Underneath Read Online Free Page A

fuckin' frigid too. Must be your aftershave got you that itty bitty titty, shithead."
    Greer's Chevy rumbled to a halt a few feet away.
    Freddy glanced back over his shoulder, then looked from Dean to Stephanie.
    "Well folks, it's been fun. I hope you've enjoyed me as much as I've enjoyed you!"
    He turned and walked to the car, his boots crunching sand.
    With a whoop and a holler, Greer roared the engine and they were gone, the Chevy screeching around the corner onto the road behind the trees.
    Night closed in around the pier and there were only the waves, the clanging of the bell and the soft sigh of the breeze
     
    * * *
     
    "Stephanie?"
    He had brought her clothes, gripping them in a fist that wanted to tremble, to touch her, to help her, but when he offered them to her, she closed her eyes and didn't move.
    "Stephanie, he said if I asked you out, he'd quit picking on me. He scares the shit out of me and I'm tired of getting my ass kicked and creeping around worrying that he'll see me. So I agreed, like an idiot. I'm sorry. I really do like you, even if I wasn't sure before. I do like you and I'm so sorry this happened. I swear I didn't know."
    There was an interminable period of silence that stretched like taut wire between them, and then she opened her eyes.
    Dark.
    Fire.
    Slowly, she reached out and took the clothes from him.
    "Wait for me in the car, I don't want you looking at me," she said coldly, but not before her fingers brushed the air over his hand.
    "Okay," he said and rose.
    She stared, unmoving.
    "I am sorry," he told her and waited a heartbeat for a response.
    There was none. He made his way back to the car and stared straight ahead through the windshield at the endless dark sea, ignoring the sinuous flashes of white in the corner of his eye. Echoes of pain tore through his gut and he winced, wondering if something was broken, or burst.
    When the car door opened, his pulse quickened and he had to struggle not to look at her.
    "Drive me home," she said and put her hands in her lap, her hair, once so clean and fresh now knotted and speckled with sand and dirt, obscuring her face. "Now."
    And still the smell of lavender.
    He started the car and drove, a million thoughts racing through his mind but not one of them worthy of being spoken aloud.
    When they arrived at her house, the moon had moved and the stars seemed less bright than they'd been before. There were no voices, no basketballs whacking pavement, but the breeze had strengthened and tore at the white plastic bags impaled on the railings. Stephanie left him without a word, slamming the car door behind her. He watched her walk up the short stone path with her head bowed, until the darkness that seethed around the doorway consumed her.
    Still he waited, hoping a hand might resolve itself from that gloom to wave him goodbye, a gesture that would show him she didn't think he was to blame after all. But the darkness stayed unbroken, and after a few minutes, he drove home.
     
    * * *
     
    He awoke to sunlight streaming in his window and birds singing a chorus of confused melodies in the trees.
    A beautiful morning.
    Until he tried to sit up and pain cinched a hot metal band around his chest. He gasped in pain. Gasped again when the pain unlocked the memory of the night before, flooding his mind with dark images of a half-naked scared girl and maniacal giggling.
    The clanging of a bell.
    oh god
    He wished it had been a dream, a nightmare, but the pain forbade the illusion. Real. It had happened and the light of morning failed to burn away the cold shadow that clung to him as he recalled his cowardice.
    Jesus, I just sat there .
    When his mother opened the door and spoke, startling him, he exaggerated his discomfort enough to convince her to let him stay in bed. He endured her maternal worrying until she was satisfied he wasn't going to die on her watch, and then cocooned himself in the covers.
    When she was gone, he buried his face in the pillows and wept.
    I