Beach Days

Chapter 21 - Backstabber

Everything passed by in a blur. There was a funeral for Mr. Katerson, and I hardly saw Max around anymore. The few times I did, he looked absolutely exhausted. 

The storm never really ceased, the constantly dreary weather making the upsetting mood even sadder. Abby and I both found ourselves in a depressing mood half the time.

About 2 weeks went by without any more casualties or deaths, and the beach was no longer covered in yellow police tape.

"There's nothing we can do as of right now." the police officer wearing sunglasses despite us not having seen the sun in over two weeks informed us matter-of-factly, snapping his notebook shut as he climbed into the police car.

Abby and I had finally gotten through to Boss, who'd told us to be on the lookout as the murderer hadn't been captured yet.

And then, just like that, a few weeks after Mr. Katerson's death, the storm was back and worse than ever. Of course, the adults knocked on the doors of teenage lifeguards to guard the beach again.

I have no idea how that completely slipped by the police when we informed them every detail of what happened. Come on, this amount of cowardice and irresponsibility coming from the grown ups had to be breaking some kind of law.

Everyone was upset as Mr. Katerson had apparently been a fatherly figure to everyone, and Max looked like he hadn't slept in weeks. His brown hair was sticking up all over the place and his clothes had a disheveled look to them. One of his socks were neon yellow while the other was a pink one with purple polka dots on them, but all of us refrained from mentioning the wardrobe mishap.

Only the sound of rain falling could be heard between us as we stood side by side, in an eerily similar to the day Mr. Katerson passed away. Max was staring off into space, so I figured that I should probably look hard enough for both of us.

I squinted in the heavy rain, but gave up two seconds later. It was too dark and the downfall was way too heavy for me to be able to see anything.

"Some summer break." I muttered to myself under my breath. I was surprised when I heard a hoarse laugh from next to me.

"You can say that again." Max answered, looking at me properly for the first time in weeks. His eyes were focused for once and I took that as a good sign. "I knew it was too good to be true." he added.

"Yeah." I sighed. "It was supposed to be my first break ever since you know, Lila and Jack died, but here I am, working."

Max didn't say anything, making me wonder if I said something wrong.

"How did you cope after you lost your sister?" Max asked suddenly.

"Well," I thought back. " I don't think my way was the healthiest way. I surrounded myself with work, made myself way too busy to think about anything else. The first few weeks after she died, I got sloppy and reckless, almost as if I wanted to get myself killed on a job, but slowly the distraction started working. The downside? Whenever I had nothing to do, no job to focus on, I couldn't function. I couldn't bear to think about her, and I'm still struggling with that today."

There were a few more seconds of silence, but this time I didn't feel so uncomfortable. We were both lost in thoughts of our own, me still mourning over the death of my little sister and hating myself for not being able to let go of Jack Cortez's betrayal. 

"The first time around, it didn't hurt so much. Yeah my parents died, but I didn't have anything of them to mourn as I'd lost my memory. I just focused on finding myself as a person again. Then I found people I loved, got too comfortable, and instantly started losing people. It hurt a lot, but I struggled through it, convincing myself it had nothing to do with me. But when Dad died, and he flinched away from me like I had something to do with his murder, I knew this has everything to do with me and I'm fucking terrified that other people will get hurt. "