Currents: An Everyday Heroes World Novel (The Everyday Heroes World)

already.” She laughs, giving me one last squeeze before letting go and leaving me with only my thoughts.

CHAPTER NINE
CARSON
I don’t know why I’m so nervous. It’s not like I’ve never talked to a girl before. But there is something about this that makes it more intimate. More than a boy just knocking on a girl’s door.
Squaring my shoulders, I rap three times on the door. I hear a rustle and footsteps approaching.
Bliss opens the door in nothing than a bathrobe. Her onyx hair is piled on top of her head in a messy bun.
“Carson, you’re here,” she says, tying her robe tighter around her.
“I wanted to make sure you were okay. You scared me yesterday.”
“I’m okay. I was actually going to come by later to thank you, but it seems you saved me the trouble.”
I look her all over, taking in every inch of her to make sure she really is okay. Yesterday tore me in two, and it’s taken all of me to stay away.
“Can I come in?” I ask.
She worries her lip, then stands off to the side to allow me to pass. “I ordered some lunch. It should be here any minute. There’s plenty for both of us. You could stay.”
“I’d like that,” I say as I take a seat at one of the couches. Bliss walks around and perches on the opposite couch. Her robe slips open, showing her tanned legs, which she tries to adjust but can’t seem to.
She jumps up. “I’m going to change. Help yourself to a drink from the fridge. I think that beer you were drinking at the bonfire is in there.”
She’s gone so quick you’d think she was on fire. The fridge is the last place I want to go as I watch her retreating form. I want to go after her and pull her against me. Open that robe and make sure she’s okay. All of her.
Ten minutes later, she joins me again, dressed in yoga pants and a loose t-shirt. She’s like any other girl now, all the money washed away in the ocean.
“The food came while you were in the bathroom. I had them put it on the table.” I gesture to the dining set by the window.
When she said she ordered plenty of food, she wasn’t kidding. There is an assortment of fruit and cheese, two cheeseburgers, and a huge plate of cheese fries with what looks like tomato sauce on them. Comfort food. All things I would have ordered myself, except the fries. Gross.
“Thanks, let’s eat. I’m starving. I couldn’t look at food this morning, but I think my appetite is back. It all smells amazing.”
She plops down at the table and begins to pile food on her plate. I take a seat across from her and wait until she’s finished before I fill my plate.
“Do you like pizza fries?” she asks, watching me avoid the plate of fries.
I can’t help but laugh. “Pizza what?”
“Fries with sauce and cheese. It’s pizza fries or fry’s parmesan if you want to get fancy,” she says, popping one into her mouth and moaning.
My body responds instantly, and I shift in my seat to ignore the twitch my cock is trying to make me pay attention to.
“It doesn’t look appealing.” I pick up my burger and take a bite, watching her every movement. She’s beautiful without all the extra stuff she puts on to impress people.
“It’s delicious, try it.”
She picks up the dish and extends it to me. I shake my head and rear back in mock disgust.
“Come, on. It’s delicious. Trust me.”
Nudging the plate more in my direction, I reach out and take a fry. Giving it one last scowl, I pop it into my mouth and chew tentatively. The first taste is sauce, which is pretty good, then the fry itself, and the finish with the cheese.
I feel my eyes widen in shock. “This is fucking amazing.”
“Told you! Here, take half. We can pig out together.”
Taking the plate from her, I pile it up with my new favorite food.
“Thank you,” she whispers and the mood in the room changes in an instant.
“What were you thinking?” It’s the question I’ve been asking myself ever since I saw her fall off the pier. Fear has prevented me from saying it out loud. What if she was trying to take her own life?
“I wasn’t. I was drunk, and my mother was being her usual self. I left the bridesmaid brunch, and the water called to me. The ocean is one of my favorite places. I feel calm there. Standing up on the railing was lifting me above all the noise. All the demons.”
“The ocean is my safe place, too. It’s one of the reasons I became a lifeguard. After my brother—” I stop. I’ve said too much already.
“Your brother what?” She isn’t prying, but the sadness in her eyes begs for a connection, for someone to share the pain she has inside of her.
“He died. My parents . . . He was kidnapped and then killed.”
Bliss gasps, dropping her fork and covering her face with her hands. Tears shimmer in her eyes, and my heart breaks for the pain she feels for me.
“My sister died of cancer,” she says, searching my face.
Our pain is matched in death.
I shake my head slightly. “The day my brother died was the worst day of my life. I left home right after. Came to Bordentown to get away from everything and start over. I’ve been trying to live without him, but most days it’s impossible.”
“I know the feeling. It’s like she’s always there in my mind. The last moments of her death play on repeat. The only way I can stop thinking about her is if I’m drinking.”
The pieces finally click into place, and I realize that perhaps she’s not the party girl I thought she was. She’s suffering like me. We’re both trying to hide our true selves.
“Is that why you don’t want to be around your family?”
“My sister’s cancer was treatable with