Road Salt: Wings From Ashes, #2

By Linda Nelson

Carol's guilt is eating her up inside and wants to fix their friendship. She insists upon making amends by apologizing to Karla's mom but instead, the woman chases her out of the house, which is when she discovers Karla's home life isn't much different from her own. However, she still feels responsible for what happened to Karla at the party. She suggests they take a road trip with two boys they just met in hopes that their new comradeship is growing, but this only makes matters worse for the two of them when they find themselves arrested for car theft. Will Karla forgive her this time?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Keelaa B Publishing
• Release date: Jun 11, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386700555

Linda Nelson

Linda J Nelson  who is a Franklin Pierce University college student that studies Business, Accounting, and Social Services writes fiction about drugs, addiction, alcohol, and substance abuse as a mother and parent of an addict whose child was a runaway and involved in crime, and also writes Slipstream Fantasy and blogs about controversial subjects and the life of a writer. She lives in Southern New Hampshire and is a member of RWA and the Monadnock Writers Group

Book preview

Dedication

THIS IS FOR THE MANY addicts I have met over the past year, all of which are in recovery,

I pray you learn forgiveness for yourself and others while you journey on your path of recovery;

As I learn empathy from my own journey...

This is for the pain and suffering of those going through or have gone through addiction and the personal whom respond to the emergency calls of addicts in crisis around the world, namely, EMT’s, First Responders, Addiction Counselors, Law Enforcement, and friends and families of addicts.

This book is for you. I know your struggles and understand the needs and the importance of overcoming substance abuse and addiction.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I WOULD LIKE TO THANK Scott Shelly for his support and cooperation in helping me acquire the information that was needed to understand the substance of Bath Salts which is the topic of this story. Without his help this book would never have been written since EMT’s and First Responders are the most likely to have seen Bath Salt usage first hand.

I would also like to acknowledge the counselors at the Phoenix House and other drug rehab facilities for their dedication to helping people regain their lives back. I have seen many individuals reenter society as strong community individuals and this would never have happened without their help.

And also I can’t forget my son and daughter for helping me understand the characters in this series and for being supportive in the writing process.

1

Please Forgive Me

MAGGIE, HAVE YOU HEARD from Gerry lately? Ashley asked while she set her tray of food down on the table next to Maggie.

Carol cringed. She wondered why Ashley had to bring up Gerry’s name again. She did this at every lunch period they had together ever since the party.

As a matter of fact, yes I have. Maggie turned her smug face back toward Carol. And he’s not doing so well, thanks to you and your little bitch. He wrote about how the jail was so overcrowded. He sleeps in what used to be a gymnasium; that they turned into a cell so it can hold over a hundred guys. It’s wall to wall bunk beds, and it’s so loud he can’t hear himself think most of the time. He also said that the guy in the bed next to him was beaten up by the other inmates, and they may have killed the guy too.

Carol knew whom Maggie was referring to. Gerry, he was the guy that Maggie had an unhealthy crush on. He was also the one whom Carol had fixed Karla up with the night of the party. It was the party that had landed Gerry in jail.

Everyone knew how much Maggie hated Karla because of her being with Gerry that night. She made a point to let everyone know how she felt about the new girl that didn’t belong in their school.

It’s not my fault that he was arrested, and it isn’t Karla’s fault either. He’s the one who got behind the wheel after drinking at the party. We didn’t tell him he should be drinking and driving, or even using. Apparently he heard the police coming and decided to beat feet as quickly as possible. And if, Mitch had had his seatbelt on, he would never have been thrown out of the car’s windshield. It’s unfortunate enough they had to use the Jaws of Life to get Gerry out before the car went up in flames.

Well, if you hadn’t insisted in matching Karla up with Gerry, I, Maggie emphasized the use of I before carrying on, would’ve been with him, and I would’ve kept him from getting behind the wheel. I would’ve been there for him as a designated driver.

There’s no way you of all people would’ve been able to stop him from taking off like that. Carol snarled back, he was running from the cops, and you know it.

How do you know he was running from the cops? Maggie batted her eyelashes.

Carol hated it when she did that. Maggie wasn’t a knock out dead gorgeous babe; she was just pure and simple, crazy Maggie. Get a clue Maggie; you know why he was running from the cops. If anyone is to blame for him being in jail, it is you. In fact, you know what Maggie? You suck.

Carol gathered up her lunch and crossed the cafeteria to take a seat across from Karla. With a flare of air from fluffing her hair, she snubbed Maggie one last time. She had it with that girl and her obsession about Gerry, Carol’s childhood friend and football captain, who was now sitting in jail. Didn’t she get it, he never wanted her to begin with, and everyone knew she was a psycho case and a stalker?

Before Karla had moved to Brantwood Maggie dated Gerry just once. It only took one date for Gerry to learn how crazy Maggie was. He made sure to tell everyone too. After that Maggie stalked Gerry, following him everywhere he went. He tried to intimidate her into not following him, but she took that in a different way. In her mind, it meant that he actually loved her and wanted all her attention. The guy just couldn’t shake her away from him. It didn’t matter what he did.

