Bad Nymph by Jackie Sexton Page A

knowing
better than to push any further. A sadness rose in my heart. Was Trent so
disturbed by our hook-up that he couldn’t help but turn into a raging beast? I
pulled the covers over my body and shuddered, tears welling up in my eyes at
the thought that it was my fault. I dropped the book onto the floor, unable to
kid myself any further.
    I had to face the music. For
whatever selfish reason I had compromised my friendship. I had decided to take
Sierra’s advice and take what was in front of me. As the night moved on and the
TV shut off, and Brandon’s gentle snoring rose in the air beside me, I watched
the sliver of moonlight that filtered in between the gap in the curtains,
dancing as the wind in the trees moved leaves and created shadows.
    There were so many things
about Trent’s life that I didn’t understand right then, and that I realized
with a sinking heart, I had never understood. Because I had never really known
him. Not really. I brought a hand over my eyes and tried to block out the
light, but just its presence kept me awake, wired with hot guilt. Even when
Trent came back in at God knows what hour, I was awake, listening to his body
as it dropped down onto the bed, his hands as they fumbled with his shoes, his
irregular breathing as it turned into a steady streams of inhales and exhales.
    For the first time since the
trip started, I felt inexplicably alone.

 
    The next morning we went to
a local auto repair center, Al’s Car Repairs, to get our brakes fixed. I had
called around when I woke up, and at about three-hundred and fifty dollars they
were our best bet. Trent and Martin snoozed in the corner of the waiting room
and Nick continued reading. I had enlisted Brandon to help me check up on all
our social media and write up the next set list. I was doing everything I could
to avoid thinking about the day before, with all of its mind-blowing insanity.
I needed to hold it together or else everything would unravel around me.
    As I bit into my granola bar
and washed it down with some complimentary coffee, I knew that I couldn’t let
that happen. It just wasn’t an option.
    “Looks like we got some more facebook fans from Orlando,” Brandon said, waggling
his brows at me.
    “Yeah, and we had a huge
surge in hits to the website. Awesome. I’m going to write a new blog post right
now. Anything you think I should include?”
    “Yeah, how about we post the
lyrics to that new song Trent sang?” I turned my head slowly, grimacing at Brandon’s
sly half-smile.
    “I don’t happen to have
those,” I said.
    “Oh, I do. I’ll send them to
you.”
    “Brandon,” I warned,
shooting a glance over towards the corner to make sure Trent was still asleep.
He had drool coming out of the side of his mouth and everything. I rolled my
eyes, wondering what I saw in him for a minute. But I thought back to the
lyrics of that song, and a thrill shot through my body. ‘ I have been trapped in your chains, wrapped in a love I no longer can
feign… ’
    “What?” he said, bating his
eyes innocently as he leaned over my arm rest and invaded my personal space. “I
think they hold some significance right about now…”
    “Whatever. Send them to me,
I’ll post them,” I said in a huff, turning my eyes back to my phone. I could
tell it brought Brandon so much joy to tease me, and it was certainly better
than his tight-lipped moodiness the day before.
    “Wait, what?” I heard Nick
say. I was shocked to hear him taking an interest in my personal and very
fucked up affairs, but when I looked over to him I realized he wasn’t
responding to me. He was standing up from his chair, moving across the room to
raise the volume on the TV set that was suspended from the wall.
    “…This would be the second
reporting of a wolf sighting this week,” a woman’s voice said over a montage of
familiar footage. A tall dorm tower, a cement fountain in front of a brick
building…
    It was my school. Or, well,
my alma mater. Florida