Hope's Chance(4)

I was ready to tell her to get out, but there was something about her that made me feel sorry for her. “Why don’t you come sit down for a minute. I’m sure after seeing my bare ass you could use a drink. So what will it be?”

“What do you have?” She asked.

“Bourbon and coke.”

“Wow that is some variety. Surprise me!”

I gave her a half smile and headed to the tiny kitchen area. I was pretty sure that the people who lived here before rented out this pool house. It had one bedroom, a kitchen, a small bathroom and a living room, but it was perfect for me. It wasn’t like I entertained, or even had friends at all.

I decided to get her a bottle of water I found in the door of the fridge. My sister had bought them insisting that if I drank soda all day in the sun I would get heat exhaustion.

When I returned to the living room, I sat on the chair facing her.

“Hope.” She said.

“Huh?”

“My name is Hope, Hope Ryan.” She said as she took the bottle of water. “Thanks for this. I didn’t know if I could handle the bourbon after the breakfast I just had.”

“That bad huh?”

“No offense, but your sister isn’t much older than me. I guess I just wasn’t prepared ya know?” She said as she opened the bottle of water and drank half of it down.

I had managed to pour myself half a glass of bourbon and had already taken two sips. The ice clattered in the bottom of the glass, and I swiveled it around with my hand. “Nah, it’s cool. My sister can be hard to understand at first. She has a good heart though.”

She smirked but said nothing. “What?” I couldn’t help but asking.

“Nothing! Well I was going to say something, but you will just get mad probably.”

“Didn’t anyone ever tell you it wasn’t nice to start something and not finish it.” She looked up at me. Her eyes were like crystals and they glowed against her dark complexion. Summer had just started, but she was already tan. Her hair had streaks of different browns, but it didn’t look like it came from a box, it appeared to be natural highlights. She was strikingly beautiful.

“Fine, I was going to say that she really likes the color pink. No, not likes, LOVES the color pink.” She blurted out.

I wanted to defend my sister, but something about this girl made me feel like she was just trying to break the ice. I hadn’t had a friend in so long that I couldn’t be an *; I needed this. “I never noticed. She likes lots of colors. So, what colors do you like?”

Did I really just ask that?

“Not pink. Anything but pink.” She declared without even thinking about it.

“Okay. Are you always like this?”

“Like what?” She asked innocently.

“I don’t know. Flip. Sarcastic.”

“How would you feel if you hadn’t seen your father in a year, or talked to him? How would you act if he invited you over and ignored you because he was busy staring at his new eye candy’s fake tits?”

I was halfway into a large gulp of bourbon when the word “tits” came out of her pretty little mouth. The liquor went flying everywhere. Once I stopped gagging from the utter shock, I turned back to face her. She had stood up from the couch and had her hands on her hips. “Look, I am really sorry that I barged in on you getting changed. Had I been told that someone was living out here I never would have bothered you. It was nice meeting you Chance. Have a nice life.” She said as she walked out of the pool house.

I got up and walked to the window, watching her head back toward the house, while I finished my drink. I was pretty sure I would need a couple more after our unexpected meeting just now, but first I needed to talk to my sister.





Chapter 3


Hope



After I had come barging back into the main house from my unexpected meeting with Chance, all I wanted to do was go home. My father was back in his recliner watching golf again, while Buffy filed her nails with her feet draped over the end of the couch. I had to laugh at that. My father and mother used to yell at me over and over for sitting like that on a couch. How could he have changed so much? And why hadn’t he come looking for me after brunch was cleaned up?

I didn’t hesitate as I made my way into the family room and announced I was leaving.

My father turned and gave me a smile, while Buffy came racing over, planting a big hug on me. I patted her a few times on the back and pulled out of her embrace. “Thanks for brunch. It was nice meeting you.”

Not really!

As soon as I made it out of the driveway I began to cry. I couldn’t have held back the tears even if I wanted to. At one point I had to pull over to the side of the road, because I couldn’t see through the tears that had filled my eyes.

I couldn’t understand why he had even moved back here. Was I just dreaming or had that really been the catastrophe that I saw it as? While I sat on the side of the road I felt my stomach knotting up. In just enough time, I managed to unbuckle my seat belt, get out and run to the side of the road, where I vomited all of the food I had eaten. I leaned against my car, trying to gain some composure and make sure I was completely finished vomiting.

All of the time I had wished I had my father back into my life, and when I got him it was nothing like I pictured it would be. I wanted to crawl into a hole and die. There was no way I could drive home like this and explain what happened to my mother. She hated the guy. She would go out and buy a gun and then later be on the news for murdering him. I had to get myself calmed down first. It was my only option.