The Saving Bailey Trilogy 1: The Bullet List

Chapter 11

                                                                        Chapter 11

I have drunk three beers and am starting to feel light. My head has stopped swimming, and the earlier incident of Saint and Mom becomes a distant memory. Holden is playing music from his boom box; he and Ashten are dancing. Trenton is leaning in for a second try at a kiss.

His lips brush against mine as he presses closer. Our bodies link together and I grab the back of his head for support, there is no way I’m going to fall this time. One of his hands is on the small of my back and the other is entangled in my hair.

I can’t say how long we make out for, only that afterwards, Holden and Ashten are grinning like bobcats, having stopped dancing. There is a smile on my lips and I’m floating in ecstasy.

“You are much prettier when you smile,” Trenton says, his own smile lighting up his face and dancing in his blue eyes.

The fire throws a beautiful glow on Ashten and Holden and they look like a drunken king and queen, seated on their foldable thrones.

“You two make a cute couple,” Ashten says.

I sink like a brick in water, my body and mind no longer levitating. We can’t be a cute couple, I think, how would Clad feel? Betrayed? Angry? It would not go over well with him.

“It’s getting late,” Trenton says, checking the time on his cell phone. “One o’ clock.”

We all agree to spend the night on the beach because it isn’t safe for any of us to be driving and we are all dog-tired.

Trenton finds a shell-free spot in the sand and lies underneath the inky sky. He sighs contently and his breath comes out as wispy clear mist. I scuttle over to him and lay down beside him, but not too close, I don’t want to encroach on his territory. He snakes an arm beneath my back and tugs me closer to him, so close that I am nearly on top of him.

“Lay your head on my chest, I’ll keep you warm.” I do as Trenton says and feel his heart beating in time with the crashing waves. I curl against him, at war with the cold; fighting to keep the little warmth I have within me. He puts both arms around me and rubs my shoulders.

“So cold,” he says, “my little ice-cube.”

I fall asleep, with the picture of him and I frozen together in ice embedded in my mind. I sense that he is awake the whole time, watching me.

My feet are numb, is the first thing I realize when I am woken up by a ghastly scream. I then pinpoint the location of the scream: the fire. It is still blazing, with Ashten sleeping within inches of it. Her eyes are wide with fear, there is fire licking at her hair and arms. Ashten is on fire. Because I am half asleep, it isn’t registering in my numb limbs that they should be moving.

“Ashten is on fire!” I scream scrambling to my feet. She screams in agony and I set myself into action. I pull her away from the fire, the heat emitting from her flaming body licking at my face.

I drag her into the ocean and watch as she sinks, gurgling in the water. I hold onto her as the waves crash over us, she is sobbing and swallowing salt water.

“Are you okay?” I yell above her sobs, and the sound of the waves.           

“Nooo,” she whimpers. Her hair has been singed off by the fire, and in the moonlight I can see the charred skin on her arms. My heart is racing and adrenaline is warming me even though I am submerged in the icy water with her. The ocean is turbulent, the water spinning and sloshing onto shore, it is like being in a giant washing machine.