The Beta

VII

*Faye*

Saturday morning came peacefully. The house was still and quiet. My dad was the rowdy one in my family, and since he'd been deployed, the house had been still for six months. Too still. The reminder of his absence made my heart ache. He would miss my graduation and eighteenth birthday. He wouldn't be back in time to help me move into my dorm at Tutor. I felt like he always missed the important transitions of my life.

    Pushing away the tears, I sat up in the bed and hugged my knees to my chest. I scanned my room, wall-t0-wall. How much of this stuff would I take to college? Most of my clothes would come, I assumed. But the animal posters and paintings? There were too many to take. My eyes drifted to the gap where one painting once hung.

    The piece of art had been a snowy, mountainous backdrop for the central element: a lone black wolf. My grandma had sent it to me for Christmas one year. I'd been obsessed with Alaska and wanting to go there, so she'd given it to me in the hopes of quenching my wanderlust. Although my wanderlust grew evermore, I loved the painting. Canines were among my favorite animals. At least, until my sister was attacked.

    I shivered and dropped my gaze. Why did my mind keep turning to the sad parts of my life? Maybe I'd just been alone for too long. I needed to get out of my head for awhile.

    My mom was brewing a pot of coffee in the kitchen when I shuffled in. A magazine was nestled in her arms while her hip rested against the kitchen counter. She appeared relaxed and in her zone. Unlike me, my mom was a morning person.

    "Morning, honey," she greeted, briefly lifting her eyes to smile at me. "How'd you sleep?"

    "Alright, I guess. I don't remember," I said while scavenging the pantry for cereal. "You?"

    "Pretty good, myself. I dreamed that we were all on a beach in the Bahamas."

    Pausing my search, I flashed her a teasing grin. "Maybe God is giving you a vision."

    She laughed. "Maybe! Your father is supposed to Skype me tonight, so I'll beg him to take us when he gets home."

    The idea seemed perfect, but I knew it wouldn't be that dreamy in actuality. Even if she somehow convinced him to take us on a cruise, I would be in college. Holidays would be my only opportunity to return, and my dad was too traditional to travel during Thanksgiving or Christmas.

    "Are you going out at all today?" she asked.

    "Um..." I turned away from the pantry, disappointed. No cereal. "I wasn't planning on it. You need me to run some errands?"

    "We're running low on groceries. I would go myself, but I've had a migraine all morning."

    "I can go. No problem."

    "You just want your cereal, don't you?" She was smirking at me over her magazine.

    "Maybe..." I wiggled my eyebrows at her.

    So I dressed in shorts and a tee and headed to the store, my mom's credit card and grocery list in hand. In general, I enjoyed grocery shopping. It was calming. No one rushed me. However, one of the downsides was seeing everybody I knew. Just another so-called perk of living in a small town. I didn't think it much of a perk. The last thing I wanted to do was talk to people while trying to focus on my list. Somehow the world always seemed to strike when I least wanted it to. And that was why I wasn't surprised when Rian Whitewater and I bumped into each other in the canned goods aisle.

    "Faye, hey!" he called with a grin.

    "Good morning, Rian," I greeted. "It's funny how we keep running into each other."

    He ran his fingers through his dark hair. "No kidding. How are you?"

    "Um, good, I think." I waved the grocery list around. "My mom sent me on a hunt."