Aggro - CoraLee June Page 0,94

have to say Violet’s name for me to know that’s who he was talking about. She would purposefully ignore him for weeks at a time if she felt he’d wronged her. I didn’t want to be like that.

“Deal.” This was a good conversation. Kai and I had been living in a fairy tale, just excited to be together. As we grew, we needed to explore the boundaries and preferences of one another. I wanted a partnership. I wanted us to work.

We pulled up to the surf shop, and Kai unbuckled before sliding over to me. Within seconds, he was yanking me closer for a kiss. He tasted like birthday cake and cigarettes. Our tongues fought as he cupped my breast. I breathed him in and moaned against his lips. Our teeth clashed. It was a kiss that felt like our fight—angry, consuming, and powerful. I got lost in the sensations of his body against mine. I was ready to straddle him when a loud knock on the window made us break apart.

Chase was standing there with a shit-eating grin on his face. I adjusted my shirt, and Kai angrily turned off the truck. When we both got out, Chase spoke up. “Consider us even, Honeybum.”

I blushed. “What do you mean?”

“You got a show, now I got one.”

I could have throttled him, but Kai beat me to it. Kai gripped the collar of Chase’s shirt and stared him down. “Next time, close your eyes. Only person that gets to see Breeze like that is me, got it?”

Chase smirked, like Kai’s display was amusing to him. “Heard you loud and clear.”

Kai let him go, and the three of us went to the front door, but surprisingly the shop was locked. I looked in the window and noticed that all the lights were off. It was already ten o’clock. Dad usually opened the shop at nine. “What the fuck?” I dug around in my purse for the keys and opened the shop.

“Dad?” I called out as Kai turned on the lights and Chase locked the door. “He’s not here. That’s weird.”

Kai and Chase exchanged a look. I’d tried not to focus on my absent father over the last few weeks, but this was something new entirely. The shop was his baby. I’d just figured he’d been here. Something was wrong. “Maybe he’s sick?” Chase offered. “Try calling him.”

I pulled out my cell and noticed that Mom had already sent me twenty happy birthday memes. She was at work, but I smiled at the gesture. There was nothing from Dad. My heart dropped as I pulled up his name in my contact list and hit dial. It rang and rang and rang. When it went to voicemail, I left a brief message. “Dad? I’m at the shop, and you aren’t here. Call me back.”

Kai started looking around, and Chase made his way back to the office. “Maybe he’s asleep?” my friend offered before disappearing. I turned to Kai.

“Have you heard anything about my dad from Lex?” I asked.

Kai ran his hand over a display of hula girl figurines. “Nope. Nothing. Lex is being purposefully obtuse about it all.”

I heard movement in the office and then a loud curse. Kai and I fast walked over to Dad’s office and paused in the doorway when we saw Chase. His back was to us, but I could see the way his muscles flexed. His shoulders were rolled back and stiff. His entire body seemed to tremble.

“Chase?” I asked. “Are you okay?”

My best friend slowly turned around to face us, with something clutched in his palm. “Breeze,” he whispered with tears in his eyes. “Why does your father have Violet’s phone?”

There was no denying that the phone in Chase’s hand was Violet’s. I would recognize that sparkly purple case anywhere. My head was spinning. My dad knew that the police were looking for her phone. If he found it, why didn’t he turn it in? Why was it in his office?

“It’s dead,” Chase said, still staring at the non-responsive phone in his hand.

I scrambled for a charger. I knew I had one here at the shop specifically for Violet; she was always letting her battery run out. I finally found it hidden in one of the drawers and jammed it into the wall. Chase’s hands were shaking too badly to plug the cord into the phone. Kai took over, gently taking the phone from Chase and plugging the skinny cable into the port.

We all stared, holding our collective