by Roxie Spears
“Just remember, she needs your support,” Maggy said, more serious this time. Finally she got up; Colt thought that was his cue to leave. It was true he was already late for work, but a small part of him was disappointed. Not only was he comfortable around Maggy, but he felt like he could talk to her. Relax, she’s not your therapist, he was quick to remind himself.
“Alright, well, it was great meeting you,” he said, extending his hand out to her. She shook it and smiled; there was something about her that was different.
“I’m glad I was of some help,” she replied before letting out of his hand and slumping back down on her chair. Colt headed for the door, and as he shut it behind him he noticed that Maggy had already picked up her book again.
“Shit,” he muttered under his breath, realizing that he was in fact very late for work. Colt stomped the gas pedal and flew down the road, eventually arriving at Stanley’s.
Working at a mattress place was definitely not where he saw himself at age thirty-nine, but it was all he could do for now. Starting over was tough, especially in a place like Victoria, where lakes froze over and blizzards hit often. It was hard to motivate himself in a town like this; there was little to do and practically nowhere to go, or maybe he was just making up excuses.
In reality, Colt hadn’t really ventured into the city ever since he landed here. He had been too preoccupied with Jasmin, yet there was little that he knew about her. “Then what the hell am I doing all the time?” he asked himself, getting frustrated. Just like his brothers, he had a different life back in Quafin. He ran businesses, wore suits and saw people around. He had a lot of money, now he had nothing. His father sent him some every now and then, but he tried hard not to rely on that.
He was already neck deep into his thoughts when he found himself in front of the store. Reluctant, Colt got out of the car and headed inside, hearing that usual ping of the doorbell.
“Bane! We have customers over here, newly weds! They’ve been waiting around for thirty minutes,” Mayers said, waving his hand in the air.
“I’ll be right there,” he shuffled towards the couple, who seemed visibly annoyed. “So, what can I help you with?”
Colt’s working hours went by slowly. They were often long and irregular, and they dragged on until his feet could no longer carry him. The store was humid with indoor heating; how ironic, he thought, that he should be around beds all the time. Even when sleep was scarce, Colt didn’t even have the option to sit down. His life had grown hectic and dull, but Jasmin was on his mind all the time.
The sky had turned orange and Colt was getting ready to leave by sunset. He looked around and everything was in place, and all he had to do was lock up. As his keys jingled in his hand, he heard his phone ring. Whenever Holland’s name flashed across his screen, his heart sank a little. Holland’s calls were always bad news.
“Hey, what’s up?” he said, walking towards his car. “I don’t like it when you call me.”
The man chuckled on the other end. “Don’t worry, I don’t have any bad news for ya. I’m just calling to check up.”
“I’m doing pretty good,” Colt said. “Got any updates for me?”
“Well, you’re virtually untraceable right now. But we gotta keep our eyes open.”
“I’ve been feeling pretty paranoid lately and I don’t know why,” Colt admitted. “I thought hiring a PI would give me that peace of mind but I just… can’t help it.”
“Well, you gotta start trusting me,” Holland said, his voice reassuring if anything. Colt exhaled, cradling his phone to his ear as he started his car.
“Alright, but just be careful,” he said. “We don’t want a repeat of what happened last time.”
Chapter 4
“Hey, Jazz,” Colt called at the door. “I’m back.”
For a while, he heard nothing. The apartment was eerily quiet, dead, almost.
“Jazz?” Colt crept down the hallway. Jasmin was nowhere in sight. Usually she would be home around that time, snacking in the kitchen or watching TV. “Where are you?” he burst into her bedroom. Jasmin had been lying down on her bed, earphones in, holding her phone up to her face.
“Wait, I’ll call you back,” she said before hanging up a call. “What the hell was that?”
Colt froze. “I came in and I couldn’t find you.”
“Well, I was clearly on the phone,” she said, throwing her legs off the side of the bed. “I have a sign up on my door for a reason.”
Colt sighed. Normally his blood would be boiling by now, because what minimum wage worker had the patience to deal with teenage rebellion? Only this time Maggy’s advice rushed to his head almost instantly, and he found himself following a frustrated Jasmin down the corridor. “Listen, I didn’t mean to barge in like that, I just wanted to make sure you were alright.”
“I am, I am alright,” she said, irritated. She sat at the kitchen counter, texting.
Colt paced the room in search of ingredients. He hoped he could end up with some semblance of a meal.
“You need help with that?” Jasmin asked.
“No, it’s alright,” he replied. “If you really wanna put a smile on my face, you could tell me how your day was.” If anything, it took a lot out of him to say that. For some reason Maggy’s advice just stuck.
“Well, I got an A on my Maths test,” she said, a grin plastered to her face. “And Tina’s throwing a house party this Saturday!”
Colt froze. “A house party? Since when do you girls go to parties?”
“Well, her parents are away on a romantic getaway. They don’t usually do that because they have a shitty relationship, but that’s another story for another time.”
“Keep going.”
“So the house is free for once, and she thought she’d invite a couple of friends over, and…”
“Absolutely not.” Colt just couldn’t help himself. He resisted the urge to clench his fists, so he resorted to a distraction; the microwave. His eyes watched the tupperware circle round and around itself, lips slightly parted, his mind somewhere else.
