Full Moon 2, Elaina H [beach books .txt] 📗

wanted, I promise. Whatever they said or did to you there is a lie, it always is. That’s why my father got out.”

My head snaps up, “You’re father’s evil too?” my voice begs it to be true, so I don’t feel so alone.

Cal shakes his head no, “My father was part of that before I was born, but he stepped out before it got so huge. But they still hunted him down, and injected his three living children.”

“Oh,” I sigh.

“But that doesn’t mean you can’t talk to me, Brim. I’ll listen and I promise I won’t judge you at all,” I stare into Cal’s eyes, yea right. The first thing he did when we met is judge.

Somehow I just don’t believe it. “It’s nothing important enough to mention.”

He nods, “Okay.”

And that’s that. We buy a room, sleep, and wake up before the sun even rises.

 

“Why are we up so early?!” I complain out loud. The third time.

Dev laughs, “What you don’t find this exhilarating?” he breathes deeply.

“It smells like skunk, not anticipation or fun,” I say blandly.

He smiles at me, “Woah there Debby Downer, calm down!” Dev gets onto his bike, and waits for Cal.

“Sorry, the clerk was asleep in the back room,” I laugh nervously, but climb on after Cal.

“We’re four hours away from reaching Florida. From there we’ll start tracking and searching for them,” I nod.

After I get situated on the bike, he starts it up, “I do know that we’ll eventually have to ditch these bikes. Those bikers should be waking up soon, and we can’t get caught for something stupid like that.”

“Oh!” Cal shouts. “That remind me, here you are,” he hands me a license with the name Pamela Smith.

And so, like any reasonable person, I ball. And I just can’t get myself to stop crying, Dev even offers to switch licenses with me.

“I’m sorry!” I shout and throw my arms in the air. “What’s wrong with me? Am I go crazy?” I look straight at Cal. “Come on, give me a real answer.”
“No, Brim. You are not crazy, although I do think you’re having a mental breakdown,” Cal sighs. “What happened in there, Brim?

“Nothing!” I wipe the tears out from under my eyes. “Can we just drive already?!” They both nod, and we start our four hour trip.

 

About half-way through, I do something that surprises even me. I lean forward closer to Cal’s ear, and I tell him exactly what happened.

 

Once I’m finished, he pulls his bike over, and sits quietly. “Are you sure he’s not lying?”

“No, but I’m pretty positive, Cal, like, 98% positive,” I look at my hands.

I hear Dev’s bike pull up behind us, “Listen to me, Brim. You’re not Penny or Penelope or your father. You’re Brim. That’s who you are now,” he licks his lips, “that’s what’s important. Not your past because you’ve changed. And,” he rubs his forehead, “I love you either way.”

Tears roll down my cheeks, and I step off the bike. I walk around and put my hands on his cheeks. “Thank you so much, Cal,” I lean in and kiss him.

I don’t think about Dev right behind us, not about Penny, or Mr. Harvey, or Pamela, not The Center, and not Florida. I just kiss Cal, and he kisses me back.

Dev breaks us apart, “If you two can quit sucking on each other’s faces for long enough can we please get back on the road?!” He’s hurt, it probably wasn’t the best way for me to do things, but it happened this way and I can’t take it back.

“Dev, I…” I’m going to tell him the ‘friends speech’, but he stops me.

“Come on!” he revs his bike, and takes of.

Getting back in the bike with Cal, he takes off down the road after Dev.

What a lovely couple of days it’s been, I think with a sigh.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Eight

We enter Florida, and, immediately, Cal drives to the first restaurant he sees. “I’ll be back.” Cal runs in, and I wait, holding the bike up.

“So,” I say to Dev.

He repeats it back to me like a recorder, “So.”

“Well, um,” I try again.

He laughs, “Well, um.”

“Are we really playing this game?”

Dev smiles, “Are we really playing this game?”

“We are, aren’t we?!” I cry.

He shrugs, “We are, aren’t we?!”

“Okay, enough!” my voice is a little angry, “We have to talk, Dev, it’s not healthy!” he ignores my comment.

Cal walks out with a large grin, “They were here! This mean we’re on the right road,” he’s smiling, but when Dev starts glaring at him, he stops.

“Okay, that’s good. Let’s keep going down this route. This is a dinner place, no breakfast is served. Which means they had to stay at a hotel somewhere around here,” it’s logical in my head.

Cal nods, “That’s a good idea. I think we should try that, checking the next few hotels down the strip.”

Dev speaks up, “Sure, let’s do that! We’re not being chased or anything!”

We ignore Dev’s snotty personality, and continue with the plan.

 

After the first five hotels, Cal gets discouraged. “Hey! Chin up, we have to remember they were being chased…”

“Like us!” shouts Dev.

“So,” I continue, “they may have stayed somewhere les conspicuous,” Cal looks at me.

“You know you’re only giving me false hope, Brim, it’s pointless. We’ll never find them, and their sent is too far gone!” Cal throws his arms up in defeat.

Dev smiles, “Let’s use backwards logic! Okay, so what makes the most sense? Where would they most likely head to?”

I ponder it, “Southern Florida!”

“Good. Now where’s the opposite?”

“Northern,” Cal says blandly.

Dev’s grin spread wider, “Now, where do you think they are?”

“Not in Florida.” Cal tries, and fails.

I think, “Central Florida, in the most populated city!”

“Ding! Ding! Ding!” Dev sings. “We have a winner, and a loser,” he glances at Cal. “So we got to…”

“Oh my God! Spit it out with your backwards logic!” Cal shouts.

