Summer's Loss

Chapter 16

Brice

His head spun when the light coming in through the window hit his face.  He groaned and took in his surroundings.  He was on the couch still at Tom's house. It was till fairly early in the morning, maybe 8:30 or 9.  What caught his attention the most was the smell.  Like a forest after the rain.  Like an earthy shampoo.  Like Abigail.  Abigail.  He groaned louder now, the memories of last night flooding him and he flopped back into the pillow. Shit..... SHIT! What had he said to her? It all came back to him.  He put his hands over his face and lay still like that for some time.

He needed to get to his truck and get home. Annie wasn't back until early Monday morning and it was still only Sunday.  He needed to get home and get himself together before she saw him like this.  Outside the living room he heard a door open up.

"Mornin sunshine!" Came Tom's cheerful voice.  The man stretched, already wearing jeans a blue button up shirt.

"How the hell are you already this damn awake?" Bruce asked him.  He felt like shit and felt the onset of a hangover headache creeping up on him.

"Years of practice."  Tom grinned.  "Let's get your truck huh?"

"Yeah let me get my stuff."  Brice through his shoes on and found his wallet on the counter in the kitchen. 

Before they could leave Tom paused and said, "Let me see if Abby is awake, she might want to come.", and hurried down to knock on her door.  After a moment he came back and said, "she must still be asleep.  Teenagers, I tell you what."  He laughed and shook his head.

Teenager, yeah... Brice felt sick.

"She'll be eighteen the end of July at least.  She reminds me so much of my sister it's ridiculous."  Tom stepped out of the door and made his way towards his pick up.

Brice followed along feeling sick to his stomach and torn in so many ways he didn't even want to count.  He needed to talk to Abigail. Soon. If she said something to Tom, he didn't want to think of the out come.  But most importantly he wanted to make sure she was ok and that he hadn't done anything to upset her.  He needed to figure a lot of things out.
~
Abigail

Abigail didn't wake up until close to noon.  It was hot but she put on a pair of spandex shorts and a loose tank top. She threw her hair up then put Moose on his leash.  The poor obese dog loved his life of sitting at home and sleeping, but she needed a running partner.  It was hot out and it didn't take long for her to be dripping sweat.  There were miles of back roads in the area where she could run without seeing another soul besides the occasional tractor driver.  She picked a particularly challenging route today that would lead her up and down several rises.

She had headphones in and her phone safely tucked away in an arm band. She was so focused on her run that the ding her phone gave off to notify her of a text made her jump.  She stopped running, figuring it must be her mom checking in on her but was surprised to see it was a number she didn't recognize. She unlocked her phone and ready it:

This is Brice. We need to talk.

She pinched her eyebrows together and replied:

How'd you get my #

Work.  Saved it for if I need it.

What do we need to talk about?

Last night

... ok. When?

Tonight

She took a deep breath in: