Seasons in the Sun

by Strassel, Kristen

  “Local band.” The two of them started talking at length about music. A couple of other guys eyed us, but quickly looked away from Tristan and started smiling at me. I smiled back shyly and kicked some dirt at my feet.

  Tristan and the blond guy brought me over to the grill where they wolfed down a couple of hot dogs, and I ate an overcooked hamburger. Tristan was suddenly drinking a different kind of beer that I hadn’t seen him open. I wondered how much I had missed in this few minutes.

  A girl wearing a tiny halter top danced up next to me and whispered in my ear, “Hey, cutie. You and your hot boyfriend busy?”

  “Busy?” What the hell was happening?

  “Want to go somewhere?”

  Tristan somehow managed to hear this, and looked around me with reddened eyes. “Hi,” he said through a wide smile. She danced over to him and started rubbing up against him. Tristan slugged down the rest of the beer, dropped it into the back of a pickup truck next to him, and took his hand from mine to dance with her.

  Hot tears welled in my eyes and I stormed off back to our own spot, mumbling to myself. Taryn was right. My mother was right. What kind of a science experiment was I walking into here? Did he care about anyone but himself?

  I sat on the back of the car, and cried as quietly as I could. I was so mad at Tristan for being such a mess and so thoughtless. I was mad at myself for being so stupid. I was mad at my mother for being right about him, and about me being a dumb kid. I was even mad at Keisha for not warning me this was a bad idea.

  “Hey. A pretty girl like you shouldn’t be sitting here crying.”

  I gasped, not realizing that someone had approached me. He was young, but not as young as me. He had a nice face, like he didn’t really know what he was doing drinking in a parking lot either.

  “I’m okay,” I said, wiping my face with the back of my hand. I smiled at him, and I was surprised that I was glad to have someone with me that wasn’t Tristan.

  He sat down next to me on the back of the jeep. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah. Thank you.”

  “Was it that guy you were with earlier?’

  “What? Oh, yeah. You saw him?” It seemed weird to me that he knew I was there with Tristan.

  He snickered. “Yeah, that guy was hard not to see. It was like he had flashing lights over his head that said ‘PARTY HERE.’’’

  I laughed, and it felt good. Then I did something dumb. “Do you want a beer?”

  He smiled again, and this time I noticed he was probably closer to my age than I thought. “I guess so.” I opened one for myself, and handed him one.

  “My name is Jimmy.”

  “I’m Callie. Who are you here with?” I asked, scanning the parking lot around us.

  “My brother and his friends. They’re lame. They’ve been giving me the hint to get away from them for an hour now.”

  We laughed at that, and talked for a few minutes more, long enough for me to feel a little better and forget that I had been ditched far from home and that I was getting myself into a world of trouble. It didn’t last long, though.

  “Hey! Hey, who the hell are you? Get away from her!” Tristan quickly walked toward us, but it was evident he had spent the entire time we were apart drinking. He threw down a beer bottle, smashing it, and came at Jimmy with his arm raised, ready to punch.

  I jumped up off the car hood, and in front of Jimmy. “No! What are you doing, Tristan?!”

  “You want this kid here?” Tristan asked, looking the boy up and down.

  “Correction. He wants to be here with me. More than I can say for you.”

  “Hey, Callie, it was nice talking to you, but this isn’t cool,” Jimmy said behind me, and then I saw him walk away with his hands up from the corner of my eye.

  Tristan snorted at him in disgust, and headed to get another beer.

  “Did you have fun?”

  He cracked it open. “Yeah, you should have stayed.”

  “I don’t think that would have been a good idea. Maybe you should slow down for a while,” I said, motioning to the beer.

  “I’m fine, Callie. This isn’t my first time.”

  “So I hear.” Instantly, I regretted saying it.

  He narrowed his eyes at me. “What do you mean by that?”

