Chloe

Chapter 5 - The Fire

The waves continued to roll in repeatedly crushing beautiful seashells into crumbles. The tide rose and left again while I sat and watched the sun set. What a beautiful thing to experience. Each day was like a birth and took me further away from the nightmares of Germany. Maybe like the ocean, my soul will be recycled into someone I could be proud of.  Until then I will continue my path of mediocrity. - Chloe’s diary

Chapter 5

The Fire 

  Late that night her aunt came home smiling and wonderfully crisp. She always looked perfect, like the sand dollar. A sharp pain hit Chloe’s heart; she mourned her lost sand dollar. If it had survived the impact she was sure someone would have stepped on it by now.  Oh, how she wished she had been brave enough to at least look for it before running off. It would have made a nice addition to the shoebox in her closet.

   “Here’s the thing,” her aunt spoke, “I was going to go to the grocery store and pick up all these items on this list you made here,” she held up the list formerly stuck to Chloe’s face and waved it about, “but I am not a grocery shopper. It is hard for me to admit but I have a major deficit in cooking and everything related!”

Chloe smiled, for once not surprised. 

Aunt continued, “Obviously you have some infinity for cooking so this is what I have done.”  She paused for dramatic affect making Chloe’s grin grow. 

   “I went down to the local community grocery store, it is around the corner, and set up a credit line for you to buy your list and whatever necessities you may need.” Aunt waved her hand in an arch.

  “You may have noticed there is a very dusty unused golf cart down below and you are welcome to drive it, wherever.” There went that hand again. Claire always talked with her hands.

   When Claire stopped talking Chloe switched her focus from her aunt’s flying hands to find her with an expectant expression. Chloe looked around the room not sure how to reply, and then she simply said, “Okay,” with a shrug and a slight smile to show her she was pleased, and she was. She would get to finally cook again and that was cool.

   Aunt turned on her heel toward her bedroom, “I’m heading out tonight. Shindig thing for the little brats,” Chloe watched her disappear then happily walked back to the living room to read a book. It was nice not having to hide in her room anymore, or to cower in a corner trying to disappear.

  After her aunt left and a few hours later, she became restless. The book she was reading had a poor plot and she had already read it twice.  Plus she was used to doing something. On the farm she had so many chores that by the time she stopped, she’d fall asleep. In Germany she tried to stay away from the apartment until it got too uncomfortable outside and every place she could find closed. Once inside the dank apartment, she would lock herself in her room and force herself to sleep. In other words, she worked hard to disappear. Here, however, she didn’t have anything to do, and, well, she felt…lost.

  She set her book down and got up to snoop around for a few minutes. After opening a few cabinets, she was elated when she found a stereo. A few tries later she found a station that played dance music. Cranking it up she began to dance.  She wasn’t very good at it, but what she lacked in style, she made up with enthusiasm. 

   Instantly, the music took her to a time in Germany, a rare time that was actually pleasant. She closed her eyes as she danced and remembered that night.  

The door to the apartment was locked. Her parents refused to give her a key. She stood in front of the locked door trying not to have a panic attack.  When she looked down to stop from crying, she noticed a note was slid halfway out from the bottom of the door. She picked it up and read the tiny script of her father:

Make yourself scarce till midnight.

Assured that she still had a place to live, she walked aimlessly through the dark streets of Germany, the only destination in mind was someplace open and warm. 

Eventually she found her way to a club that the methodical beat had drawn her in. No one questioned why a 16 year old was in a dance club, and she ended up dancing until she was numb.  She didn’t go home until the sun began to come up and the club closed. It was a good night. It was almost worth the beating she received for waking her parents when she entered the apartment that morning. 

 Her eyes still closed, she gyrated rhythmically around the living room to the thump of the music when a load clearing of a throat followed with a, “Hello!” jerked her from her music-induced trance.

She frantically swung around to see the guy from the beach standing in her living room. Fear had her heart beating wildly.  Oh God, please don’t let him hurt me, she prayed silently. She looked wildly about and noticed he had brought friends, too. There were three girls and one other guy all with the same amused looks on their faces. 

Her face turned hot.

Her mouth was dry with humiliation and fear.

   “I came by to apologize for earlier and to give you this.” The guy, her Adonis, held out the sand dollar she had dropped. It was still perfect, still a creamy white and wonderful, but more importantly it had survived. She couldn’t believe it as she stared at it. It had to be a sign.

  She took a couple cautious steps toward him and tentatively took the sand dollar from his hand and admired it.  She felt a small smile pull her lips upward. She turned it over, it had survived.  Not raising her eyes from the sand dollar she mumbled, “Thank you, I thought it was gone.” 

