Page 59 of Valley Girls
“I know. I know it’s hard to leave,” Mom said.
“I didn’t do anything. It was just a mistake. I’m done with Curtis,” Rilla said. “I’ll pay for the ticket home.”
“Rilla.” Mom sighed, long and heavy. “You can’t come home. Maybe in August? You’ve only been out there a month. Give it some time.”
She closed her eyes tight and tears rolled down her cheeks. The memory of the spring afternoon hit her chest. She hadn’t told anyone, but that hadn’t been their first fight. It was just a public one. It was good when it was good. To Rilla, it made sense the bad would be that bad. Everything had a price. “It wasn’t like you think. I hit him first.”
“Oh, Rilla. Don’t talk about it. Put it behind you.”
She didn’t want her mom to say that. She didn’t want to hear it was behind her, because it wasn’t. It was why she was here. Why she was alone. It was why she sat raw and open and bleeding. “I just ...”
“Roosevelt caught a squirrel the other day and brought it in the—” Mom began.
Rilla hung up and dropped the phone to the floor, rolling over and burying her face into the couch with her throat tight from strangled cries.
So, this was what it was to be alone.
She breathed into the cushions, trying to calm down. It’d been good with Curtis—it really had. And the whole fight had started because he’d wanted more from her. He cared for her.
She sat up and reached for her phone, pulse skyrocketing as she opened her Instagram DMs and sent one to Curtis.Hope everyone had fun at prom, she wrote, sending it before she could stop herself.
The reply came almost immediately.I didn’t go. Miss you.
She froze, heart stuck in overdrive, pumping a mixture of terror and longing. She started to type a reply when something thumped on the porch. Rilla dropped the phone, wiping her eyes in case it was the Staffords back already.
It came again—a dull thumping and ... snuffling? What was that? The wind? The Staffords?
She pushed off the couch and went to the door, cracking it open.
Under the dim porch light, a squarish black blob moved under the play water table, thumping it up and down.
Rilla peered closer. What was that? Someone’s dog? It sniffed like it had a cold. Then suddenly she realized.
A bear.
She closed the door, locked it, and stared at the wall. Shit!
The thumping continued. Now with added scratching sounds. Could a bear break in?
She looked at her phone and closed out of Instagram, Curtis forgotten. Hurriedly, she dialed Thea, ears straining for sounds of the bear.
It was quiet. Then. A loud, wet sniff came at her feet, just under the door.
Rilla squealed and jumped away.Shit, shit.
“Hello?” Thea answered.
“There’s a bear!” Rilla screeched. “What do I do?”
“What? Where are you?”
“The Staffords.” A long scratching sound came from the door. Rilla back against the far wall. “It’s at the door. Ah ...”
“Calm down. I’ll have someone come over and take care of it.”
“What do I do?”
“Just stay in the house. It’s probably scared by your squealing anyhow. It’s fine.”
