Continued Artful Exposition Dump (Ransom 4.2)

Jason’s laughing. “Man, you really told her!”

I want to punch him. I want to punch him so bad my hands hurt and I have to shove them into the pockets of my shorts.

“Cram it,” I snap, standing to my feet.

Shooting me a sideways glance, he kicks sand at me. It sticks to my wet shins and makes them itch. I’d glare at him, but that’d require me to look into the sun and my eyes already burn for some weird reason.

My phone buzzes in my sweaty hand and slowly, as if I’ve forgotten how to let go of things, I loosen each finger. My entire body skips a beat--maybe it’s Lydia.

The sun’s glare is too bright, so I turn around and shield the screen with my body.

I want my bracelet back.

My body constricts, folding in on itself and making it impossible to breathe. She doesn’t mean that--she can’t take it back. She said...

She said...

Closing my eyes, I force myself to breathe.

“C’mon man, we can’t take all day.”

I bite back my reply, opening my eyes and tapping a single letter.

k

It doesn’t matter what she said anymore, doesn’t matter what I said. It’s not like her words ever meant anything, anyway. I can still feel blood trickling down my temples, sticky pathways tracing across my jaw and down my neck. Ears ringing from the ghosts of shouting, my hand rises to my collarbone, trembling fingers tracing the jagged scar.

What help her words had been then.

Silently, I snatch my towel and energy drink while Jason shifts impatiently from foot to foot.

I lift my arm to shield my eyes from the sun and that’s when I notice--the bracelet is gone.

Oh no no no no.

“Jason, have you seen my bracelet?” Even though I try to keep my voice steady, it comes out harsher than I’d intended.

“No?” He squints against the sun. “I mean, I’m pretty sure you had it on when we were closer to the pier. Maybe you took it off there?”

That makes sense, as the bracelet isn’t something that should get wet. Woven from six leather strands, it boasts a sterling silver plate engraved with my name. An expensive apology is what it is.

And she wants it back.

I’ve felt many things--the warm kiss of the sun and the calmness of a midnight sky; metal through flesh and the agony of shattered bones; the disorienting high of falling and the scream of loneliness. But this... I don’t know what this is. The ground is falling away beneath me. Each beat of my heart sends glass ripping through my veins.

I stumble towards the pier. Jason’s shout to meet him at the car is a distant dream.

Swallowing, I try to rid my mouth of the bitter, dead taste of betrayal. It burns, all the way to my stomach, eating deeper. I grab my head, close my eyes, try to steady myself.

I don’t know how long it takes or how I manage to make my feet move in a straight line, but I’m at the pier. An army of grey has taken the sky, capturing the sun.

My legs no longer belong to me. They carry me in tight circles and zig-zag across the sand, doubling back until it is impossible to pick out a single footprint. It’s nowhere to be found.

Even though it will rain any minute now, people are still scattered across the stretch of white sand. They cast curious glances at me, but don’t offer any help. Not that I expected that.

“Hey, are you looking for something?”

I whirl around. At first, I think she’s a child, she’s so small. Just barely reaching below my chest with wispy hair the color of the sand, a friendly smile curls up the corners of her pink lips.

“Um, yeah.” Where did she come from?

“I think it’s going to rain.”

Absently, I nod and turn away to scan the expanse of sand again. It’s pointless.

“I can help you look if you’d like,” she offers. Her voice is soft and her words rise and fall with the waves.

I shake my head. “No, that’s okay.”

Jason is probably fuming right now. I should go, but I can’t bring myself to leave just yet.

“I’m waiting for somebody anyway.” She steps beside me and glances up. “What are you looking for?”

“A bracelet. Uh, braided leather, metal plate engraved with my name.”

“Oh.” Tilting her head, she blinked. “What’s your name?”

“Ransom.” It’s getting dark rapidly and the thought of slogging through the shifting sand back to the car makes my calves ache.

“I’ve never met someone with that name before.” Crouching, she starts sifting through the sand with her fingers, then waddles a step and sifts some more.

“Me neither.”

She laughs. I feel the panicked knot in my stomach loosening.

“So is this bracelet really important to you?”

I lift a shoulder in a half-hearted shrug. My limbs are heavy with exhaustion and my brain has fizzled out, making it impossible to concentrate.

“I guess so.”

“You guess?” It’s not a mean question, just curious.

I just shrug again.

“A gift from someone, then?” Pausing, she meets my eyes. Hers are blue, like mine, but a deeper shade that changes with the last dying rays of the sun. Hypnotic, almost.

“Yeah.” I kick at the sand.

“Oh, I see.” Her eyes pierce through me as her delicate eyebrows pull together slightly. “A friend?”

I shake my head. “No.”

I thought the word would hurt when I said it, the way it hurts inside as it echoes in my skull. It should stick in my throat and choke me until I can’t breathe, but it doesn’t. It slips out easily.

The girl frowns, her eyes a navy that is almost purple. But there is no judgment in them when she asks, “So you never considered Lydia a friend, ever?”

I freeze, a jolt running through me. The girl doesn’t even blink, just stares at me. I want to run far, far away, from this beach and Jason and this girl and the bracelet and the waves and the memories. I want to run until nobody can find me and I’m in a place where nobody knows me or even notices me.

I hate this place. I hate mirrors and the face that stares back at me when I look at them; I hate the nightmares and I hate the scars that rip the canvas of my skin.

But most of all, in this moment, I hate Lydia.

“No.”