She turned away to put the sand dollar carefully on the glass-topped table in the kitchen. She would put it in her box after they left.

  Returning back toward her visitors she forced herself to look up and try to meet his eyes but only made it as far as his chin. After all, he was very tall and besides she couldn’t bear to see the judgment she was sure to find lurking in his eyes.  He held out his hand and introduced himself, “I am Christoph.”  She took his hand and squeezed. 

“I’m Chloe,” she dropped his hand quickly. Her eyes averted from Christoph’s chin to a gorgeous redhead girl who shifted to his left. 

 “I’m Sandra.” Sandra was as tall as her and looked as young as her, but that is where the similarities ended. Sandra was easily described with one word, beautiful. Her eyes held a worldly intelligence that Chloe had never seen anyone her age carry. She was glamorous, poised, and oddly friendly. 

Sandra smiled, “I told Christoph he was an extreme ass to you. You weren’t the only one who wasn’t watching where they were going!” She swatted Christoph’s arm and that was all it took for Chloe to instantly like her. 

   Another very tall, very muscular guy came around and held out his hand, “I’m Duke.” He reminded her of the cartoon Marmaduke. He was huge but very handsome in a gooey brownie kind of way. His chocolate hair was the exact same color of his large puppy dog eyes that shined with a kindness and understanding.  Even though he was huge, he didn’t intimidate her. In fact, he was very appealing.

   Another girl came forward but did not extend her hand, she simply said, “Christine.” 

Chloe tensed. The statuesque blonde was exactly the type of person who would give her a hard time in high school. Chloe wanted to avoid her at all costs.  Christine was probably head cheerleader at their school and couldn’t believe Christoph was wasting his time with such a loser like her. Thankfully after she said her name the other girl beside her introduced herself as Penelope. 

Penelope had the most beautiful head of almost black hair that fell way past her shoulders in huge waves. It shined in the dull artificial light changing colors from black, to blue, to brown, to an auburn color. She had full ripe red lips that reminded her of the underwear models on billboards at the airport. But even though Penelope looked like she eluded s*x and seduction, her eyes showed something more, an intelligence not normally associated with someone so beautiful. They all seemed very mature.

   When she thought everyone was finished with the introductions she started to turn around and sit down but another guy emerged out of the shadows. He wasn’t quite into the light when he said,

“Hallo,” in a British accent.  When he did fully emerge in the light she was overcome. He was tall, over six feet, with a well-built body that was slender without looking awkward.  He had midnight black hair but it was his eyes, the most shocking blue eyes she had ever seen that captivated her. They pierced her soul and sent shockwaves down to her toes.  The other guys were gorgeous, but this guy, there were no words to describe his appeal. 

Her entire body tensed immediately and she became very conscious of herself. She felt gangly, gross, and ridiculous. He, on the other hand, eluded class, education, and money. He was refined and she was fresh from CPS. 

   “I am Edwin Corbin,” he said as he held out his hand. She laughed abruptly and inappropriately then blushed. He looked perplexed and dropped his hand.

   “I’m sorry,” Chloe said desperately trying to stop laughing, “It’s just your name…it, uhhh, it shocked me. You see Edwin was the name of my old horse. He was such a homely fellow that I wanted to give him a dignified name.”

She noticed her laugh had a twinge of hysteria because this guy FIT his name! Really, what were the odds of the most gorgeous guy she had ever seen have the same name as her old horse?

Her own amusement abruptly stopped when she noticed that everyone was laughing too. She didn’t think they would find her horse and Edwin shared a name funny, so they must be laughing at her. Her chin dropped to her chest.  They probably just discovered that she was such a hopeless loser that they couldn’t believe they took the time to talk to her at all.

Christoph came closer to her and softly patted her back. She stiffened. “Oh you’re priceless. Edwin takes himself far too seriously and here you call him a homely horse!” She shot a glance toward Christoph.

   “Oh, I didn’t call him a horse!” she defended but no one listened. They were too busy laughing. 

Edwin, however, looked intensely at her. It was as if he was inspecting an insect he just found on the bottom of his shoe. 

Oh, please let the floor open and swallow me, she prayed.

   Sandra stepped closer to Edwin, sparing a peculiar look at him then suggested to her, “Please join us at the fire. It is nothing exciting just something we do to unwind.” 

Her eyes snapped from Edwin to Sandra. So they were the people she had been watching at night, how very interesting. She looked at them all closely again, even more curious. Before she could answer they practically dragged her out of the cottage toward the fire that was already blazing.