  “Nothing. I shouldn’t have said it. Let’s just go into the concert, okay?” I started to walk toward the pavilion, hoping he would be right behind me, and that this would just be the end of this little nightmare. Instead, he spun me around and kissed me, hard, smelling like the liquor aisle at the supermarket, and cigarette smoke. I pushed him off, and he laughed.

  “What do you think you’re doing?!” I yelled. “You’re out of control!”

  “I’m a little tired of hearing that.” Tristan rolled his eyes.

  “Yeah, and I hear people are tired of telling you, too.”

  “Wait a minute. Who have you been talking to?”

  “Tristan, listen. I don’t want to argue with you anymore. It doesn’t matter.”

  “Bullshit! What are you talking about?”

  I’d talked myself into a corner, so I just came out and said it. I didn’t want to play the Tristan game anymore today. “I know the real reason you came here isn’t because of your parents’ divorce.”

  Tristan looked so confused, and I didn’t think it was because he was drunk. “What do you mean? That’s why they sent us here. They are getting a divorce.” He looked like a little kid right then, and I felt so bad for him, I just wanted to hug him and forget this all had happened.

  “Oh my God, you didn’t know.”

  “Why did they send me here, Callie?” The hurt was all over his face.

  I gulped, but there was no going back. “You’re here because you’re out of control, and your family didn’t know what to do anymore. They just wanted to get you away from the drinking, and everything you were doing.”

  His face, red from drinking, drained to white. “Who told you that?” His voice was a hoarse whisper.

  I couldn’t look into his eyes. They were too sad. “Taryn.”

  I stole a quick glance at him to see his reaction. He slammed his hand against the side of the Jeep. “Damn it.”

  “Tristan, they just wanted to help you. They love you. They didn’t know what to do.”

  He raked his fingers roughly through his hair and looked towards the sky. Was he trying not to cry? “I don’t need anyone’s help.”

  It was everything I could do not to reach out to him, to hold him, to console him, but I was still angry and hurt by his behavior. “Come on, let’s go into the concert.” I held out my hand to him as a peace offering. If nothing else, I wanted to try to turn this awful day around.

  He stared at my hand, as if it was some sort of foreign object he hadn’t seen before. I was getting ready to take it back and walk away from him when he finally took it.

  We walked to the gate in silence.

  Chapter Twelve

  Tristan behaved for most of the concert. He seemed to sober up some. Even he couldn’t figure out a way to buy alcohol inside the show. It didn’t seem to bother him, and we finally were able to have a good time. We didn’t bring up our argument from the parking lot, but things were definitely different because of it.

  There were two stages with bands playing at the same time all day long. Someone had handed us a schedule on the way into the show, which Tristan had missed but I grabbed one. It proved to come in handy as we ran back and forth depending on which band Tristan preferred at the time. I didn’t know who any of them were, so I was just happy that getting lost in the music seemed to be enough for him at the moment.

  But I couldn’t totally relax. I kept waiting for the next bomb to explode.

  “Wait for me here. I need the ladies room,” I said to Tristan as we made our way from stage to stage. The sky was fading to twilight and the blazing sun started to cool.

  “Sure,” he kissed me quickly as he let go of my hand.

  The
line wasn’t moving. Half of the stalls were no longer operable, overflowing with toilet paper and god only knows what else. The floors were wet and the smell was unbearable. It was the last place I wanted to be, but I had no other option but to wait.

  The sky had changed a bit more by the time I came back out. I knew I remembered the spot I left Tristan in, but he wasn’t there. Was I in there so long he took off on me?

  I spun around slowly. He couldn’t have gone too far without me. I could hear the bands had started on both stages, almost competing against one another from this vantage point.

  “Tristan!” I yelled, but with the crowd noise and music, no one would ever hear me.

  “Tristan!” Louder and more panicked this time. Where was he? What was he doing? My mind raced to every awful thing he could be doing right now.

  I didn’t know what to do. Should I go looking for him or stay in this spot? If I left this spot, we’d never find each other. There was a fence near the entrance of the ladies room. I perched myself on an empty spot, my eyes frantically scanning the crowd.

