Last July

Chapter sixteen

"I'm sorry andrew" Lucy said apologizing over the phone. "I've tried and contacted everyone I could think of. No ones seen or heard from Gale since the last time we saw her"

"Thanks" I replied though I wished I felt as grateful as the word implied. "I'm sure where ever she is she's fine"

"I really don't understand though, this isn't like her. I was really sure she was coming to see you" she sighed. "I walked in on your gym conversation too she threw pillows at me to get me out of the room"

I chuckled a little, that was definitely gale.

"But andrew"

"Yeah?" I responded closing my house door.

"She isn't seeing anyone. At least not that I know of"

"Yeah" I responded and hang up. Not that we know of.

It was the first day of the festival and the second to last day before the week ended. Friday, and like clock work as soon as the last owners retrieved their vehicles two more came in this morning which now made three, inclusive of ziploc's van. Brian was here working like hell for once and Phillisa was stuck in the office dealing with customers and writing receipts, the one sensible thing Brian had the wits to do since having her always with him. Ziploc however, I hadn't seen her all morning. I was in a good mood despite Lucy's call. I wouldn't see Heather all day and if I played my cards right, possibly all night as well. I'd thought that the fourth of July festival celebration would have been a more than welcome ease of mind for Gale seeing she was just coming out of a stressful period, but obviously she had other plans. I'd thought of going back home a hundred times and every time I arrived at the same conclusion. It just wouldn't matter and it wasn't worth it. I wouldn't know the first place to look for her so I knew whenever she was ready she'll return. I just didn't know how long I planned to wait until she finally came to her senses.

"Eerrhm"

I looked up then stood straight at the sudden sound behind me hitting my head against the hood of her car.

"Shit. Ziploc" I mumbled. "Next time don't do that"

I ducked removing myself from the car and rubbed the back of my head. I groaned, I was going to have a headache for the remainder of the day.

"Sorry" she said softly. She glanced down at the letter in her hand. "Uh, someone gave me this coming in"

"Yeah, thanks" I mumbled taking the letter from her and throwing it into a box.

"Uh, who's ziploc?"

"That's you" I replied.

"Why am I ziploc?" She asked frowning

" Because you didn't say anything the first day" I replied. "And I didn't know your name"

She looked at me surprised. "Its Kenzy"

"I prefer ziploc" I said walking past her.

"Okay, so what's my friend's name then?" She said walking behind me. " Parrot? "

I chuckled lightly but then stopped myself.

"No Phillisa "

"What? Why?"

" I knew her name"

"You're weird" she said stopping at the car I stood working on. Unlike Heather she didn't have the desire to touch me or my tools or the cars themselves and there was more than enough room between us to say she respected personal space.

"Why haven't you gone on tour yet?"

" Oh" she shifted her feet around and looked away. "I have a social disability"

I held the tool I had mid air and glanced over at her, raising an intrigued eyebrow.
"Social disability?" I repeated. "You're talking to me at the moment aren't you?"

"Yeah, it's a little complicated than that" she explained without meeting my eyes. "Its hard for me to socialize with other people"

I tried not a laugh again.

"You mean your antisocial"

" No, it's just hard to talk with people "

"No. It's all in your mind and that's not a disability. You're just damn antisocial"

She folded her hands. "And you're not? Because your friend came here the other day and you weren't very social"

I grimaced. Heather was a different story altogether, I didn't need to be friendly with her.

"Your birthday is in a few weeks right? That explains your inquisitive nature" I said turning the conversation from me.

"You're blaming my sign for my behavior?" She asked surprised.

"And I'm betting because of it you've had a rough time with finding a guy because of it"

She chuckled and shook her head. "I had a relationship"

Had meaning past tense.

"I had one" she repeated a million emotions traversed her face before her irises darkened. "Its not my fault we broke up"

In all our conversation I never even blamed her for ending her past, present or future relationships; yet here she was defending herself against my unspoken words.

She folded her fists and met my gaze. "I.....it didn't end because of me.....it's just....I don't know what happened"

My head swung following her foot steps as she ran from our conversation disappearing outside. I watched her wavering my mind wondering if I should probably try to stop her. Conclusion no. We had to close anyways so I busied myself packing away my tools and within minutes Blondie appeared looking for her.

"Where's Kenzy?"

I pointed outside and she uttered a curse heading off in her footsteps. I shook my head, and she had the wherewithal to say I was weird. She was antisocial, no she had a social disability and she has a nervous break down over a simple conversation. I went to the bathroom and cleaned up. If I didn't close now, we'd never leave in time for the festival and I'd have Mrs. Henderson on my ass for days. There was no need to add fuel to fire.

"You're closing up? " Phillisa asked as she walked back slowly.

By the look on her face I could tell she didn't catch her. She couldn't have gotten that far in such a short time.

"Yeah, we have to help with the festival"

" Oh" she ran her long fingers through her blond hair and sighed audibly.

She seemed tired. Obviously Ziploc was more problematic than she let on.

"Did she come to get me or something? I swear I didn't hear a thing while we were inside and it's not like we were doing anything....you wouldn't approve of"

I glanced at her. They better not have been doing anything on my desk or chair.

"No we were just talking about relationships and she ran off"

"Oh shit!" she muttered looking even more distressed than before.

From what I've seen today, I was waiting for her to admit that she was partly psycho. That'd explain everything about her and then, I'd just programme my mind to expect anything here on out.

Blondie looked up meeting my curious eyes coaxing her to indulge me a little more. She told a deep breath digging her hand into her pockets pacing a little.

"Her relationship ended just before we came here. She hadn't gotten the time to deal with it yet and she was already grieving over the loss of jesse" Phillisa explained.

She was grieving over a dog? Seriously?

"Just thread lightly on that conversation okay"

I waved a hand heading back into the shop. I wasn't interested in the damn conversation anyway.