Chapter 42 #2
Jodi’s heart lurched up her throat and practically out of her body.
He had not just... She hurtled off the seat with the velocity of a bullet and hit him with the full force of her fury, driving him with an impressive thwap up against the dash and windscreen.
“You fucking monster. You fucking...evil...” She cracked his head against the glass again for good measure.
“I can’t believe you hurt my cat.” Then she was flying down the steep steps towards the tarmac where Flugwhump had landed in a squalling heap of black fur.
“That’s right, chase after the fucking cat. That bastard animal just ripped my back open.”
Aye, in defence of her. Jodi didn’t bother wasting her breath making that point.
Flugwhump spat at her when she tried to pick him up.
He arched his back and his tail stood erect as if he were about to shoot poison darts from it.
“It’s okay. It’s okay baby. Did he hurt you?
Are you hurt?” Was he avoiding putting a weight on his back leg?
Oh, God. Oh, God. What if he needed a vet?
“You always loved that fucking moggy more than me.”
“Is that any wonder considering what a bastard you are?” She stilled a moment, arm outstretched, then pulled it into her body and tugged the engagement ring from her finger.
“Here, take your shitty love and shove it up your arse. I don’t need you and your fucked-up manipulative crap.
I was a fool to think I ever did.” She threw it at him and noted with grim satisfaction the score the diamond left across his cheek when it hit him.
“Bitch!” Nash gripped the handrails and swung himself down the steep entry steps. Jodi didn’t wait for his feet to hit the tarmac. She bolted alongside Flugwhump, the pair of them heading straight for the nearby building.
Whatever service station they’d stopped at was unfortunately closed. It was only as she ran, she realised there were no other vehicles, and the lights were out in the building that claimed to be a hotel.
A missile sailed past her shoulder. What the actual fuck! Was he throwing rocks?
“You’re fucking irrelevant. You’re irrelevant, Jo. You were only ever part of this tour because of me. You wouldn’t have got near Rock Giant if it wasn’t for me.”
This wasn’t anything to do with Rock Giant.
She hadn’t torn that ring from her finger because she was ready to ride off into the sunset with another man.
She’d done it because she deserved better than binding herself to a shitty excuse for one.
A man who didn’t love her and never would, and who thought far too fucking much of himself.
Christ! She’d spent her teenage years being lorded over by an arsehole of a father and two chips off the ol’ block.
How had she been so blind as to believe her future security was dependent on another copy from the same mould?
“So, we’re over, are we? Fine. Well, if we’re over, you can just fuck off then, can’t you.”
She’d reached the edge of the parking area, where the tarmac gave way to the grass of a children’s play area. Ahead of her, Flugwhump paused beneath the toddler swing, his form a solid black silhouette against the nighttime shadows.
“You can fuck off and go back to being the pointless thieving waste of air you were when we met. Bet you thought I didn’t know that, you sad bitch. Juan-Luis was right about you; you are a puta ladrona británica. Rock Giant know that about you, does he?”
Happened that he knew a heck of a lot more about her than Nash, but that’s because he saw people, and didn’t only look at them in terms of what he could get out of the relationship. Not that it mattered. She wasn’t doing this so she could be with him.
Out of breath, Jodi sagged against the metal A-frame of the swing.
A moment later her little bestie was rubbing up against her calves.
This time when she reached for him, he let her pick him up without making a fuss and nuzzled his soft furry face against her cheek.
His little pink tongue lapped at the tears coursing down her face.
“It’s okay,” she said. “It’s okay. It’ll be okay.
” The guys would still be there for her, even if her and Nash were done.
Lee had said as much. No matter what happened with the band, they’d stay friends.
They’d work something out. This wasn’t a parting of ways between all of them, only between her and Nash.
She could live without him dictating the terms.
The shock of it was starting to sink in. She’d finally told him. “I told him,” she said to the cat. “I told him. You gave me the strength. I couldn’t stay with him after he did that to you.” She’d been planning to tell him it was over, but, “That was the final straw.”
Across the lot, the bus’s engine made a sputtering start. Ray had evidently returned and was eager to get going again.
Her foot had only just hit the tarmac when the bus began moving.
Jeezus, what? “No!”
In her surprise, she squeezed Flugwhump too hard, making him yowl and squirm out of her arms. He landed lightly on his feet, while her bare foot came down hard on a spiked stone.
The automatic wince and withdraw routine left her off balance.
Her other ankle gave, and she went sprawling to earth, scraping open her palms in the process and jarring both her shoulder and knees.
For a crawling span of seconds, she lay wounded and winded, tears clouding her vision, but even through that veil she could see the bus’s taillights moving towards the slip road. They winked out completely as the road curved to join the main carriageway.
Did Ray realise he’d left her behind? He probably didn’t.
Maybe he didn’t even realise that she’d left the bus.
What had Nash done, given him a nod, and offered no explanation to her whereabouts?
The roadie would assume fight done, she’d retreated back to the bunkroom.
The bunkroom she ought never to have left.
Slowly, she peeled herself off the ground and looked around.
She was alone in the dark. Her and a cat.
Barefoot, wearing her sleeping shorts and a tatty vest top.
No phone, no money, no passport. No clue where she was, let alone how far away the nearest town or village lay.
She wasn’t even certain what time of night it was.
And now that she was no longer running, her skin registered the nip of the wind.
Oh, God. Oh, shit!
White noise futzed up her hearing and tunnelled her vision.
She’d screwed up again. Dramatically.