Last July

Chapter seventeen

My mouth twitched feeling the urge to insult him, he didn't ask me to help, the practically dragged me here. I sighed audibly calming myself down and walked over setting up the sign while he got the tent together. I don't know why they needed that but I wasn't going to ask risking an insult again. When we finished he stood to the side grimacing at usual and frowning as if our work was subpar. If that's how he truly felt well, he did half of it anyway so he's partly to blame.

"What?" I said as he glanced over at me.

"Next time look him straight in the eyes. Even if you're bothered with his presence, he doesn't need to know"

"Okay" I said softly.

Did he come to rescue me? Being honest with myself what he did was probably for the best, I might have been calm initially but then things might have gotten ugly. Three years of our relationship disappeared in less than a week like there wasn't anything worthwhile. Like all our plans meant nothing. I wasn't good enough, but she was. Someone who hasn't been to the doctor, sit up late nights, ran and missed work just to take care of him and his daughter. Mother was right. He wasn't worth a dime a dozen. It was hard admitting that fact to myself finally and I felt my stomach tighten and my head started to hurt.

Andrew scratched his head and walked off again.

"Hey, aren't you going to work here?"

" Why? Do you need a kiss? "

I made a disgusted face. "No!" I said adamantly. "I just thought you'd be working here since you set it up"

He shook his head. "The women's association voted for me to do it but there's no way in hell I'm getting around that thing"

"So you're gonna leave it like that?" I asked walking behind him.

"Well if your interested in tonguing a bunch of strangers be my guest, either way they'll eventually figure out it's empty"

Okay, so he wasn't very social either, got it. I walked on with him in silence searching through the stretch of crowd for Philly but the more I walked the more I realized it was a waste of effort. There was a 99% chance that I'd find her where ever there was excitement but I doubt Mr. Grimm would take me there. At 11:59 the fire works brigade lined up and when the town bell rung in twelve, the sky came alive with drops of yellow,red, blue, orange fireworks and then the words "happy 4th of July" spread across the ceaseless dome. Screams and triumphant calls echoed around me while I stood staring into the sky and when I finally pulled my eyes back to earth everyone was hugging and kissing while my eyes stinged. Without checking to see if Andrew was still around which was less likely I walked away needing to be alone for a while. I ran my hand through my hair. 

I should get home now, I thought.

My cell rang and I knew I was in deep Shit reading the I.D.

"Hey peter!"

"Well, I called the apartment and you didn't pick up. Where are you? What's that I hear?"

"Oh right" I said remembering that I had failed to inform him of my leave. "I'm in Bahiea Bay for four weeks"

"Kendall that's all the time I gave you for the script"

"Yeah, I thought a change of scenery might help with my writing"

"Then you should have just drawn the curtains" he replied irritated. "Abracadabra a new scenery"

I rolled my eyes. He was just worried about me and the script, well mostly the script.

"I'll have the script ready in time"

"And not a day over" he replied.

"Yeah"

"Kendall?"

" Yeah? "

"You should get home and make some magic"

I groaned hanging up. I already knew that. Thanks mom. I glanced back at the crowd knowing I was never gonna find Philly especially now since it seemed like the real party was about to start. Another walk down to the Ferris wheel and back in two different directions and I gave up.

"What's wrong ziploc?"

I jumped back hearing andrew close to my person.

"Shit!" I yelled . He looked at me slightly amused before his frown returned. Calming down I pulled at my fingers.  "I want to get home and I can't find Philly in all this"
He stuck his hands in his pocket and his shirt twisted revealing his hard stomach for awhile before it covered it again.

"I'll take you home if you don't mind telling me your address"

"Really?" I asked. " Thanks. Uh it's Hudson street"

"So you live on the scheme?"

I nodded.

"You guys are really the rich type aren't you?" He asked as we walked towards his truck.

" Is it expensive to stay there? I hadn't noticed"

Andrew stopped abruptly turning to look at me slightly shocked, I shifted as his gaze lingered at me for awhile. I really didn't know how much it cost staying at the house, Phillisa took care of the bills, I just have her whatever she needed that's how it'd always been between us. He turned back continuing to walk pulling out his keys.

"Yeah, it is"

I stared out the window not knowing how to to end the proverbial silence between us. I distracted myself staring out the window as we passed through the town taking in the busy sidewalks, children running and people walking together.

"How's your writing?"

I glanced over at him momentarily realising he had asked a question.

"Do you where that I could get a little inspiration? It's more than just writers block now"

"Well I told your friend about the lake when she asked" he replied.

Lake? Philly hadn't said anything to me about a lake. We haven't even had a decent enough conversation coming here. But another quiet place? This town was a walking grave yard!

"Okay, I'll see if it works then"

"You're serious?"

I pointed out the house to him sometime after we got into the scheme. His car came to a halt at the drive way and I quickly released the seatbelt opening the door. I don't why he was kinda interested in my work suddenly or maybe it was his way of ensuring I didn't ask him any personal questions.

"Yeah, I'm serious" I responded getting out.

"I'll show it to you tomorrow" he said and backed away.