"All right, get out," Liz leaned against Dave and Krist's table and gathered up their empty beer glasses. They both looked up at her with bleary eyes as she wiped down their table with a wet rag, but they didn't move. "Don't make me sing the song, guys," she called over her shoulder with a laugh, taking their glasses back to the bar.
"Sing it!" Krist slumped back in his chair with a grin.
Liz went about closing up the bar as she loudly sang the Semisonic song as off-key as she could. Dave laughed as Krist drunkenly tried to headbang to her song before joining Liz at the bar. She looked up when he leaned against a roughed timber post.
"Need help?" he watched her finish loading the countertop dishwasher and press the start button.
"Nope!" she smiled at him and threw a rag over her shoulder, "I'm all done! Where are you two headed after this?"
Dave looked over at Krist who was leaning forward on the tabletop with his chin in his hands, watching them with interest.
"Oh, jesus," Liz laughed, "I'll drive you home."
*
Liz slid into the front seat of Krist's electric car while Dave shoved his friend in the backseat. She looked all over the dashboard for an ignition but found nothing that looked even close to one.
"Start!" she yelled at the steering wheel, "Please?"
Dave climbed into the front seat next to her and held Krist's keys to a small square next to the radio. Liz shook her head as the car quietly started.
"Goddamn rocket ships," she muttered, putting her seatbelt on.
"Your car will be okay here overnight?" Dave asked, looking around the dark parking lot behind the bar.
"Oh, I didn't drive," Liz said as they backed out of their parking space, "I was going to take the beach home."
"She means walk," Krist leaned forward into the front seat.
"You can just walk along the beach at night?" Dave looked at Liz, surprised.
"It's the Oregon Coast, not Watts," she laughed and turned onto the town's main drag.
The entire town was closed down for the night, though it was only 10:30. A few couples were walking towards the hotels, but the sidewalks were otherwise deserted. Liz drove just a few blocks before turning down a short gravel road that ended with a public beach access and pulled over in front of the last house.
"Ever been here before?" Liz asked Dave as they followed Krist up the flagstone path to the bright blue front door.
Dave shook his head and looked over her shoulder towards the ocean where a fishing boat's lights bobbed a few miles out.
"You'll love it," he could see her smile in the dim light and turn to Krist as he struggled to get his key into the deadbolt, "I'm gonna go through the back, Krist. Night, guys," and before Dave could speak, she hopped off the porch and disappeared around the side of the small cottage.
Krist managed to get the front door open and Dave followed him inside, heading straight to the back of the house to see where Liz went. The small backyard was illuminated by a half moon and he could just see her walking up a little hillside to the house directly behind Krist's. It was bigger, at least two stories, with a wraparound porch on the lower level and deck on the upper. He watched her walk inside and the lower level lit up as she closed the door behind her. A few moments later, the lights in the upstairs flickered on, revealing a dining room and kitchen. She appeared in the kitchen window, busy pulling her hair into a knot at the top of her head when Dave's phone beeped. He pulled it out of his jacket pocket and grinned.
You look like a fucking serial killer lurking in the window like that.
He looked back up at Liz, who was now leaning over her kitchen counter with her phone in her hand. She waved and walked out of sight as Dave tapped out a reply.
Just making sure you got home
He went to find Krist and heard his phone go off again when he saw him in the kitchen.
And you want to wear my skin to your birthday party?
Dave laughed a little, I was working up to that, but now that the subject has arisen...
"Gross," Dave looked up at Krist's voice. He was leaning back in a dining room chair, shaking his head at the look on Dave's face, "Come see what Dee found."
Dave tried to ignore the notification beep on his phone and sat down at the kitchen table. Krist slid a shoe box towards him and nodded when Dave looked up at him. He opened the top of the box and pulled out the yellowed piece of paper resting on the very top of a pile. It was covered in brightly colored flowers, clouds and birds, a rainbow and a person on what looked like a surfboard. Dave flipped it over and noticed faded pencil marks in a child's handwriting.
Mr. Crist,
I am sorry about your friend. He was my friend too. He helped me plant flowers and sang me a song about sunshine. I can sing it for you if you want me to.
Love,
Nicole
Dave's eyes flashed to Krist, who was looking at a photograph with a faint smile. He handed the photo to Dave, who braced himself before looking. The picture was taken from the back of the cottage, out into the backyard he just watched Liz walk through. A little girl about nine or ten was sitting in the bright green grass, smiling happily up at a blonde man in a white shirt and blue flannel, holding an old acoustic guitar.
"It used to be her grandparent's place before she bought it," Krist explained, "Those kids spent every summer there. Kurt came down for a week to get out of Seattle and... well..."
Dave set the photo back on the table and ran his hand through his hair. "She failed to mention any of this."
"She doesn't talk to me about it either. Why would she?"
"Everyone else wants to talk about him," Dave said bitterly.
Krist sat up and leaned his elbows on the table top, "She's not everyone else though. She understands it's in poor form to dredge up shit like that."
Dave thought about his words for a moment, then looked back in the box. Several photographs of her through the years were stacked inside, many of her surfing or riding a bike on the beach.
"Dee adores those three," Krist laughed, "Shelli... not so much."
Dave smiled and flipped through the photos, "Shelli didn't even like me and I was the most lovable out of the three of us." He frowned at a photo of a teenage Liz sitting on a driftwood log next to a large bonfire. She was smiling, but one side of her face was shaded in a dark blue and yellow bruise. He held the photo up to Krist, "What the fuck happened here?"
Krist looked closely at the photo and thought for a moment, "That was quite the small town scandal," he finally said. Dave remained silent, waiting for him to go on. "She was dating the mayor's kid and he beat the ever loving hell out of her one night at a party. She went back home early that summer and the kid got off scot-free. The locals ended up running his entire family out of town within a summer."
Dave threw the photo back in the box and continued to flip through the stack in his hand, processing that information before he commented on it. It explained her reaction in his kitchen the other night and he thought about the kid's picture on Nate's wall. He wondered where that kid was now, then turned back to the box. There were birthday party invitations for her and her siblings, an engagement announcement for her sister, a baby shower invitation and three graduation announcements for Liz that Dave paused to read.
"A Masters in English and Musical Composition and a BA in Political Science and History," he read aloud, "What a nerd."
"And she chose to fucking act," Krist shook his head.
"Who's this joker?" Dave held up a photo of Liz standing in the tattooed arms of a tall, grinning man.
"Ex-husband," Krist stood up and walked to the sink. "Kyle, I think. His brother is her security guy."
"Travis?" Dave examined Kyle's face, seeing the resemblance.
"Yeah. Kyle went a bit off the deep end after she finally left him. Wrecked his bike out here on the 101 not too long ago."
Dave set the photo down and sat back in his chair. "I just don't know anything about her."
"Of course you don't. You've known her for a week."
"I've learned more about her sitting at this table than I ever did directly from her."
Krist shrugged and looked out of the kitchen window to Liz's house. "Maybe you just need to ask her."