Chapter 3

The couple in the car knew better than to ask too much about what had just happened that left me stranded and bleeding miles from anywhere. The guy looked like he wanted to ask, but his partner silenced him with a hand on his arm. The next few minutes were thankfully silent, and impossibly, I fell asleep.

When I opened my eyes some time later, everything outside looked blessedly familiar again. We passed the Dairy Queen, then Soldotna's only shopping mall (little more than a couple of boutiques in the same building as a grocery store), and when we finally got to the stop light at K-Beach Road, I fully relaxed. I was back home.

I offered to pay the couple out of what little money I had with me, but they refused, saying it was on their way anyway. Instead, they restated their offer to let me keep the coat I was wearing, probably more out of irritation that I may have bled on it than out of genuine charity. When they dropped me off at the end of Jenny's driveway, they waited till the door opened before driving off to wherever they were headed before they ran into me.

I didn't say anything to Jenny when she opened the door to let me in. I didn't have to. I knew I was a sight right then, in dirty and probably torn jeans, a jacket two sizes too big for me that she'd never seen before, tear-stained cheeks, and normally well-tended long brown hair in a skewed pony tail, never mind my scratched up hands. Jenny loved my eyes. She called them 'piercing' blue, the kind that seemed supernaturally pure in color, and even when I looked sad, I could still kill with a glance. But today, I was out of daggers in my stare.

Jenny didn't say a word either. She pulled me in, shut the door, and swept me into a tight embrace. I didn't know if she knew exactly what happened, and I was in no condition to explain anyway. She just held me tight and whispered some reassurances in my ear. It didn't matter what she said. That she was there, holding me and comforting me, was enough.

Before I could burst into tears, she let go and led me by the hand to the bathroom. Get cleaned up, she said, and she pulled out a clean towel for me. I showered, cleaning my hands as best I could, then sat down on the floor of the shower, drawing my knees close to my body, just letting the steaming water cascade over me.

I could have stayed until the hot water had run out, but Jenny knocked on the door a few minutes into my shower to make sure I was alright.

"Yes," I shouted over the spray, "but I could use some clean clothes." I shut off the water, dried off, and opened the door, Jenny was there, holding a terry robe.

It was just like Jenny to read me perfectly, and today was no exception. Waiting in her room was a cup of hot chocolate (vanilla flavored, I already knew), and her CD player had my favorite songs playing. She got into her bed under a massive fluffy down blanket and invited me to join her. I protested for a moment, saying my hair was still wet, but she didn't care. She slid over to the wall to make room for me next to her. Out of objections, and more than a little tempted by the warmth of her bed, I got in next to her.

She spooned me the moment I got settled, and I welcomed her arm around me. I ended up here just about every time something of consequence happened to me, usually relating to my misadventures with boys. The first time I skipped class to go out to lunch with a boy freshman year, and he took the opportunity to be the first to touch my chest, or the day after I was too drunk to resist a boy who wanted to kiss me (but no t so drunk that I would allow any further). After letting my mind float to my favorite music for a long while, I told Jenny everything there was to tell.

Jenny was silent through my whole story, offering a slight squeeze on the obviously difficult parts. I told about what happened on the drive out of town, how eerie and otherworldly everything looked, and finally how I was left at the rest stop. Jenny gave me an extra long and extra tight embrace for that one. At the end of the story, I told her finally that it was time, definitely, to leave this town, and with any luck never look back.

I felt a shiver run through Jenny's body. not the kind you get from cold, but rather from excitement. She was loving the idea of moving more and more, and really the only thing that seemed to be holding her back was me. No longer. I turned around under the blanket to face her, keeping her arm around me. I looked straight into her chocolate eyes with my own icy ones just inches away.