From The Wreckage (22 page)

As if she’s being compelled by a gravitational pull, she types in West's name and smiles when a shot of him with his two older brothers pops up in the search feed. It’s an older picture; a winter shot of them all in ski gear. West and his brothers share the same warm brown eyes and good looks. She stares at the three of them for a long time before she clicks on his name and is brought to his page. They aren’t Facebook friends. Funny, she thought she was friends with everyone on Facebook. His settings aren’t private though, and a few clicks later she’s looking at a cover shot of West on a snowboard, flashing his sly grin at whoever took the shot. It looks to be from the same trip as his profile picture, and she is fascinated by this unknown facet of the boy who has filled her dreams, and days, a little too much lately.

Clicking on his photos tab, she scrolls through his pictures being the Facebook stalking expert she is. She, Katie and Tanya spent countless hours photo-stalking people through the years. West's pictures are pretty uneventful, though. There are a lot of pictures of his brothers, football games at A&M, some shots of motorcycles, and a few girls making duck faces in selfies with him. He is tagged in a lot more shots, parties, candid school shots and friendly girl pics, but none of the girls look to be a girlfriend. She can’t recall seeing him with a girl since Carley in tenth grade. Exiting the photos tab, she reads his last status.

"I wish I could hold your hand right now."

Her breath lodges in her throat as she looks at those nine words typed at midnight, on Sunday. It was probably less than thirty minutes after their argument at Whitwell Park. She sees several likes — all
from girls, naturally
—
and even a witty comment by a guy she doesn’t know which reads, 'Door’s unlocked, come over.' She laughs all the while feeling the need to cry.

What is
up
with you, West Rutledge?

Early morning dawns, and deciding it is pointless to try and sleep, Jules jumps in the shower. She lets the hot water wash over her; renewing her spirit and cleansing away the lingering effects of her nightmare. She pads down to the kitchen where she pours herself a glass of juice and eats some toast. Her dad comes down as she is finishing up and is startled to find her there.

"You're up early, pumpkin." He smiles and presses a kiss to the top of her head.

"I couldn't sleep."

"I can understand that. Your mom is in with Jase again," he offers with sad eyes as he makes a travel mug of coffee. Jason switched to sleeping with her parents every night after the first few he spent with her. This week, in preparation of going back to school next week her mom is trying to make him sleep in his own bed, but he keeps waking up and begging one of them to sleep with him by the middle of the night. Jules has no idea what to do to help him overcome his fear. She’s having dreams about vampires and Tanya, so she doesn’t exactly think she is an expert on the matter, anyway.

She watches her dad putter around the kitchen; making his coffee, putting leftovers in a lunch box and grabbing his customary energy bar for breakfast.

"Hey dad?" she asks. "How are things at work?"

"How do you mean?"

"I...I was wondering what things are like now. In town with people...nevermind." She shrugs and he sighs.

"Oh honey, you can ask, you know. Things are different. There's a part of me that feels so guilty every day when I go to the office because I pass so many places that were ruined by that twister. I have to work, though. The whole town has to get back to normal."

"How?" She stands as she asks the one question she hopes he can give an answer to. "How do we get back to normal when normal is gone, daddy?"

"You find a new normal, Jules."

But I don't want to
, she thinks to herself. Ten minutes later, she hugs her dad goodbye and plops down on the couch in the living room. She stares out the window at the bright blue sky and debates internally about what to do for the day. She has four days left before school will finally start. It was delayed for two weeks due to the state of emergency declared in Tyler, but she finally received her reassignment, Rossview High, the day before. She certainly isn’t looking forward to the complete awkwardness she knows it is going to be.

It isn’t yet eight in the morning when she decides to grab her bike and head outside. She considers taking her mom’s car but doesn’t want to wake her, and she doesn’t know if she'll need it this morning or not. Tyler is small and the town center is exactly that
—
in the center
—
with everything a few blocks away in each direction. A few blocks from her neighborhood, Jules rides into mid-town where her father's office is located, along with many other professional office buildings. This area was untouched by the storm, for the most part. The most damage was done on the main drag strip running through the town center. Hillsdale is located directly north on Main Street, and the tornado touched down somewhere due north of that. It ran south along Main Street and demolished the school, shopping centers and restaurants along the straight path until it hit the furthest southern tip of Tyler, the Ice Shack and Grier house. After hitting the field it jumped over county lines into Rossview, where it hit a small farm and then fizzled out within a mile of Tyler.

As Jules makes her way around the crews working throughout town, she thinks about Stuart's mom. She kept complaining about the damage throughout town; the devastation that made it impossible to go anywhere without seeing a reminder of that night. Where Mrs. Daniels can’t stand to face it and wants to get away, Jules has an overwhelming need to stop and help. She doesn’t want to ignore what happened to her town, she wants to help them. When she comes across a familiar black sports car pulled up outside of a ladies boutique shop off Kenilsworth Street, she stops. 'Gail's' is one of her mother's favorite little shops in Tyler. It carries high-end clothing as well as custom handmade jewelry and accessories. Now it is a wreck. The glass front has been smashed out and is currently covered by plywood. The doors are propped open and she hears a radio blaring inside. She watches as a shirtless male carries a large metal trashcan out the door and dumps the contents into a dumpster on the sidewalk. The guy lowers the can to the ground and swipes his forearm across his forehead. He looks up and sees her standing there straddling her bike a few feet away.

"I thought that was your car," Jules calls to him when he doesn’t look like he is going to speak to her.

"Um, yeah. Hey," Carter replies hesitantly, and looks around as if he expects someone to show up. "Out for a leisurely ride?"