“What, why not?” Jasmin asked, jumping to her feet.
“I don’t want you going to any house parties, and that’s final.”
There was silence. Colt could feel a storm brewing, and he was just bracing himself for it. “It’s my job to protect you, Jazz. I hope that one day you can understand that.”
“Stop trying to protect me, I can protect myself.”
“I can’t, I can’t let you do that.”
“Why? If you’re that good at taking care of people, why couldn’t you take care of Leah huh?”
Colt felt his heart sink. Just the thought of Leah made him uneasy, to say the least. It brought him immeasurable grief, and seeing how much it affected Jasmin only made it that much worse. A low gurgle escaped his throat, one that turned into lethargic speech. “Listen, what happened to Leah was a surprise to all of us. None of us saw it coming,” he finally managed to utter. Jasmin’s big eyes stared at him, almost in acknowledgement of her own wrongdoing, but she was too childish and proud to admit to her own mistakes.
Leah, Colt’s girlfriend, had died three years ago when the Makinens found them. All he remembered was that there was fire, lots of it. He still had nightmares about orange clouds, but with time they became more infrequent. The pain lessened with time, but surely, it never went away. He still loved her with all his heart, but her face faded with memory and her laugh no longer sounded in his ears. As much as he wanted to keep her alive in his head, one day Colt woke up recognizing that he was wasting his life.
“I miss her, too, you know,” he said after a long stretch of silence. “But you’re with me now, you’re alive. And sure, I can be overprotective sometimes, but it’s only because I don’t want anything bad to happen to you.”
“When will I ever get to live a normal life?”
“Possibly never, and that’s just the cold hard truth.”
“I never asked for this.”
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“Jasmin, you need to grow up and see life for what it is. All you do is curse your luck, you’re just ungrateful!”
“You just want me to spend my life, my youth paying for your mistakes!”
The quiet sat on their skin like poison. Suddenly Colt shot up and left the room, throwing his jacket on and storming out of the apartment. A thousand thoughts raced through his head, tugging at his sanity. He felt awful now, like he wanted to leave the house and never come back. He realized he wasn’t wearing enough layers, but he didn’t want to go back there because Jasmin’s face reminded him of Leah. Everything did.
For the first time, he was angry with Jasmin. It turned out, sixteen year olds really were capable of hurt. Colt was just walking it out at this point. He raced down the sidewalk, finally deciding to embark on his own little journey. The farther out he went, the better he felt. Walking brought heat to his body, and eventually, he arrived at a plausible destination.
“Windsor’s Tavern,” he murmured to himself, not hesitating to go inside.
“You look like you could use a drink,” the old lady at the bar said.
“I’m pretty sure you tell that to everyone who comes in here.”
Without saying anything she poured him a glass of scotch and passed it to him. Colt downed it all in one gulp, feeling his insides burn as if drenched in acid. He felt an immediate urge to throw up but quickly contained it, waning in the face of peer pressure.
“Another one!” the heavy woman said, pouring him a second drink. He mindlessly drank that, too. He looked around him and the place was completely dark, like those casinos. They even had a jukebox, which he went up to, inspecting it carefully before feeding it a quarter.
“That thing’s just for show. You think we still live in the eighties, mister?”
“I don’t care, play me a song,” he yelled, gawking at the woman. It wasn’t long before
Stayin’ Alive by the Bee Gees came on, and Colt found himself dancing, twirling around like an idiot. The pub was pretty empty still; no wonder he felt comfortable making a fool of himself like that. He wasn’t even drunk yet, but there was something about today’s encounter that made him profoundly miserable.
He tripped over his own feet, almost falling over, quickly redeeming himself.
“Woah, there,” the bar woman said, wiping the table top. She didn’t look very impressed, like she had seen sights stranger than this. A small group of people walked into the pub, ignoring Colt completely, slumping down at the bar.
“Hey, can we turn this thing off?” a man asked, nodding towards the white haired woman, who didn’t hesitate before silencing the place again.
Colt dragged his feet back to the bar, climbing onto the stool and releasing a grunt. “You alright, sugar?”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” he said, gesturing towards the row of bottles lined up on the table behind her. “One more.”
“Whatever you say,” she unscrewed the top off a half-full bottle of scotch and poured Colt a third drink.
“I got into a fight with my niece,” he grumbled. “It was pretty ugly. Other than that I don’t know what else to say.”
“You don’t have to say anything.”
Colt’s head was spinning with thoughts, disturbing ones. He had never felt so angry at a child before. But despite everything, he still had the urge to go back home and wrap his arms around his one and only niece. He wanted to tell her it was all okay, and that she would never end up like Leah, not on his watch.
He thought about what Maggy said about support. Colt wondered if he was suffocating Jasmin with his ways, immediately nodding to himself. But I can’t help it, he thought to himself, averting his gaze to the door. Another set of customers was pouring in; Maggy lingered at the very end. Colt straightened himself and looked at her. She wasn’t with those people, but lingered close by, eventually sitting down at a table on her own. She couldn’t see him still, and he wondered if going up to her was the right thing to do.