  Dark fell over the fairgrounds, making picking people out harder and harder. I don’t know how much time had passed. Too much. I wasn’t quite crying, more half hyperventilating, half sobbing.

  “There you are!” Tristan finally resurfaced, with the blonde guy from the parking in lot in tow. He smiled at me like he hadn’t scared me half out of my mind by disappearing. His eyes were glassy.

  If he wasn’t my only hope for ever getting home, I might have strangled him right in the middle of the fairgrounds.

  “Where have you been?” I hissed.

  “I didn’t go anywhere.”

  “Tristan, stop it. You scared me half to death.”

  “I just saw Adam here. You remember Adam right?” Adam tipped his hat to me while I glared past Tristan at him.

  “I want to go home.” I crossed my arms in front of my chest.

  “Callie, relax, the show’s not over yet.”

  “Don’t tell me to relax! You took off on me.”

  “Well, I’m back now, aren’t I?”

  So there was no arguing with him. How did Taryn deal with this all the time? It was maddening. He truly had no concept of the consequences of his actions when he was like this. Now we had to start all over again from square one.

  Adam took the hint that he should probably leave us alone and disappeared.

  Tristan led me back to one of the stages and we watched the rest of the set. He pulled me in close to him. I was too exhausted from lack of sleep and the events of the day to fight with him. I leaned against him, sliding my arms around his waist, hoping if nothing else it would keep him satisfied enough to just stay there with me.

  I looked up at him as the band left the stage and the crowd started to disperse. “We should head back soon.”

  “Rise Against is next. We can leave after that.”

  “I’m kind of worried we’re going to miss the ferry.”

  “We’ll be fine.” He pulled me in tighter.

  Rise Against played for about a half an hour. Tristan loved it, singing along and pumping his fist along to the beat, but I was too worried now about getting home to enjoy anything. I had no idea what time it was, besides late. And I had no idea how late the ferry ran, but I knew it didn’t go all night.

  We had a hard time finding the car, not that it mattered. Cars jammed every driveway, not moving. Tristan immediately headed for the trunk.

  “Oh no, not now, Tristan.”

  “What? Jesus, Callie, I’m grabbing a soda.”

  He handed me one as well. I climbed in the passenger’s seat and hoped that he’d follow my lead to get in the car and stay away from trouble. Thankfully, he did. He reclined his seat and leaned back with his eyes closed. His phone vibrated several times but he didn’t reach for it. If I had any idea where it was, I would have checked the messages. Not that I knew how, since I didn’t have a cell phone.

  Traffic finally broke. “Tristan. Tristan! It’s time to go. The cars are moving.” The clock blazed 10:45 like a terrible omen.

  Stretching and adjusting, Tristan put the car in drive and pulled out on to the main drive.

  “Did you have fun today?”

  Was it too dark for him to see the disbelief on my face? I wasn’t sure if I wanted him to see it or not. Had he forgotten the drinking, the girl, the almost fight, stranding me at the bathroom? “It was interesting.”

  “So you didn’t have fun.”

  “Tristan, I’m just tired. Let’s not argue, all right?”

  He sighed heavily but didn’t say any more. He pulled in to the Steamship Authority parking lot. It was dark and lifeless. Closed.

  “Oh my God.” I couldn’t hide my panic.

  “This isn’t right,” Tristan seemed truly puzzled. “It’s not that late. What the hell kind of operation are they running?”

  “One that closes before 11:30. Oh my God, I’m dead.” I thought I was going to puke. There was no air in the car. I couldn’t even begin to imagine how much trouble I was in.

  “Callie, calm down, we’ll just--”

  “I can’t calm down! Don’t you understand? I wasn’t even supposed to go to this with you. And now I can’t get home. My mother is going kill me. And you. We’re both dead, Tristan. Dead! I am not kidding.”

  “Let me think,” Tristan still thought there was some sort of resolution to this situation that didn’t end with both of us in pine boxes. “We’ll just call home, as soon as find my cell phone, and explain we missed the ferry.” He felt around the driver’s seat looking for his phone.

