just assume I was free tomorrow at 7? I wasn’t. And I knew his freaking address. His apartment was ingrained in my head, no matter how hard I tried to forget. The last place I ever saw Brooklyn. Her crying in the foyer. I’d left her alone with that monster. My stomach turned.
Tanner leaned over to see some of the previous messages. “Today’s message is different than the others. Apparently now it’s urgent.”
“Everything with Mr. Pruitt is urgent.”
Tanner laughed. “Why do you still call him Mr. Pruitt?”
Tanner was weird about titles. It was respectful to call someone Mr. or Mrs. that was older than you. Especially someone that I grew up around. I’d never heard Tanner call anyone Mr. or Mrs. even if they were 50 years older than him. “I just always have,” I said. I hadn’t spoken to Mr. Pruitt since the funeral. He’d let me take a few of Brooklyn’s things. And that was it. He was going to be my father-in-law. And now I wanted nothing to do with him. Because as much as I blamed myself for what happened to Brooklyn? He was the real reason she was dead. And even though Brooklyn was his daughter, I was the only one that seemed to care that she was gone. Mr. Pruitt could go to hell.
“Want me to set his car on fire or something?” Tanner asked without a hint of humor in his voice.
I laughed even though he definitely seemed serious. Car fires sounded a lot more like something Mr. Pruitt would do. And I didn’t want to stoop to his level. “Maybe some other time.”
Tanner shrugged. “Just let me know. In the meantime, maybe you should change your number again.”
I’d changed my number five times. The messages still came. Mr. Pruitt was officially stalking me. “I’ll just ignore it.”
“You can’t ignore it if you get this shaken every time he texts you,” said Tanner. “Living life in fear is no way to live.”
“I’m not living my life in fear. And I’m not shaken.”
“Whatever you want to call it. These messages clearly get under your skin. And if I’ve learned anything in my time on this earth, harboring resentment is no way to live.”
His grand proclamation was a little shaky since he was a few years younger than me. “It’s not just his text that’s bothering me.” I stared down at the glass the bartender had just placed in front of me. “I thought I saw her again.” I didn’t tell him that I almost got in an accident because of it.
Tanner winced. “I’m sorry, man. Did that thing happen again? Where it was hard to breathe?”
I nodded and lifted the glass. “I hate the autumn.” All the memories came flooding back every fall. It was like she was still here.
“It’ll get better. The memories. They won’t feel so painful soon. One day you’ll be able to appreciate the way the fall reminds you of her.”
That was another reason why it was so easy to talk about Brooklyn with Tanner. A girl that he was dating died when he was pretty young too. He didn’t grow up around here. All I knew was that it had something to do with an arranged marriage. His parents were old fashioned or from a different country or something. He never gave me all the details. But I saw the ghosts in his eyes too. It was fine that he didn’t want to talk about it. Sometimes I didn’t want to talk about Brooklyn either.
“You’re sure you shouldn’t see a doctor about that?” he asked. “The trouble breathing thing?”
It was nice to have one person in my life other than my mother that was concerned about me. But I had a handle on this. “I’m not going to see a doctor about having panic attacks caused by visions of my dead girlfriend. They’d lock me up.” Besides, I knew how to make them pass. Brooklyn had taught me how to help her breathe when she used to get panic attacks. Now I could help myself. I didn’t need anyone’s help.
“They won’t lock you up.” Tanner took a sip of his drink and stared straight ahead, lost in thought. “So…did you hang out with Penny tonight before texting me?”
“How did you know that?”
“You always run to Penny when you’re sad. And to me after because you feel guilty about hanging out with her.”
Fair enough. I sighed. “Yeah. I did.”
Tanner’s eyes lit up. “Don’t tell me…you finally got the balls to