Camden Vaile

Wednesday, April 29th

I woke up around 0600 and decided to stumble my way into the kitchen to make coffee. I only stepped on one person and I think it was Braden but I wasn't sure. He just grunted and rolled over. I had to cover my mouth to keep from giggling out loud. As soon as I hit start on the coffee pot I turned and had to stifle a scream.

There stood Tracey, Jasmine and Toni. They came to me and wrapped their arms around me for a group hug. We stood in the kitchen and whispered until the coffee was done. Then we all made our cups and decided to sit out on the balcony to drink in the morning. I played nice and started another pot of coffee before I joined the others.

When I walked out and slid the door shut, Tracey said, "How are you feeling?"

I tried to stretch and winced. She pulled me over to lift my shirt and gasped when she saw the bruises and scratches. They all looked and I said, "It's really not that bad. It's a little sore, but I'm ok."

Jasmine said, "Holy shit girl! What exactly happened?"

Me and my girls sat out on the balcony and drank down our coffee and talked about everything that had happened yesterday. It helped to be able to talk about it. It calmed my nerves and I was able to think about it objectively. There was definitely something wrong with Jackson... there was no denying it. I hoped that whatever it was, yesterday's run in with the law would be enough to persuade him to leave me alone. I knew that was probably foolish, but I wished it all the same.

Tracey took my cup to go get a refill while Toni went to the bathroom. I stepped over to the railing and leaned out. I closed my eyes and took a slow, deep breath. I felt hands on my sides and as I exhaled I smiled and leaned back against Joel. He bent to kiss my neck and said, "Morning, beautiful."

I smiled at him and said, "Morning, handsome." I turned around to wrap my arms around him and give him a kiss.

When he pulled back he said, "What time are we leaving today?"

I said, "I think around 0900, why?"

He said, "Ok. Me and Byron and Daniel are gonna run to Hardees for some breakfast. You want the biscuits and gravy."

I smiled and said, "Yep."

He gave me a quick kiss and said, "Be right back."

I followed him back inside. Daniel was writing down everyone's orders and taking money. I went to get dressed.

When they got back we all ate breakfast and finished getting our stuff ready and packed. Joel said to Braden, "Hey... you and Jasmine wanna drive my truck down to Panama?"

Jasmine said, "Yeah but how are we getting back? Aren't you going straight back to Birmingham?"

Byron said, "You guys can ride back to Arab with us."

Braden said, "Ok... we can do that. Where's your truck?"

Joel handed him the key and said, "At my house."

Byron said to Braden, "If you guys wanna go ahead and go, we'll leave now. I'll drop you off to get the truck then we'll all meet back up at the Texaco to get gas before we head out."

Toni said, "That sounds good. We need gas anyway. We'll give you guys a 10 minute head start."

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It was a six hour drive from Arab to Panama City but we made it in five. We didn't finally get on the road until close to 0930 that morning so we didn't make it to the realtor's until about 230. We were all starved but ready to get to the house and get settled.