Jules looks down at her bicycle and smiles. "I was. What are you doing here?"

He steps towards her hesitantly and she notices he has a small limp. "Gail's my mom. I'm helping her out."

"Oh." She never knew his mother owned this shop. How does she not know this? She hasn't been in the store with her mom in years, but something flits through her mind; a forgotten memory of a framed picture behind the cash register. A boy and girl about her age. "She had a picture of you and your sister on her counter, didn't she? I remember seeing it when I was in with my mom before. I didn't know that was you."

"Why would you?" he asks with a shrug.

"True." She sighs.

"She didn't advertise me as her son. She was worried about business."

"The rivalry?"

"Yeah."

The rivalry between Rossview and Hillsdale has been going on for years. Friday night fights are just the tip of the iceberg in the hell the players wreaked on each other and the towns.

"Speaking of," he drawls, looking around again. "Where's your posse?"

"I don't have a posse."

"No? I heard about Daniels moving to Houston. A little mess scared them away, huh?"

Jules fumbles to answer this. She should stick up for Stuart and his parents, yet she can’t deny that she thinks the same thing. Instead of replying, she tips her head and climbs back onto the seat of her bike, getting ready to push off. Carter's face screws into a reluctant smile as he picks up the trash can again.

"Hey," he calls out when she starts to pedal away. Jules looks over her shoulder and then turns her bike in a loop, stopping back closer in front of him. "I'm sorry about Tanya. She talked about you and Katie a lot."

"I...um, thanks." She blinks back tears. "Do you need some help? Cleaning up, I mean?"

"You don't want to help with this -."

Her mind made up, she steps off her bike. "Sure I do." Carter eyes her skeptically and she explains. "This is
my
town. I want to do something to help."

"Even if we're rivals?"

She laughs at that and props her bike on its kickstand. "Not anymore. Starting Monday, I'm a Rossview Knight, too."

"Really?"

"Yeah, really," she deadpans. She follows him into the now-empty store and surveys the space. All the merchandise and shelving has been removed, and there are some cans of paint lying in the corner.

"So, cheerleader," he drawls, and Jules is immediately reminded of West. "Can you paint?"

"Who do you think makes all those amazing spirit banners around the field and school on game days? We're smarter than you think, water boy."

He gives a low whistle out of his mouth and shakes his head. "Low blow, princess." Jules bursts out laughing and Carter joins in.

Twenty

Jules and Carter work for two hours lugging the last of the construction debris and broken glass to the dumpster before they finally pop open the cans of vibrant green paint.

Most of the time they work in silence; his speed metal playlist filling the air between them. She can’t help but study him whenever he isn’t looking her way…his tan skin, dark, almost black hair and light eyes. His body is in prime shape. Texas sure knows how to grow ‘em.

Once they are ready to paint, Carter throws a water bottle at her and finally turns his music down a notch.

"So the good thing is, we don't have to worry about splattering paint on the floor here." He points at the concrete floor below their feet and explains how the carpet installers will be there in the next few days to finish it off. "You can quit now if you'd want."

"No way. This is the part I've been waiting for," she teases as she takes a roller from his hand and covers it in paint.

"You're not going to start cheering, are you?"

"No, wise guy."

Jules lifts the roller and begins to cover the wall in the new cheerful green. It is funny how at ease she feels helping Carter out. They barely say a word once they start painting, and yet she doesn’t mind. It is nice having something to do and not needing to fill it with idle chat.

"Where's your mom? Why are you here all by yourself today, anyway?" Jules asks as she dips the roller in more paint.

"She'll be here soon. She was meeting with her insurance company again. So much red tape with all of this crap."

"How so?"

"Hell, I don't know. That’s just what she says," he replies with a shrug.

"Sorry it took so long, sweetie," a woman's voice calls out from the entrance. "I grabbed you lunch, though."

"Speak of the devil." Carter whistles and sets his roller to the side. Jules turns, her paint roller in mid-roll, to see Gail Cooper walking in carrying a deli bag in one hand and a handful of painting supplies in the other. Mrs. Cooper always seemed very refined when she saw her around town. She is several inches taller than Jules, with board-straight black hair that is always pulled up in a simple chignon.

"Oh!" She stops and eyes Jules almost warily. "I didn't know you'd enlisted help."

"Mom, this is Jules-"

"Blacklin. I know, honey," she interrupts with a smile. She places the supplies on the floor and the food on a table sitting in the corner. "This color looks fabulous. You're more than halfway done."

"Thanks to my assistant here," Carter acknowledges, and Jules feels her face flush.

"I told him cheerleaders were masters at painting, but he didn't believe me," she teases lightly.

"Yes, well thank you for helping. Why don't the two of you take a break, and I'll earn my keep for a while? I bought Carter more than enough for two, so he can share."

Jules is about to protest when he reaches around her and plucks the roller from her hands. "Come on. The warden says break, we break."

He throws her two bottled waters, grabs the deli bag and motions for her to follow him out the store front. The sound of buzz saws and hammering fills the town center as clean-up and restoration is underway. They cross the street and Carter lowers himself to sit on the curb next to where his car was parked.

Kenilsworth is a side street that branches off of Main Street, where most of the construction is taking place. Gail's is only two buildings down from Main, so when they cross over to eat, Jules is pleased to see they are at the corner of Main and Kenilsworth where she can watch all the action. Currently Main Street is closed from three blocks north of Kenilsworth and one block south, and the street is filled with dumpsters, power trucks and tree removal crews. Although the street is a mess, Jules’ heavy heart lifts as she looks around at all of the volunteers lending a hand.