MALLORY
“Plenty of whores in towns like this.” Sarah kept running her mouth, looking around. “They see a hot guy and cling to him like he’s their chance to get out of this shithole.”
I really didn’t like where she was going with this.
“Why would he even bother with anyone from here?” she huffed. “I mean, you can get an STD just by looking at someone for too long.”
I was glad it was dark and she couldn’t quite see my face, because she’d have seen that I was angry.
That’s the thing about trash talk. I might’ve said plenty of stuff about Al and Vic, but I wasn’t a prude.
They were shitty people. This woman? She thought she was better than everyone else, yet she was here, on a bridge, using the help of a local to track a guy who’d dumped her.
“If he doesn’t agree to come back, I’ll get my dad to arrest him, I swear,” she kept on yakking. “He doesn’t know he’s messed with the wrong girl. So, where is he?” Her rant over, she stepped into me. “You have an address for me?”
I was going to try to sort it out. I was, I swear. But this chick was clearly crazy, insulting, arrogant, and she said the wrong things at the wrong time and place.
If she wanted anything from me, she’d have to pay. And then I’d see what to do about her.
“Do you think I can get some reimbursement for the information?” I asked.
“Ah, fuck! I knew it!” She laughed angrily. “Of course, you aren’t doing this out of the goodness of your heart.” She dug in her pocket and weeded out a twenty, shoved it in my chest. “There. That enough? That’s like five hours of work at that shithole you work at, right?”
As they say, twenty bucks is twenty bucks. But this was an insult. She’d been insulting me for five minutes already, and I’d had enough.
I took the money, of course. “Give me a minute. I need to make a phone call.”
“They have mobiles in this town?”
I wished I could punch her. “Wait here,” I said instead.
I stepped away, down the bridge, and took the phone out of my pocket. Even brought it to my ear and pretended to talk to someone, all the while trying to come up with a plan.
She wasn’t getting any information from me. But maybe I could set her against Alysha. That would be fun. Except that would put Derek in the crossfire, and I didn’t want that.
Her voice broke the silent night as she got on her mobile phone with someone.
“Yeah, hi, Dad… The reception here is awful. Yeah… You should see this place. Ugh… No, not yet. I’m trying. When I find that asshole, I swear, I will sort him out. Or he’s going to jail… Right… I’m talking to this girl, Alysha, from a local bar. She met Jimmy, yeah… Uh-huh.”
Thank god for the lies that save our asses. That was her cop dad she was talking to, and now Alysha’s name was in the middle of it all.
My head spun. I wanted to laugh. But this woman was stirring up some serious noise.
“This place, Dad, ugh…” she ranted. “It’s a dumpster, this town. Everyone is, like, missing teeth or brain cells.” She laughed, and I wanted to drown that laugh in the river and never hear it again.
I watched her from afar. Good clothes. Good car. A father who was ready to break someone’s neck for her. She had everything I never had. And who gave her the right to judge others?
She leaned over the railing and talked, staring down at the rushing river. It was summertime, and though usually the heat of the summer made the Susquehanna quite low, that year we’d had plenty of rain. The river had turned muddy and fast.
I wished that river could wash away all my past, my ignorant family, those stupid bitches I called friends. I wished I were someone new, with my own story to write. And I could have that. With Derek.
“Yes, I will…” she continued. “Love you too, Dad. Bye.”
She stuck the phone in her pocket and then loudly, as if insulting the river, gathered saliva in her mouth and spat into it. She leaned over, standing on her tiptoes, staring in the darkness as if she could see her spit fly.
It was a rash decision that made me creep up to her from behind. I was seeing red, angry at her, at my life, at the world. Swiftly, I picked her up by her legs and tipped her over the railing.
She gave a surprised squeal, and a splash echoed through the night as her body plunged into the water. Hopefully, her bones broke at the impact.
I watched the dark river, hoping Sarah wasn’t a good swimmer.
She never surfaced.