Beneath Your Beautfiul

Chapter 8 - Come and Get It

~Tasha Collins~

"The way the waves crash against the shore, that's how love is. It comes at you with full force and it's impossible to stop.. you get chills from it as it consumes you, and then, right when you NEED it most, it dwindles away and all that's left are broken pieces of shells. Or rather, broken pieces of my heart." Mrs. Valentine said as she finished reading a students journal entry.

"Now that is what I call an exceptionally well written journal." She said, praising the annonymous entry she had read.

Sick.

What poetic nerd wrote that disgusting montage of emotional shit? We're seniors in high school, not shakespeare wannabees.

"That was a little much." I said sarcastically and the class bursted into snorts and laughs.

"I thought it was nice." Jackie said.

"Did you write it?" I said raising an eyebrow at her.

"I wish," She said in awe. "I haven't had the experience of such a heart break to be able to write something like that."

"Taylor has," I said poking fun of her and Zac's dramatic past relationship.

Zac was Tay's first love and when they broke up she kinda fell into this awkward hole and has been slowly climbing her way back up ever since. I help her out as much as I can by lightening the mood.

"Shut up," Tay said, playing with her pencil.

She's been acting weird lately.

Last year we both took a psychology class together and Tay got really good and listening to what someone is saying while I got really good at reading people's body language.

It was natural talent of course but hey.

English ended and Taylor rushed out of class.

I hate when she does that.

"Where the hell is Tay running off to?" I said to Jackie.

"Maybe she lost her lunch?" Jackie said.

Jackie is honestly the biggest dumbass I have ever met.

Sure, she's my friend and I love her to death but when they say pretty girls are idiots, they're talking about Jackie.

"Let's follow her," I demanded. "She's up to something and I wanna know what."

"But what if she doesn't want to be followed?"

"I don't give two fucks," I said plainly, "Did you notice her black eye this morning? She tried to cover it up with make-up but, trust me I would know."

"And how do you know she's up to something?"

"Well, not only is my brain at least semi functioning and I noticed it, but I also over-heard her step-sister venting about it to those lame goth freaks." I said, rolling my eyes and getting in my car. Jackie got in too just in time to see Taylor's little bug pulling out of the parking lot.

"Where do you think she's going?" Jackie asked.

"We're about to find out." I smirked.

We followed Taylor past Downtown Miami into a part of the city that was more known for their umm..

well they were known for not having a lot of money to put it nicely.

I have no idea why Taylor loves it there so much, she even stays at her cousin's dingy run-down home sometimes.

The little blue bug pullled into Wendy's Diner a block ahead of me. I followed it and parked on the side of the diner not facing the road so it was out of sight.

"Wait," I said as Jackie started to get out of the car. She dropped her hand from the door and threw me a confused look.

I pointed toward the window of the Diner and saw Taylor looking at something. She had a shocked, almost painful look on her face.

She was looking at something in the back of the Diner that must have really disturbed her.

"Oh poor baby." Jackie said with a frown.

"What did she see?" I said more to myself than to Jackie.

She left the Diner immediately after, almost in a half jog to her car as if the sight she saw was that unbearable.

After her Bug was out of sight I said to Jackie "It's go time." as if we were in a spy movie and our target was whatever was hiding in the back of the diner. Jackie must have actually thought we were spies because she was cautiously stepping over the cracks in the sidewalk.

"What the fuck Jackie? Stop being a freak." I said, clearly annoyed.

"You said it was go time, I was just acting the part," Jackie said as cheerful as always with not even the slightest bit of irony in her tone.

I opened the doors to the diner and the smell of bread baking in the oven and something else I couldn't quite put my finger on wafted over me.

A waitress immediately wandered over to us asking if we wanted a seat. I disregarded her and stalked to the back of the diner.

The door was cracked halfway open.

No one was there.

Just a maroon couch and a trash can that was laying on it's side. I slowly walked inside the room and smelled it instantly. I could smell it a little while I swayed outside the door but I wasn't sure if I was smelling it right.

"Sweetheart, you can't go back there." The waitress said. She was apparently following me.

"Who was back here?" I asked, ignoring what she said before.

"Michelle, who is this?" A man's voice said from inside the room. He opened the door and it seemed like he had appeared instantly because I hadn't seen him before.

The man was bald and had a heavy mustache. He was dressed down in biker pants and a white t-shirt, I think he was trying to intimidate me.

He didn't scare me though.

Hell, no one scared me.

"Who am I?" I said incredulously, "I'm the bitch who's going to tell my Daddy's buddy at the MPD about the little pot sting you're running here."

"Oh, honey," the waitress named Michelle said sounding sad, "You're going to regret saying that."

Just as I turned back towards her to tell her she was wrong, I felt a sharp pain on the back of my head and then the world went black and I was falling..

Whether it was falling asleep or physically falling from the brink of the Earth.. I did not know.