“Mr. Bane?” he heard a sweet, smooth voice say. Turning around, he realized it was her. She was standing there in a floral maxi dress, one that flowed beautifully in the current of an indoor fan.
“Maggy. Hey, hi,” Colt said, blinking at her. He rose in his seat, wondering if his mind was playing tricks on him. “Please, have a seat,” he pulled out a chair for her. She smiled awkwardly, lifting the tail of her dress off the floor and positioning herself on the concave shaped stool.
“Didn’t think I’d run into you here,” she said, raising a finger in the air. “One beer, please.”
“Likewise,” Colt said, trying to keep it together. If anything he was trying hard to mask the drunkenness. “D’you come here often?”
“Sadly, yes,” she said, taking a swing of her beer. “I’m sure it’s not a great look on a high school teacher, but-”
“Come on, you’re human, too. I’m sure you have a lot of problems that can only be fixed by drinking.” And again, he realized he had fucked up.
Maggy giggled, much to Colt’s surprise. “That is pretty accurate,” she said, brushing her hair to the side. She held onto her beer and stared straight ahead, as if avoiding eye contact with Colt. The truth was that he felt pretty nervous around her, mostly because she had a sophisticated demeanor about her that he hadn’t seen on a person before.
She was tall and slender, she had piano hands and beautiful nails. Everything about her stood out to him, from her long neck to that one beauty mark above her lips, right at her cupid’s bow. Maggy was exceptionally pretty, but she wasn’t for him.
Chapter 5
“You’re kidding me!” Maggy tossed her head back and laughed loudly. Colt’s body flung forward, too, as his chuckles echoed across the pub. “So you just walked in on them having sex?”
“Right in the middle of the store!” he breathed, his eyes wide. “I swear, my heart just stopped. How was I supposed to know there were people still in there?”
“So what, did you kick ‘em out?” she asked, biting into a burger. The two of them had been sitting there for quite some time. Colt didn’t remember when they had landed into this conversation, but it felt like the most effortless thing in the world.
“I froze, I just froze!” he said, his shoulders hanging in a shrug. “Then I was like, ma’am, what in God’s name are you doing?”
Maggy shivered with uncontrollable laughter. She wiped away a single tear, and raised a napkin up to her lips.
“They were an elderly couple going at it on our best seller. God, what a sight,” he held his head in his hands and closed his eyes. Maggy still laughed, unable to contain herself. “And the thing is, I thought they had left. I close shop everyday, right? I check the closets, I check under the beds…”
“These guys really know how to cover their tracks.”
“We were just trying to spice up our marriage, he told me.”
“Is it bad that I’m finding this just a little bit cute?” Maggy asked, gesturing with her hand. She was getting pretty tipsy, herself.
“It is, it really is. You should’ve seen ‘em,” Colt said, throwing his hands up in protest. The pair breathed, settling down after a long laughing session. By now the pub had become fairly busy, with people coming in straight after work to unwind after a strenuous day. Laughter and chatter sounded in the air, uplifting Colt’s mood.
Every now and then he checked if Jasmin was online. Active one minute ago, he thought to himself, breathing a sigh of relief. She must’ve been ranting to her friends about what happened… or talking to a guy. Either way, he thought that he needed to give her some space. Perhaps Maggy was right, after all.
“So, how long have you lived in Victoria?” he asked, sipping his fourth drink that day; a beer.
“I moved here around two years ago. Before that I used to live in the States.” She paused for a moment, frowning. “Good ol’ Virginia.”
“Doesn’t sound like you like it very much.”
“I don’t. I mean, here isn’t
the most exciting place, either. But it’s more diverse. I can relate to more people here.” Even as she spoke about the simplest things Maggy still had that sophistication about her, one that shone through her eyes and the way that she gestured with her hand. “There weren’t many Latinas back at my old school.”
“Oh, so you were a teacher before you came here?”
“Yeah. No offense, but everyone was white.”
Colt snickered. “None taken.”
“I met a lot of women here who understand me. It feels nice, not gonna lie. I made a lot of friends, I finally became independent. I used to live with my parents before I moved here.”
“And how does that feel?”
“It feels amazing, like I’m free,” her eyes glittered up with what looked to Colt like hope. She ordered another drink, which she downed in one gulp. Colt was really starting to like her; she was his antidote to a miserable week. Whenever he spaced out, Leah crossed his mind. The mere thought of her made him want to throw up, and even though he had been doing fine the past couple of months, his confrontation with Jasmin had moved something deep inside him.
“Well, it’s getting a bit late. I should go back home and be with Jazz,” he said, finally realizing what time it was. He checked her status one more time; active twenty-three minutes ago.
Maggy nodded and led the way out into the blizzard. She stood straight, facing the wind, like she was already used to it. “I love this kind of weather,” she said with her eyes closed.
“Only psychopaths would say that,” Colt said. “You know what, I should really stop talking.”
“You’re not very eloquent,” Maggy said, a bit daringly.
“I’m really not, but that’s just how I am. A rambling idiot with a temper.”
“Ah, it’s the temper part that I don’t like,” she said with a raised eyebrow.
“Can I drop you off at home?”