Dev mumbles many names, “Fine!” he snaps, “we’re going to Orlando!!!”

“Wait?!” I say.

“Yeah?” Dev answers back.

I mulled this over in my head, “If your backwards logic really works, then wouldn’t they technically be in the Midwest?”

Dev frowns and pats my shoulder, “Don’t over think it, okay? Your brain isn’t quite that developed,” I roll my eyes, and Cal turns the motorcycle back on.

“Stupid backwards logic,” he complains to me once Dev is driving off.

I laugh at him, “You’ll just be mad if it actually works!”

He frowns, but he tries to smile for me. It’s still more of a grimace though. “Sorry, I’m pretty bitter about this. I thought we’d find them by now.”

“We’ll be just fine, Cal. They give you some sort of sign, maybe,” I try to think, “they’re going to hang a flag out the window of their apartment!”

He shakes his head, “If only it were that easy,” he sighs.

So we drive all the way to Orlando, which leaves us getting there at nine o’ clock, and sore thighs.

“Can we please find somewhere to sleep? My butt and thighs hurt, so bad!” Complaint number four.

We point to a motel, and Dev pulls in after us. “Yea, I’m so tired I could sleep the rest of the year.”

“We need to get rid of these bikes,” I repeat as I stare at them.

Cal sighs and Dev nods, “Yea, but we need to find my family first.”

“I know, I was just saying.”

We stare at each other, not saying anything more. We keep driving, and continue checking motels, hotels, and bed and breakfasts.

“Can someone else go in this time?” Cal moans.

I sigh, “Okay, but I have absolutely not idea what they looks like?”
“It doesn’t matter, they weren’t here anyway,” he complains.

I roll my eyes, he’s so dramatic, and walk into the hotel. “Hello, Sir?” I say seeing the man behind the counter.

“What?” he looks around, confused. “Do you need a room?”
I shake my head, “I’m looking to see if a group of people, maybe six or seven people, stayed here about a week or so ago. They’re real tall, huge!” I’m about to keep going, but he stops me.

“Oh yea, the bog fellers!” he chuckles, “they asked for our cheapest room, and then one lower than that. So I told them they could sleep on the lawn chairs by the pool!” the older man is laughing so hard tears come out of his eyes, “So they did, sleep by the pool, and they slept there all night, and were gone by morning!”

I smile, and shake his hand, “You have no idea how much you’ve helped me!”

“Bye bye!” he calls as I run out the door. When I see Cal and Dev, I start jumping up and down.

I laugh at Cal, “I go in there one time, and I found out they were here. They slept in lawn chairs!”

“Lawn chairs?” Dev asks.

I giggle, “Lawn chairs, I know right!” Cal stares at me. So they stayed in Orlando, but they must’ve bought a house by now? Where are they living?”

“What name do you think they would go by?”

He sighs, “I have absolutely no idea. We should just try to dive through the city.” Cal drops his head into his hands, “It’s near impossible.”

“Yea, we should just get out!” Dev whines, “I’m agreeing with Cal, it’s almost impossible.”

“You guys should find us somewhere to eat on this street; I’m going to borrow the bike,” I say matter-of-factly.

Their heads snap up, “No!”
“Well,” I shove Cal off his bike, but he still remains where he his, “you’re going to have to let me go because I never ask for anything. I’ll be very careful.”

“There are still people on our tail, you can’t just be careful. You have to be invisible!” Dev warns.

I roll my eyes, “You two are so dramatic! I promise I won’t go further than a mile or two,” Cal steps off of his bike.

So, I take the chance to hop on, “Be back soon! If I’m not back in half an hour, you can freak out. Deal?”

“I don’t know…?”

Pealing out of the hotel parking lot, I wave behind me. I push the bike to go faster. I flash past hotel and hotel, each different and special in their own way.

Cars start to pile up at the traffic light, and I glance around. To my right, a road leads to a gate. There are quite a few gated communities around here, I think to myself.

Labeling the road is a green and white street sign; Wolf Road. I smile to myself and race forward as the light shifts to green.

I find myself returning to the hotel ten minutes early. And I see the motorcycle down a bit, it’s parked in Denny’s parking lot.

Once I pull up and walk in, Cal and Dev’s shoulders relax and the grin at me. “You’re back early,” Cal says.

“Just went for a drive. Did you get us a room to stay in for tonight?” they both look away guiltily.

The waitress walks up towards us, “Can I get you anything to drink?” Her pretty blonde hair frames her face, and her brown eyes stare at Dev.

Jealousy, that’s what I feel, but I have absolutely no right to be jealous. “I’d like a Coke.” I interrupt their intense staring contest.

“Alrighty!” she takes everyone else’s order and skips back to the kitchen/

Cal raises his eyebrows at Dev, “What?” he asks innocently.

“You’re dopes,” I mutter.

They just laugh, and Cal slips his arm around my waist; I freeze up. It brings me back to the kiss on the motorcycle, which brings me back to The Center.

The Center brings me back to the scary realization that Mr. Harvey is my father, and that I murdered my sister. “Hello! Brim!” Dev shouts.

“What? Did I miss something?” I pull myself free of the thought.

Dev gives me the ‘duh’ look, “Yea. We asked whether or not you saw anything while you were driving?”

“No,” I shrug, “I saw this awesome road though. It’s called Wolf Road. It’s at the intersection up there.” I wave my hand, pointing in a general direction.

“Wait,” Cal says loudly, “say that again.”

I look at him like he’s crazy,