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"OhOK," I said, feeling kind of eainst the wall I would just tell hi open He had changed into new clothes and was carrying his duffel bag in one hand He raised one eyebrow aton one corner of hisup onI sounded convincing "I have to go"

"There are two bathrooht the scent of freshly applied aftershave in the air His face did look smoother; his ‘stache was neatly trimmed

I quickly hopped in the bathrooood of a time as ever to examine my own face It was not pretty Unless you considered the living dead to be pretty I can say for certain that I did not My reflection was ghastly

I was so white that I could have been transparent Even my freckles, which norone as if they were hiding in fright The rated beneath my eyes My eyes lacked their usual sparkle; they looked lifeless and dull

And my neck was atrocious The bruises from the kelp, which did suspiciously look like hand prints, were a horrid mix of blue, purple and yelloould have to wear a turtleneck to to look like Yoko Ono atI hoped Frida wasn’t a Beatles fan

I sighed, then caught o I als that I couldn’t explain or even let myself think about

It just didn’t seeed I didn’t look any better, but Dex was in the car, waiting to leave I gave Uncle Al the biggest hug I couldhe did for me this weekend

He walked ently ondown as if he wasn’t sure how to continue "I know there’s ht More than anything I alad you are OK But if you ever want to talk about it to someone who understands, I’ave hiracious sh I knew I ht possibly phone him to discuss what happened, there was no way in hell I would return to the Oregon coast for a very, very long tiht air to Dex’s SUV It felt like ages ago that we had our heart-to-heart on the side of the road I say heart-to-heart because it was theabout hih I had so s I wanted to ask him, I didn’t kno

I opened the door Dex sat in the driver’s seat fiddling intently with his ca in the car and climbed in

"Is it OK?" I asked hopefully

He sucked in the corner of histhat the memory card will be fine"

"That’s the same that happened with my camera last week Lens cracked, but the memory card worked"

He nodded in a way that made me question whether he had actually heard me He tossed the camera behind him into the backseat as if it was completely worthless, put the car into drive and his foot to the pedal

Uncle Al’s house, the wild coast, and the wild nightmares disappeared behind us, sed by the darkness

We didn’t speak for about ten"Soht" very quietly fronant

I looked up at Dex, his face lightly aglow fro at him, but he kept his eyes on the road His eyes looked sad, or ?" I inquired, keeping my voice barely above a whisper

"Great," was his answer As usual, I couldn’t tell if he was being facetious or not Either way, I got the "don’t talk to ainst the , the reflections fro darkness seem abstract

I must have dozed off for awhile because when I caht shoulder

"You snore," Dex said

Sheepishly, I raised my head and wiped the drool off of me

"I drool too," I added I eyed the clock: two a day As I mulled over my plan to act noret the pro enthusiastic and agreeing with everything they said), Dex let out a sh

"I’m sorry," he said

I eyed hi," he continued when I didn’t speak "This wasn’t the way things were supposed to happen I rapes, as cool as that sounds"

I closed my eyes and leaned back "It’s not your fault"

"Yes It is h Ilife ahead of her and I drag you off to sohthouse I ?"

I could see flashes of remorse behind his eyes My heart ached, but just a little

"Obviously, o off to sohthouse with you," I reminded him quickly

"And you barely knowme "You don’t know me, and I don’t know you, and I convinced you this would be a fanfuckingtastic idea You alhtened up and leaned closer to him "You almost died too"

Dex shook his head "I just didn’t realize ere up against I’o up those stairs I know you wanted nothing et out of there, and I should have let you And then I should have followed you"

"If I really wanted to, I could have gotten past you"