segment 49

Ala clasped her hand to her mouth and slowly backed out of the scene.  She felt nauseous and tried to breathe deeply.  She had never smelled rotting food in the heat before.  She had never seen such a mess left unattended, especially at the Neely’s.  They were meticulous, as far as she had seen.

She ran all the way down to the end of her street and onto the sand path.  She was panting heavily, but kept going.  She could feel her feet burning through her shoes and socks from the dry scorched sand.  What kind of people do not clean up after a party?  It wasn’t as if this was college and she lived in the dorms.  Her neighborhood was one of the most desired to live in.  All of the men were professionals of some kind.  Most of the women didn’t work because there was already so much wealth.  Things really had changed since she had been gone.  Part of her was surprised she even cared and another part was afraid that because she did care, it bothered her that she didn’t know the whole story.

Ala stopped when she reached the ocean and watched the waves break for awhile.  She wanted to dip her head in the white foam, but thought of her skin drying and cracking on the way back home.  She approached some driftwood and sat down on it.  She had found herself avoiding any and all romantic areas where she would think of jase.  She didn’t want to be reminded of how it felt to hold someone’s hand or nustle someone’s neck.  They had visited the beach often. Jase’s family had many boats and all of their vacations were focused around water.  Ala adored the outings and the crab boils and the sparklers in the tall grass.  She had complete y drank in her life with him, lost sight of herself in her own future, because she was so sure about his.