The Big Fish by Madison Henley (best free e reader .TXT) 📕

Georgia’s lip trembled and she buried her head in her lap, screaming and cursing at whoever took her father away from her. He was all she had and he was gone, so now what? Now fucking what? Georgia had to live the remaining of her life lonely? Why not just die right then and there? Georgia harshly ran her muddy fingers through her hair and screamed again, not knowing how to distribute her anger properly. Georgia looked up to the sky when she heard the thunder clap. Maybe that was a signal that she shouldn’t spend all night here. She wanted to die but not by way of electrocution. Georgia reluctantly stood up and wobbled to her car, her heels digging deep into the wet grass. Georgia suddenly remembered Keliah and how she left her all alone and should hurry home. Georgia then remembered that she was drunk and probably couldn’t operate a vehicle currently.

“Fuck.”

Georgia slammed her car door and pulled out her phone, calling a taxi. Her head hurt from crying too hard and her mascara had filled the dark circles under her eyes. The taxi driver didn’t dare speak to Georgia as she got into the backseat. When he got the call that he would be picking someone up from a cemetery, he knew it couldn’t be anything good. So the taxi driver kept his eyes on the road but listened as Georgia quietly groaned in the background. Georgia was so done. She just wanted to go home and see what Keliah was doing. The only good thing left in her life. Georgia stumbled out of the taxi.

“I um, I don’t have any money.”

Georgia slurred.

“It’s okay, ma’am. It’s on me. I hope you feel better.”

“Thanks. I hope you have a good life.”

Georgia closed the car door and walked up to her doorstep. She fiddled with her keys, trying to find the right one. She eventually tried the last one and the door clicked open. Georgia found her house warm and cozy. But empty as well.

She was here when I left.

Georgia’s one ounce of faith left was shattered. Even Keliah had left her. Georgia began to sob a drunk sob. She threw her keys violently in the kitchen, completely missing the bowl and stormed upstairs hoping she could just sleep this pain away and feel better in the morning. Georgia opened the door to her room and found her black comforter bunched up and wrinkled. She walked closer to her bed and gently rolled back the covers to find a sleeping Keliah. Georgia looked around the room and saw Keliah’s heels and dress lying on the drawer. Georgia then pulled back the covers again to see what Keliah was wearing and recognized her burgundy Stanford t-shirt that was long enough to cover Keliah’s knees. Georgia smiled to herself before stepping into her bathroom to take a long hot shower. Her dress and stockings were filthy. She happily pulled them off of her and slipped into the steamy shower. Georgia let the piping hot water sober her up a little and when she got out of the shower, she felt like a new person. Georgia dried her hair and found a pair of striped boxers in her drawer along with her oversized t-shirt from Mexico and slipped them on before quietly crawling into her bed. Georgia was close enough to hear Keliah snoring just the slightest. Keliah’s eyebrows were furrowed as if she was deep in thought in her dream. She hugged her knees with her chest and probably didn’t take up half of the bed. She was so tiny compared to Georgia’s large bed. Georgia pulled the covers up on her and closed her eyes, her wet eyelashes batting her cheekbones. Georgia was incredibly tired to let it process that Keliah was laying right fucking next to her in her bed so Georgia just sighed out loud and decided to react on that in the morning.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

“I’m so full of shit. I’m just…the worst person on Earth and all the other planets in the sky. I should be sent to like a camp for people who are superficial and have shitty personalities. Camp Shit! That’s what it should be called.”

Gabrielle couldn’t help but giggle at her lame joke despite her depressing drunken rant about Meredith. She threw her head back to take another gulp of her Swedish beer that had no taste to it but was currently pleasing all of Gabrielle’s taste buds.

“Okay, I think we are done with this.”

Gabrielle’s older Swedish teammate, Becca gently took the bottle from Gabrielle’s wet lips and firm grip and placed it on the miniature nightstand that divided the two hotel bedrooms. The dim lamp rested on it, providing very little light, creating a dull and silent vibe throughout the quiet hotel room. It was at least three o’clock in the morning and Gabrielle was pouring her wounded heart out to her teammate in a drunken seethe. The team had celebrated at a club near the hotel on their huge victory until the wee hours in the morning and that gave Gabrielle an excuse to drink. She drank just about everything from Dugges Idjit to Swedish Mules so she could still keep that happiness alive throughout her body. Anything to push her dark thoughts to the back of her mind. And it worked, until the party died down, the music stopped, and day turned into night which turned into the crack of dawn, the time where hidden thoughts now pushed to the front of the brain and any form of narcotics had worn off being too weak to keep the cement it hardened around the heart. Now Gabrielle