Beneath the Boardwalk (Alex Turner) COMPLETE

28 {beneath the boardwalk}

"Why'd y'leave me?"

Nicholas O'Malley stood with his teeth bared, a dark figure in front of the stirring violet sky. He had a slimy look to him, as if he'd just been bathed in an oil spill. His voice was choppy and hopelessly nostalgic. Memories came rushing back to me. I didn't want to hate him--he was good before he changed. I still had a soft spot for him and it hurt. 

But key word: changed. That's why I only felt cold when I saw him block the exit. 

"You ran away, Q," he whispered, rubbing his fingers on the hem of his jeans. "You know I love games, but this puzzle--tracking you down--was a little too hard."

"Let me out, Nick," I mumbled, gripping the crowbar tighter.

"Is that a threat?"

"I don't want it to be."

He laughed loudly. It sound stuck to the walls, making the wood fragile. I saw something in his voice that was so confident it scared me. "You've changed."

"So have you."

Nick tilted his head, considering the thought. "I have."

"Why? What happened to you?"

He took a step forward and I raised my crowbar. After my hands shook on the metal, he pursed his lips, letting his teeth show in the dark once again. He didn't seem too happy even though he was smiling. "I found an opportunity. A gold mine, a future of possibility. We were nothing in that small town and you knew it. I'd never thought you'd have the guts to leave."

"I'd do it again."

"Well, you should've let me know sooner. If I'd known you were going to leave, we could have been part of the... opportunity together."

"Why do you say opportunity so weird?"

"I emphasize things that are important, and Q, what I found has been very important."

"That's it?" I let out a choked laugh. My voice rattled just like the shaking metal in my grip. "You found something, and that's what made you change into a different person--because you found something, you decided to follow me around, to break in my house? What kind of excuse is that?"

"I was deciding if I wanted you as my partner in this opportunity. You were the first person I looked to because you were my girlfriend--I trusted you."

"Well, I trusted you too, until you watched me sleep," I spat, my mouth bitter and without a stitch of regret. 

"Then I apologize," he said, taking another step forward. I stiffened but he didn't move again. "But I want to change that. Remember my notes? I wanted to show you something."

The notes that scared me shitless, the ones that I never understood how they'd gotten in my bag. He was sneaky. He'd broken into my house, and that's how he broke into the Boardwalk. He probably hid them in my bag while I slept. The thought sickened me. "How could I forget?"

"Well, I wanted to show you the... opportunity. And by showing you it, it's an act of trust. It's something I will never show another person as long as I live. It would be our secret."

"I'm not going anywhere with you."

"Oh, Q," Nicholas laughed, and the sound brought back old memories, "I'm not asking you go anywhere. What I want to show you has been here the whole time."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Then I'll show you, if you promise me one thing," he said. 

I squinted my eyes. It was in my own home, so how could I not have known about it? It couldn't be that bad. "What do I promise?"

"You don't tell anybody what you see," he said, his smile fading. It left his eyes wide and blank, voice eerily hollow. "If you do I might have to kill you."

God, I had to know. 

The unknown was going to kill me one day; it was going to drag it's long spindly fingers over my mouth and drown me in its unexplorable depths. Even though Nick was freaking me the hell out, I found the words toppling from my lips, as if searching for escape. 

"I promise."

Nicholas' smile crept back up. "Go to the basement."

Huh? "The Boardwalk doesn't have one."

He wandered over near storage, and pointed at a spot on the floorboards. He pulled them up, one by one, until I saw a large concrete door in the middle of the floor. I took a step back. How did I not know about this? 

Nick opened it and the hinged squealed as if they were in pain. There was a ladder leading to more concrete. He nodded. "You first."

I looked down there. "No way, you'd probably just push me and slam the door so I couldn't get out."

"Don't give me ideas." 

The blood drained from my face.

Nick laughed. "That's a joke, Q. You know, I make them, sometimes?" When he saw I didn't find his joke funny, he shrugged. "I'll go first, then."

The unknown was dark, and it came with a rusty ladder, and Nick used his phone to shine light in the basement. What I saw definitely was not what I expected--it rendered me speechless, and I was rooted to the ground by a gravity so indefinite I was shocked I didn't fall straight through the concrete floor. 

"I want you to be my partner, Quinn. This is a big... opportunity."

It was the ungodly amount of cocaine Alex was searching for, and the entire time it was hidden right beneath the Boardwalk.