for once in my life, I pray that it’s someone
else’s house, but reality is a different story.
The more I drive the closer I get and as I
make the final turn, there it is, Gran’s house—all red and on fire.
I don’t remember shutting the car off or even putting it in park as
I jump out and run to watch everything I have good in my life start
to disintegrate in front of me. People in the yard just look at me,
and the house, but no one did anything.
“Someone call the fire department,” I yell,
but still no one says anything. I watch a few people even smile. I
run to my car and grab my phone, but again, money is tight and I
don’t have enough minutes in the damn thing and it is dead.
Screaming in frustration, I run and find a hose that’s attached to
the back part of the yard Gran used for her garden and flowers. I
spray what I can, but the hose sucks and has about ten tiny holes
in it, soaking me in the process. Instead of the damn hose, I find
a bucket and start to fill that up and throw what I can. Trying to
save something, anything, until help can come, but it isn’t, and
I’m fighting an endless fire with a broken water hose and a
bucket.
Wolf
Hawk came home sometime late last night and
woke early getting both of us coffee before I even got a chance to
tell him my plan. It’s a good idea, and for once Hawk