In the Break Read Online Free Page A

the porch light. “Let
     me get a sweatshirt.”
    Jamie was in trouble. My best friend in big trouble, the sinking feeling right in my gut told me.
    Moments later we ran across the field over the hollows, underground trenches for storing World War II munitions. Sometimes
     kids would hang out at the hollows when they were avoiding their parents.
    A slight overcast blew in off the ocean, obscuring the half moon that washed the land in an eerie light. The smell of saltwater
     permeated the air, and Amber and I were huffing and puffing, but still, we ran toward the sea. It was just beyond the marsh,
     beyond the four-lane highway that skirted the beach and went all the way to the pier, all the way to Mexico.
    “Wait,” Amber said. She leaned over, panting.
    “You okay?” I said.
    Her braid fell over her head, almost hitting the ground. She stood upright, gave me a sad smile, and pushed me. “Yeah. F was
     drunk, Juan. Drunk! And yelling at all of us. Jamie stood up to him and kicked his ass. He hurt him. F’s hurt, I mean really
     hurt.”
    “Let’s go!” We took off again.
    After we’d made it through the strawberry field and through the cornfield we slowed to climb down the small sandstone cliff
     that would put us on the marsh. The cornstalks rustled in the night breeze, and it was as if you could hear the tidal movement
     through the marsh — the tide would recede for another hour. There was nothing to do but wade through the muck, which sucked
     at our feet as we trudged on. Soon the water was up to our knees, then our waists, and at this point you could really feel
     the tidal current wanting to take you out to sea.
    “He’s got a gun at the house. He said he’d kill Jamie.” Amber huffed long, deep breaths as we stopped again.
    My family was probably the only one in the nation not to have an arsenal of firepower at our disposal in our house. In fact,
     my family was totally old school. I couldn’t have piercings, tattoos, iced hair, cell, and my brother married his girlfriend
     just because she was pregnant. My father told my brother that he was doing the right thing. I thought he was a chump, even
     though I liked Bonnie.
    “If F was drinking, maybe he’ll cool down,” I said after thinking about it.
    “F’s messed up. He was, like, convulsing on the floor.”
    Soon we slogged through the shallow marshy part in front of the Coast Highway, and stopped before crossing. This was potentially
     dangerous because if cops were looking for Jamie and saw us crossing, then they could get to him.
    “I don’t know if we should both go at once or separately,” I said to Amber.
    She knew what I referred to because she said with no hesitation, “At the same time. Otherwise there’d be two chances to see
     us.”
    She was right, of course, and I wondered why I wasn’t thinking so clearly. Fact of the matter was, I was scared. At first
     I thought I was only scared for Jamie. Then I knew my fear was for Amber as well. Now, this minute, as I prepared to cross
     the Coast Highway, I knew that I was also scared for myself. What if F had his gun and was coming for Jamie? I didn’t want
     to die by gunshot, I wanted to drown in huge waves. Waves that were totally out of control. Fucking chaos!
    As we caught our breath I thought about F. He didn’t like me anymore. At first he seemed to, but more recently he’d try to
     bait me into arguing with him, and had even used a racial slur to intimidateme. I knew that if he ever went too far, I’d tell my father, and my father would stand up to the dick, kick the royal shit
     out of him, should it come to that. But now my father wasn’t around. Besides, Jamie had already kicked his ass.
    “Well,” I said, “we’d better get to it.”
    “Let’s wait for a good break,” Amber said.
    When it came we sprinted across the highway and then lay in the sand off the road, not far from the asphalt. A few cars whizzed
     by, nothing out of the ordinary. After a time of