Road To Nowhere Read Free Page B

what’s going on in your life?”
    “How do you know anything's going on?” Teresa asked.
    Free shrugged. “You haven’t told us where you’re going, and why you’re going there in the middle of the night. Poppy and I’ve got the impression you’re running away from home. I mean, if you are, that's cool. I mean who wants to live at home when you can be out on the road? But hey, we’re like everybody else. We’re curious, we’re nosey. We want to hear the dirt. Did you kill somebody or something?”
    Teresa laughed. She laughed so hard she almost steered the car off the road. Only Freedom Jack could have asked such a serious question and made it sound so trivial.
    “No,” Teresa said when she had calmed down enough to speak. “I didn't kill anybody. I wish I had, though.”
    “Who?” Free asked.
    “This guy,” Teresa said. “This jerk I know.”
    “Who?” Poppy asked from the back seat.
    Teresa hesitated and felt a lump rise in her throat. She continued to feel hot. Maybe she was getting sick. Maybe she just needed to unburden herself. These two – they were strangers and they would talk on the way up the coast, maybe even become casual friends. But then they'd go their separate ways and never see one another again. Who better to confide in?
    She decided right then to tell them about Bill.
    The awful thing he had done to her.
    “His name was Bill Clark,” Teresa said. “He was my boyfriend.”
    “Why do you wish you’d killed him?” Free asked.
    “I have my reasons,” Teresa said.
     
    They met at the mall during Christmas vacation. The place was packed because it was only two days before the big holiday. Teresa was there with her mother trying to finish up some last-minute shopping. Actually, even though they were at the mall together and had come in the same car, they weren’t shopping as a happy mother daughter twosome. Teresa couldn't buy anything with her mother present because her mother inevitably told her how stupid she was being. Her mother didn’t approve of anything she did, which caused Teresa to keep a low profile in her presence. Her mother didn’t even like how she studied, lying on her bed and listening to music. And here she was a straight-A student and everything.
    For the moment, thankfully, Teresa was alone to make her own decisions. She was hungry and stopped at the food section, which was huge, the selection vast. She could have Mexican, Italian, Chinese or American. She ended up at a Carl’s Jr – she liked the char-grilled chicken sandwiches. She had to get in a long line. After a minute or two the guy in front of her turned round and his hands were also laden with bags. He had brown hair and brown eyes, a nice build. He also had dimples; she noticed those first. She always liked dimples on a guy; they made anyone look less dangerous. She hadn't dated much and guys still scared her a little. This one was about her age.
    “It looks like it’s going to be a long wait,” the guy said.
    Teresa nodded. “At least fifteen minutes just to put our orders in.”
    He nodded at her bags. “Do you have something for everybody?”
    She smiled. “No. I ran out of money. I’m going to have a lot of people mad at me this year.” Actually, that wasn’t true. She had bought something for everyone who might conceivably expect a present. It had broken her to do so. She had spent over four hundred dollars. She’d make it back, though, she told herself. She gave guitar and piano lessons every day after school. She had been playing both instruments since she was nine and was considered very good. She also sang and wrote songs, although only a few people knew that. Her best friend, Rene Le Roe, was one. She had spent a hundred dollars on a cashmere sweater from Nordstroms for Rene.
    “You can’t please everybody,” the guy said.
    “Ain’t that the truth,” she said. She was always trying to please people and thought it was because she was a nice person. Although sometimes she