BRIDGER Read Free

more than you think. It means we need to have a talk. You and I. You need to start listening to the things I’ve been telling you.”
    “You never tell me anything but one more of your Irish legends. I’m not interested in –” I wanted to continue, but at that moment the phone went off.  Reading the text, a smug grin came over my face. “Jamie can go to Ireland.  We just need to call the airline and change the name on the ticket.”
    Memaw was as white as the sheets on the bed.  “Ashlyn, don’t.”
    “Why not?  Will I kill Jamie by accident?  Snap the plane in half?  Shoot fireballs from my eyes?”
    “Just…don’t.  You’re a –”
    “I’m a what?  A girl who overreacted after watching her dad die?  That’d be right.  A freak? If so, it doesn’t change the fact that Jamie’s my best friend and we’re going to Ireland next week.”
    With that, I stormed up the stairs, leaving Memaw to fend for herself.
    Mom was standing at the top.  She must have been eavesdropping.  “Ashlyn, you’re not a freak.”
    I grabbed my coat and headed for the door.
    Mom started again. “Where do you think you’re going?”
    “To see Reese.”  I slammed the door before she could respond.

    * * *

    Reese opened the front door before I could even knock.  There was worry etched in every line of his face.  “Hey, Ash.  Shouldn’t you be with –”
    “No, I shouldn’t.”
    “Ah. Okay.”  He opened the door wide and gestured in, asking no other questions.
    We went to his room, where Jamie was sprawled across his disgusting, faux leather couch.  He’d “rescued” the thing from someone’s yard down the street this summer.  Jamie couch surfed between friends’ houses, so tonight must be Reese’s turn.  She was always staying with someone, as her house was usually empty and devoid of food. Bobbing her head, she kept time with the music we couldn’t hear.  Pulling one ear bud out, she smiled.  She was never very good with being sensitive to a situation.  “Hey, Sis. How are you holding up?”
    I shrugged.  “Not great.”
    Reese grabbed my hips and pulled us onto his full-sized bed.  He was my best friend besides Jamie, but he thought it was more.  It wasn’t.  Today I didn’t have the energy to fight the blurred lines he’d created.  He pulled me close, and I was thankful for the comfort he brought.  “Let’s hear it,” he said.
    “Remember Bounty Line Blood?  The movie we snuck into last week?”
    Reese laughed.  “Yeah, we all do.  It was crap.”
    Jamie nodded.  “Waste of eight bucks.  At least the concessions guy was hot.”
    “Jamie, you think any guy with two legs and a face is hot.”
    Shaking my head at their rabbit trail conversation, I brought them back to earth.  “Remember when the main guy pinned the runaway against a wall? Well, I pinned a guy against the ambulance exactly like that. The scene popped into my head, then out of nowhere I was doing it.”
    Reese snorted.  “Riiight.  Was he a midget?”
    “He was the size of Chris.”
    Jamie sat up, tossing her iPod onto the nightstand made of three milk carton crates.  Reese didn’t have the cleanest room, nor did he have the sort of furniture that anyone considered normal.  “Woah, Ash. Chris is six-five.  Are you sure you’re not exaggerating?”
    “Pretty sure.”
    Jamie eyed me carefully.  Reese slapped me on the back.  “Way to put that dude in his place!  Too bad no one YouTubed it.  We could have been the next big thing.”
    “Yeah, that’s exactly what I wanted to do.  Slam him into a vehicle to put him in his place and have it all over the Internet. The thing is, when Memaw started yelling at me about it, she said we had to talk. That I was ‘more’ than what I thought.”
    Reese snorted. “Do you really believe anything that old bat says? How many times do you come over here and complain about the latest leprechaun story she’s told? How the McVean side is somehow related to