Chapter 4
Chapter Four
Waiting For Your Call
N ova paced her old bedroom which now collected shopping bags full of the most random stuff she’d ever seen in life. Including shopping bags filled with more shopping bags.
She looked at her window and the small crack was still there. Even though it happened all those years ago. She bit her bottom lip and slapped a few bags off the bed and sat on the corner.
Dust filled the air for a second, leaving Nova’s nose tingling. The room held a million memories. Now it just felt and looked ancient. Forgotten. Used up.
The normal end result of anything her mother got involved with. Whether it was a house, a job, a hobby, or men, Nova’s mother had a way of ruining even the smallest of things. Even something as simple as stopping for fast food always turned into a stress filled war-like feeling. Her mother complained that the ice was too cold. Or too watery. Or that there was too much in the cup. Trying to fuck me out of the drink I paid for? Who the fuck do you think I am? Or the food didn’t look like it did on TV or on the menu picture.
Nova thought to herself that maybe Nick got sick of it all and just took off.
Yeah… right…
Nova knew better than that.
Nick loved the attention from Mommy . She kept Nick’s favorite foods stocked and his favorite drinks in the fridge. Screw paying the gas bill, Nicky needed his fancy IPAs that cost twenty bucks for six. Nova will just pay the gas bill! No worries!
Nova took a deep breath to collect herself a little bit. As much as she wanted to snoop around her old bedroom and find out what exactly her mother was hoarding, she knew better. There was nothing good here. Nothing of value. Nothing of meaning. And chances were—based on the smell—there were probably more than a few dead, rotting animals in the mess.
The bedroom door swung open and Nova’s mother came tumbling in. Tripping over her own two feet, her aged knees hitting the floor with a hard enough thud that it shook the window.
“Where’s my boy? Where is he, Nova? You have to tell me where he is.”
“I’m taking care of it,” Nova said. She reached for her mother’s face and brushed stringy, greasy hair out of the way. “I think you should just try to get some sleep. Staying awake and drinking won’t do any good.”
“Who the fuck are you to tell me my business?”
Nova cringed. Mention even in passing to pause on the bottle, and Gail Vida would go off the deep end of verbal violence that quite often turned into physical violence too. Sometimes Nova looked at her mother and really hated her. Then she felt guilty for it.
“What I’m trying to say is that I’m handling it like you asked me to do,” Nova said, keeping a calm tone.
She knew better than to argue with a drunk. Especially a grieving drunk like her mother.
Gail stood up, wobbly like a newborn giraffe. Did she love her daughter? Of course she did. Did she proclaim it to the world? Did she take pride in her daughter? Not quite. Did the booze cloud her judgement and feelings? What other purpose is there to drink, right?
Gail touched the top of Nova’s head and gave her a quick pat, like a dog who sits for a treat.
“Just find my Nicky,” Gail slurred. “He’s all I’ve got.”
Shoving that mother-daughter dagger deeper into Nova’s heart, Gail turned and stumbled her way out of the bedroom. She didn’t bother to look back and the booze refused to let her realize what she just said and how much it hurt Nova.
Before Nova could react to the evil (but way too familiar) comment, her phone lit up and vibrated.
How long has it been?
Her heart raced. Her mouth went dry. Her entire body fell numb. She sat there, frozen, only a few seconds away from the call being thrown to voicemail.
Nova!
Novaleigh Wendy Vida!
Nova blinked fast and her left hand finally shot out and grabbed the phone. She licked her lips, then swiped her thumb to answer the call from…
“Linc,” she spoke, almost breathless.
Instantly her cheeks felt red-hot. She looked over her shoulder at her window. The crack again.
“Nova,” Linc’s voice said.
Deeper than the darkest part of the ocean. Yet instantly soothing.
“Nova, are you there? You called for me? Hello?”
Her bottom lip quivered. Her teeth actually chattered for a second.
“Linc,” she repeated. She closed her eyes. Stop saying his name! “I called you… I need your help.”
“What kind of help?”
Nova heard the protective tone in Linc’s voice. Yet she knew… oh, she knew… one step closer to that world… to go near that motorcycle club…
“It’s Nick.”
“Your brother. He still ending up in trouble all the time?”
“Yeah,” Nova said. She had a sense of comfort and home hitting her. “This time though… he’s missing.”
“Missing?”
“It’s been a couple days. My mother is freaking out. Trying to drink herself to death. You know how it goes with her.”
“Wait, back up a second, Nova. Nick is missing? How do you know for sure?”
“I don’t. I’m trying to calm my mother down. I don’t think the police can or will help. Nick is an adult now. He can do what he wants. I just…” Nova swallowed hard. “He never does this. He’ll disappear for a little bit but he always comes crawling back home. When he runs out of money, food, or booze. When he needs something.”
“Maybe he met a woman. Maybe he hit the lottery.”
“I know what you’re trying to do, Linc,” Nova blurted out. “Keeping your distance. Like we agreed. I get it. Do you think I would be calling if it wasn’t serious? And I’m talking… really serious?”
“I’m not sure you know what serious is, darling,” Linc whispered.
Nova’s heart fluttered.
“Linc, I know I shouldn’t have called. I’m panicking too here.”
“Fuck,” Linc said. “There’s nothing that can be done tonight. Right now. You have to trust me on that.”
“Okay. So what does that mean then, Linc?”
“It means tomorrow morning you meet me at Piggy’s for breakfast.”
Piggy’s…
Memories from a hundred years ago flooded Nova’s head.
“Breakfast,” Nova whispered.
“Try to get some sleep, darling. Nothing can be done right now. Maybe he’ll come staggering home by morning.”
Can we still get breakfast if that happens? Nova almost asked.
“Yeah,” she said instead.
“Goodnight, Nova,” Linc said. “Can’t believe I’m hearing your voice again.”
Chills moved throughout Nova’s body. She didn’t have time to say goodbye before Linc ended the call.
Nova exited her bedroom and went downstairs to find her mother passed out on the couch. She covered her snoring mother with a blanket and kissed her forehead. She whispered a promise that she was going to find Nick. Her mother stirred and smiled. There was no way Nova would stay in this house.
Once outside and behind the wheel of her SUV, she felt like crying. The weight on her chest and the pure exhaustion floating through her body created the perfect storm to stop at a store and buy a gallon of fudge swirl ice cream and go home to her shitty little house and watch a romance movie and cry. Only one thing kept Nova from doing just that.
The fact that she had a breakfast date with the outlaw who was her first everything tomorrow.