HEARTBURN - EXCERPT
The evening’s summer skyline threatened rain nearly as much as Rebecca’s cloudy mood. Alex wondered which one might break into storm first.
“Are you going to be gloomy all night?”
Rebecca didn’t answer. Instead, she continued to gaze through the windshield as the city of Ipswich, Massachusetts unfolded before them. Her face appeared to have darkened with his question.
“You kept telling me we should do more things with our friends.”
Alex thought she might not answer again, but after a few moments she said, “This guy’s not our friend, he’s yours. I mean, how well do you even know this guy?”
Alex sighed. He’d been telling Rebecca about Mattie for weeks, but as he’d suspected, she hadn’t really been listening.
“We talk everyday. He’s funny as hell.”
“And you just happened to mention to him that we do drugs?”
The scowl on Rebecca’s face deepened and Alex realized where the root of her anger was coming from.
“That’s what you’re pissed about?” He asked quietly, his voice as even as he could keep it.
“I suppose it is,” she answered, the scowl backing down a touch. Not much, just a little.
“We just happened to get on the subject and I talked about one of the nights we did shrooms. No big deal. We had a good laugh and he invited us over to partake of his stash. I mean, you can’t deny that you’d like to do them again.”
Rebecca laughed, the sound seemed strange in the otherwise ominous mood of the car. Alex glanced at her to see if she was being cruel, but the earlier darkness he’d seen in her face seemed to have cleared.
“Of course I’d like to do them again! That was fun. It’s just, I guess I get uncomfortable when you tell people about us doing that kind of thing.”
That kind of thing.
Rebecca had grown up in a very strict Catholic environment, where just about everything fun was bad for your immortal soul. Everything from sex to a glass of wine with dinner was termed that kind of thing.
