Chapter 12

Hannah pulled into her driveway after a long morning of completing job applications. She’d applied for a job everywhere from retail to burger shacks, she was determined to find another, refusing to sit around all summer doing nothing.

“Hey, how’d the job search go?” Hannah’s mother asked looking up from her lunch.

“All right, I hope.”

“Well just remember how important this job is to us Hannah. You know we need every bit of money we can find, and your little incident in your car last night isn’t gonna help anything. Tires aren’t cheap you know.”

“I know mom! I applied for jobs all over the city, what more do you want from me?” Hannah yelled.

“Well maybe if you thought to do your job as a waitress you wouldn’t be in this mess.” The woman glared at Hannah.

“I can’t take this. I just can’t take this. I’ll be back later.” Hannah grabbed her purse and went back to her car. With everything that was going on in her life certainly the last thing she needed as an argument with her mother. It had been many weeks since her father’s death, but it seemed like her mom was just getting worse. Upon his death, Hannah’s mother was unusually calm and collected, but now she dwindles her evenings away with the bottle. Hannah knew there was a problem, but refused to come to terms with it. Instead of helping her mother cope with her father’s death, Hannah just cleaned up the empty bottles from around the house and bleached the vomit stained towels.

* * * *


After Nick returned home from his encounters with Hannah, Nick had decided it was time to make some changes around the house. So first thing in the morning Nick went to the hardware store and stocked up on paint. He needed a project, and fixing up his house was just the thing to do. His pugs wrestled each other on the floor as he was busy at work painting the den.

Singing along to Journey tunes, for the first time since that night on the beach Nick was able to forget about Hannah, or at least for the most part. The phone rang and it was AJ calling to ask how his night had gone.

“Didn’t you have plans with some girl?” AJ questioned.

“Oh yea. That went well. I got the poor thing fired from her job for serving me alcohol.”

“Ouch, that had to suck.”

“Ha, not nearly as much as when I was a complete jerk about the thing, then almost crashed into her car, and later had the nerve to call her cynical,” Nick laughed to himself when he thought about the night.

“Sounds like the date from hell. Don’t think you’ll be seeing her anytime soon.”

“Oh no, we’re totally cool. On my way home I saw her on the side of the road with a flat and helped her change the tire. We set everything straight.”

“You know, sometimes you’re just too lucky man. Who else does that sorta thing happen to?”

“Haha, yea, it was kinda a trip. But she’s a cool girl. I like her a lot. She’s got some issues to deal with, but she’s got a real spark to her. She won’t take shit from anyone, and I like that,” gushed Nick.

“Oooo, a sassy sister! Dude you got me, I’m dying to meet her. When will I get to see Miss Thang?”

“Hopefully soon. I’m planning to give her a call sometime later tonight.”

“Great! Set a date for a cookout or something. Me and the boys will come see you for a change.”

“All right, I’ll run that by her.” The two wrapped up their conversation and Nick returned to his painting. Once the room was finished he opted to take a walk along the beach to cool off. He was hot from working all morning and the cool ocean breeze would be the perfect cure.

* * * *


Cautiously Hannah stepped into the waves. She hadn’t been in the ocean in so long, she almost forgot what it felt like. In her innertube Hannah sunk down into the water and put her head back. Staring at the sky a brush of complete relaxation came over her. ‘You know I could get used to this. Nick’s right, I do work way too much.’

* * * *


Seagulls flew overhead as Nick made his way down the beach. It was such a lovely day out. Hot, but with the perfect breeze so it wasn’t unbearable. He ran his hand through his sweat soaked hair. ‘Wow, I’m sweatier than I thought’ he said to himself. Almost like second nature stripped down to just his shorts and dove into the ocean. His arms circled and circled as he swam hard through the water. It felt so good.

* * * *


Hannah walked up the beach to her towel and stretched out under the sun. The warmth of the rays soaking into her skin calmed her and it wasn’t long before she dozed off.

* * * *


“Where the hell am I?” Nick thought as he walked onto the shore. “I must of swam too far away from home.” Too tired to walk back Nick found a spare chair and sat down to dry off. As he scanned the people Nick saw Hannah laying on a towel about 50 feet away. For a moment he sat there watching her chest rise and fall so peacefully. “She must have fallen asleep. None the less, I should say hello to her.”

* * * *


The shadow coming acrossed her woke Hannah from her light sleep. “So we meet again,” a familiar voice spoke to her.

Hannah opened her eyes and smiled, “What are you doing here? I thought you would have some sort of private beach.”

“Oh I do, it’s down a ways. I swam a little too far I guess. Mind if I join you before I walk back?”

“Not at all. I have a spare towel if you’d like to dry off a little.”

“Thanks, that’d be great.” Hannah handed Nick the towel and examined him closely as he patted down his body.

“Nice day to come to the beach,” Nick commented. “See I told you relaxation is a nice thing.”

“Ahhh, you were right,” Hannah sighed.

“So how’d your mom take it when you told her about last night?”

“You mean the job or the tire?” Hannah asked.

Nick laughed, “Both I guess.”

“Well she was pretty upset about it, but not too mad. Of course she had me go out first thing this morning to put in my applications. But what else would I expect? And as for the tire, I guess pretty much the same.”

“You really had yourself one heck of a night last night. You got fired, almost got involved in a car crash, and got a flat.”

“Oh you’re forgetting the most important thing of all.”

“Oh and what’s that?” Nick asked.

“Being chased by a Backstreet Boy,” she teased.

“Yea, I bet there are plenty of girls out there that wouldn’t of minded a little chase.”

The two laughed and sat together in silence, enjoying the ocean. “Hey, say, do you think you’re up to going out tonight? You know, to make up for the one you had yesterday,” Nick finally managed to ask.

“Uhhh, I don’t know. What did you have in mind?”

“Oh, whatever you want. Doesn’t matter. Maybe we could go dancing or something. That’s always fun.”

Expecting that she’d come up with some excuse Nick lined up ways to persuade her. She needed a night out, bad. “You’ve seen me dance in music videos and stuff, but girl you’ve got to see me on the dancefloor.”

“Haha, alright,” Hannah accepted.

“Alright! Looks like we’re gonna hit the town tonight!” Nick and Hannah finalized their plans for the night and instead of walking back to his house Hannah gave him a ride. She was astonished by the size of his house, she’d never seen anything so large and beautiful.

“Ok then. Thanks for the ride. I’ll be seeing you at 9 o’clock sharp, your house.”

“Till then!” Hannah smiled, waved, and drove away to the mall. She had to find something to wear...and fast.

Chapter 13
Crossing Paths Main
Homepage