I looked up to see the door of #4 swing wildly open. And as Mr. Franks and his mistress entered, (but didn't cross) the threshold, my friend raised her camera. She deftly snapped a few pictures of the couple's seemingly passionate embrace. Mr. Franks had one hand tightly gripped on Claire's ass, while her own hands were wrapped loosely about his neck.
And then, it was over. Mr. Franks withdrew, and slipped back into the room, while Claire crossed the parking lot, back to her dusty vehicle. But even from this distance, I could see a hard glint of anger in her dark eyes - an anger that was also tinged with shame and abhorrence. Claire didn't love this man. She hated Franks.
Addy lowered the camera and we both shrank into the depths of our seats as the yellow lights of Claire's car flashed quickly past us. And we didn't sit up again until her red taillights were far into the distance. Only then, after several more hushed seconds of precautionary silence, did my friend break the peace with a loud whoop of joy. She started the car and we shot forward into the street, tires squealing.
"Do you think we're doing the right thing?" I said, looking back, with consideration, at the shrinking door of #4.
"Um, word of advice, babe?" Addy replied, checking her eye liner in the mirror. "When you live in Harbor, you don't ask if what you're doing is right. It'll only weaken you."
And as much as I disliked hearing it, I knew that Addy was right. I couldn't have a conscience for the things I needed to do.
It would only get in the way.
* * *
YOU ARE READING
The Rules of the Red - 2014 Watty Award Winner |✓|
Werewolf*2014 WATTY AWARD WINNER* In order to solve the mystery surrounding her father's death, eighteen-year-old Naomi Noble is forced to move back to her hometown of Harbor Village. But her arrival creates more questions than answers, not to mention more...