  “It’s somewhere under your seat,” I said flatly, my hand over my eyes. “It was buzzing the whole time you were sleeping.”

  “Probably with people looking for us.” He actually had the nerve to smile at me. I glared at him. He recovered the phone. “Yikes. Thirty new messages.”

  My stomach sickened. “Great.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  The panic in my dad’s voice was clear as he answered the phone. It broke my heart.

  “Callie, sweetheart, where are you? We’re worried sick.”

  “Woods Hole. We missed the ferry. I’m so sorry, Daddy.” Tears rolled down my face.

  There was no covering up the disgust in his sigh. “What were you thinking? You can’t do things like this.”

  “I know. I’m sorry.”

  “Here’s your mother.”

  I braced myself for the inevitable tongue lashing that was about to begin. Although, I wished she had just answered the phone. I knew I had it coming from her. Having to explain myself to my dad was far worse punishment. I was truly sorry I hurt him.

  “Well, I guess I can call the police back and say you’re not missing, just stupid, right, Calliope?”

  “Sure.” I was at a loss. There was no arguing with her right now. I was too exhausted to do anything but accept my sentence.

  “I stopped short of reporting you kidnapped out of respect to Caroline.”

  “I’m sorry, Mom.”

  “No, you’re not. Just because Tristan is allowed to run around wild and do whatever he wants doesn’t mean you’ll follow suit. You should both be glad there’s a body of water separating us right now, Calliope.”

  “I just didn’t think we’d--”

  She cut me off. “No, you didn’t think. You’re both expected at work tomorrow. The rest of us shouldn’t have to suffer because of your poor decisions. First ferry back in the morning.”

  “Okay.”

  “We will discuss this more tomorrow. And Calliope, use your head tonight. I mean it.”

  The phone clicked in my ear.

  “That went well,” Tristan said as I handed the phone back to him. “Let’s head down to the beach.” I noticed while I was on the phone he’d grabbed blankets and sweatshirts out of the trunk. My heart was already pounding from the phone call. My brain couldn’t process the fact that we were having a sleepover.

  I rubbed my forehea
d then looked up at the sky before falling into step with him. “Nothing ever goes well with my mother. She called the police, you know.”

  He laughed. “I’m sure they cared. ‘My daughter didn’t listen to me, and now I’m really mad’.” He mocked her voice.

  I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. “She would have told them you kidnapped me, but she said she didn’t out of respect to your aunt.”

  That made him laugh even harder. “So Caroline didn’t think she was a complete psycho, you mean?”

  “Tristan! Stop it.”

  “Okay, that was a little out of line. She’s your mother, but my god Callie, she’s unbearable. She has to understand if she keeps treating you like she does, these are the things that are going to happen.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “She controls your every move. She doesn’t let you go to a real school, she’s got you working at her restaurant all the time, I’m not even sure you have any friends outside of the restaurant since you never talk about them. It’s like she keeps you in a cage.”

  I stopped dead in my tracks, my brain processing what he said. “I never thought of it like that,” I said quietly.

  “Of course not, because you never knew it any other way.” Tristan surveyed the spot I’d stopped in. “This looks good.” He spread the blanket out and sat down, patting the spot next to him for me to join.

  I sat down, and he handed me one of the sweatshirts. I pulled it over my head, inhaling his scent as it surrounded me. I wrapped my arms around my middle, my eyes not really processing anything, just thinking about what he’d said. Tristan left me alone with my thoughts for a minute, just watching me.

  “But she was right, look what happened. You.” I instantly felt bad blaming him for the trouble I was in. Sure, he’d wanted me to come, but the decision to go was all mine. “The day was out of control, and now we missed the ferry.”

  He started rubbing my back. “Callie, she would have reacted the same way if we’d gone to a church social. It sucks that we missed the boat, but even if we didn’t, you’d probably be dealing with the same thing. And I’m going to be honest with you, I’m kind of glad we missed it.”