Inconsolable by Amanda Lanclos Page B

me three out of the four we head back to my car.  I grab a bottle of water out of the vending machine before we leave.  We walk to the car hand in hand and I try to hold back the hiss as I see Kyle sitting where I am about to place Anna.  He gives me a smirk and I just growl. 
    “What’s the matter?” Anna looks around and I smile.  Trying not to shake from the craziness I now know as my own life.
    “Nothing, I just noticed a scratch on the car,” I respond trying to play it off as I shut my eyes and shake my head. When I open them Kyle is gone. Note to self: google hallucinations while drinking.
    “Oh, I hope you can buff it out.  I’d hate to have a scratch on a car as nice as this.” 
    “I’m sure Ican.  Come on Sunshine, let’s get you home.” 
    I shut her door,walk around the car and say a little prayer that a certain best friend stays away for the remainder of the night.  I can only take so much crazy before I eventually will lose it.  Ten minutes later I pull up to Anna’s. I step out of the car and walk around to let her out.  We walk to her door in silence before she finally turns to look at me.
    “So. Blake.”
    “So. Anna?”
    “What are we doing? Like are we dating or are we just friends?” She looks down and then to her door. God, she’s so fucking adorable.
    “Anna?”
    “Mmm hmm?” 
    I smile when she looks over at me and I chuckle a little before asking.  “Would you do me the honor and be my girlfriend?” I can’t help, but laugh again as she lets out a high pitched squeal of excitement. 
    “YES!” She screams then throws her hand over her mouth, blushing a shade of crimson.  I like seeing her blush.  “Oops, sorry I mean: yes.”  She responds a bit softer and I just smile. 
    I reach down and grab her chin and watch as she licks those lips I have been dying to taste all night long.  “You just made me the happiest man on the planet.”  I lean down and kiss her lips softly and then turn to walk to the car.  I can’t help but laugh when I look back at her door and she’s throwing her arms up and shaking her ass in a victory dance of sorts. “GO INSIDE, ANNA!” 
    “Damn it! You weren’t supposed to see that!” She shrieks,unlocks the door and goes inside. 
    I smile and light up another cigarette as I climb into the vehicle. It took all my energy in that bowling alley to act like the bowling balls hitting the pins weren’t causing me agony. My hands are shaking as I make the hour and a half drive back to Adams. I really should talk to Carter about staying with him, but then I’d have to tell him I amdating Anna.  I don’t know how he will feel about that. 
    I grab the bottle of vodka from under the seat as I drive and look up as I hear Kyle screaming in my head.  “LOOK OUT!”  I see the deer in the road before I hit it.  My head slams against the steering wheel and my car flips into the ditch.  I don’t know what happens next because my mind goes black.
     

 

    I walk into the shop the next day glowing. I send a text to Blake when I woke up this morning, but I haven’t gotten a response yet. I know he probably didn’t get in until late last night and I am sure he’s probably still sleeping. I just have this feeling that maybe something bad happened. Something like maybe his mother really didn’t call and he may have a woman on the side, but then I think about that kiss and the electricity that came with it.
    “Fork over the fifty bucks woman!”
    “What fifty? It was thirty!” Barb calls back to Diane. 
    Lord have mercy, we are back to betting.  I bet thirty myself that it’s about me this time.  I walk into the room and look at the two of them.  Both of them look at me with grins.  They are sporting grins like the kind you catch a toddler giving you when they have been caught with their hands in the cookie jar.  
    “You two are going to go broke with all this betting. How do you ever have any money?” I ask as I lean my