I learned he had gone to junior college and hated it, then worked in construction. All along, he’d played guitar, sometimes being part of one temporary band or another. They didn’t play a lot of gigs, and things always fell apart when somebody wouldn’t practice, or somebody got a girlfriend who took too much time. But something else always came along.
He found out I had started coloring my hair in high school because some fool boy called my eyes “the most boring color ever stuck on a girl.” My nickname became BW for black and white.
My mother, worried because I had become this sulky sad girl who holed up in her room with punk music, moved across town to a more liberal school without a dress code so I could change my hair and wear whatever I wanted.
He was impressed that she was willing to do that for me.
We wound up at the house where he’d lived before he left town that night. Redmond was there, and Pete. The short guy, Ace, who clearly didn’t care for Chance, took off to go drinking with friends.
Redmond and Pete brought a bunch of beer out and plunked it on the scratched-up coffee table. When Redmond tried to hand me one, I waved it away. Then when Chance did the same, Redmond shook his head. “What’s happened to everybody?”
Pete popped the top off his bottle with his boot. “They decided not to go down our highway to hell,” he said.
I could tell Chance used to talk and act just like these boys. But he’d changed. I tried to imagine leaving everything behind and striking out with nothing but your guitar and some songs in your head. I couldn’t see it.
“So what’s your plan, bro?” Redmond asked Chance. “You want me to kick out Pete so you can have your room back?”
“Nah,” Chance said. “I haven’t decided if I’m staying.”
Redmond aimed his bottle at me. “You see what an indecisive loser this guy is? Run, girl. Run fast.”
I smiled at them. I was waiting on Chance to decide things myself. I wasn’t sure I wanted to move to Tennessee after graduation, since I had a job and help with the baby in San Diego. But I remembered what my mom told me before I left. Babies take a long time to arrive. I had time to figure it out.
“I’m going to grab some more of my things,” Chance said. “You want to hang here with these delinquents a sec?”
“Sure,” I said. I guessed this meant he was going to leave with me again. I tried to suppress my hope that we’d work something out together, but it wouldn’t let go. This was no fairy-tale situation, but I could still see the pretty version of the picture, a baby in a pink crib with ruffles all around, me standing over, and Chance playing his guitar and singing her to sleep.
“So whatcha do over there in Cali?” Pete asked.
“I’m about to finish my degree,” I said.
“Job market is crap for most things,” Pete said.
“I have a few connections,” I said. “I think I’ll get by.”
“Like that movie director dude?” Pete asked.
Redmond nudged him.
“What?” Pete elbowed him back. “I can’t ask questions before this girl runs off with our sensitive boy again?” He laughed.
I didn’t really want to tell anybody else about Frankie, so I just kept quiet. If these guys thought I was some sort of Hollywood whore, so be it.
“Have you met a lot of famous people?” Redmond asked.
“Sure,” I said. I rattled off a long list of names.
“Whooee,” Pete said. “If I went to Cali, you think you could get me into one of those parties?”
I didn’t bother to answer that. People dragging in gawkers was a source of annoyance for the industry people who attended the premieres and after-parties.
Chance popped back in the living room, and I couldn’t be more relieved to see him. He had a duffel bag that looked to be pretty stuffed. This also made me feel better.
“Ready?” he asked.
I could not jump up from my chair fast enough.
“Aww, man, you just got here,” Pete said. “I was worming my way into an invitation to a Hollywood party.”
“In your dreams, man,” Chance said. He took my hand. “Let’s go.”
“Hey, before you go,” Redmond said. “You might want to check your messages. You haven’t answered any of mine since last night.” He looked at Chance pointedly. “But Charlie’s been trying to get you. She finally bit the bullet and wrote me to track you down.”
Chance frowned. “Is something going on?”
“Wouldn’t say. Probably just wants to bitch at you some more.”
Chance tugged me toward the door. “Thanks.”
“Your funeral,” he said, then realized what he’d said and frowned.
We went outside and loaded into Chance’s truck. He pulled his phone out. “I didn’t want to talk to anybody, so I ignored it all,” he said.
I hadn’t paid a lot of attention to mine either, although I had sent a message to Corabelle that I was okay and one to Mom saying I had found Chance. Whatever follow-up questions they might have had, I ignored.
“What is it?” I asked, a hollow feeling in my chest.
“Apparently some infection is going around the facility where Hannah is,” he said.
“Charlie mentioned that yesterday. She made us wash our hands and put on masks.”
Chance’s face was grim in the glow of the light of his screen. “Hannah is spiking fevers. They think she has it.”