Maggie would get angry every time she found out that Gerry was dating someone else. Sometimes she tried to scare the girl he was with, but when it was someone who had known Maggie for some time, they realized that all they had to do was ignore her; she’d give up in the long run.

The only one who couldn’t stand Maggie’s threatening was Gerry. As soon as he found out that she was threatening his current girlfriend he would break up with her in fear that something terrible was going to happen to her.

She wasn’t a person to trust.

He had no idea that Maggie did what she did to Karla and him. If he only knew what really took place that night.

There was nothing Maggie could do about Carol stomping off, but glare at her. She never quite liked Carol anyway. She just liked hanging out with her so she could be part of the in-crowd. But apparently the in-crowd was beginning to dissolve since Ian’s Party, which took place a couple of months ago at the beginning of the school year. This was an event that Maggie had her hands in. She thought no one knew her actual role in the outcome of that night. She thought she knew everything that took place that night right up until the police arrived. She just didn’t know who had called the police and reported the party.

Everyone had stopped sitting at their table two months ago. Right after Carol and Heath had officially broken up their relationship. Heath’s friend Gerry, the one whom Maggie had a crush on, had not been in school for over a month. He was now sitting in the slammer, doing time for the death of Mitch, charged with vehicle homicide. He was looking at a sentence of twenty-five years.

Mitch had been the one who was thrown through the windshield during Gerry’s accident, dying from the injuries he sustained from the collision. Even though he had been airlifted to a trauma unit at a nearby hospital, he only lived long enough for his family to say their goodbyes to him, the result from the sustained injuries of being ejected from the car.

Gerry was charged with DUI and vehicle homicide and was looking at ten to twenty-five years along with a minor charge of underage drinking. At first Gerry’s dad tried to have him charged as a minor. The courts rejected the request by stating that the crime was too serious, and he was to be charged as an adult.

The only one who’d heard from Gerry while he had been away was Maggie. Only because she was the only one who was willing to write to him, call him, and send him money, but then again what easier way to stalk someone than to do it where they can’t get away from you.

Maggie still blamed Karla and Carol for his arrest even though Carol denied having any involvement in his partying habits. She was sure Carol was the reason the fuzz showed up that night.

Since then, Maggie had managed to turn some of the girls against Carol, or so Carol believed she had done. Or maybe they had just stopped hanging out with her because she had become somewhat withdrawn due to the up and coming holidays. Carol didn’t know what their real problem was. What she did know was that not many of them blamed Karla the way Maggie did. They knew the truth of the matter.

Ashley, one of the only girls who would associate herself with Maggie, had made sure to tell a few select friends about Maggie’s confession the night after the accident. And they in turn told a few of their choice friends about this confession until it made its way almost all around the school.

Because of this confession about who had done what, for the most part the other students left Karla alone. But they didn’t go out of their way to talk to her either.

Karla also did not go out of her way when it came to making new friends with any of the other students. To play it safe and to allow the story about her to die down, she kept a low profile. Her trust of others was relatively low these days. A far cry from what it had been on her first day at this new school. She scrutinized everyone no matter what their motives seemed to be. Even if they were just saying hi to her as they passed her in the hallway.

The students at this school could be just downright nasty as far as Karla was concerned. Sometimes she wondered if they were like this with all the new students or was it just her.

So when Carol took the seat across from her just now, Karla was surprised and wondered why after all this time that Carol had suddenly decided to reestablish contact with her.

Karla might be naive, but she was not about to fall for the same trick twice.

Karla hissed, What do you want?

Look, you can continue to go on hating me if you want, but I came to say I’m terribly sorry for what happened to you. I didn’t know things were going to get way out of hand. The agreement I had with Gerry was that he was supposed to lead you on and break up with you. He was only supposed to break your heart, not do what he did do to you. And all I gave you that night in the drink at my house was just a little bit of a helper to help you relax before going to the party. It wasn’t anything that serious. I wasn’t the one that put that Roofie in your drink. That was crazy Maggie’s doing, everyone knows that, she said so herself. If I had known she was going to do that, I would’ve just ditched you at the football game, which I did consider at one point in time. I’m not into seeing a person overdose. It’s not my thing.

Karla sneered, Yeah – Right!

But Karla did have a hunch that night that Carol had contemplated ditching her during the football game. So maybe she was telling the truth. In a way, Karla kind of wished that she had.

You don’t believe me – what can I do to make things up to you?

Seriously, you expect me to believe you after you’ve waited all this time, to come to me to say you’re sorry?

I meant it Karla. I never actually expected to see that happen to you. I like you. I think you are pretty cool for having put up with, and having tried to be friends with me, which most new kids wouldn’t have even considered after spending their first lunch with me if you know what I mean? I know what some of the other’s say about me. Especially Marla and Jerra...

Karla glanced over to where Marla and Jerra were sitting at the other end of the table. They were the other two girls that Karla had met during her first week at Brantwood High School. They had warned Karla about hanging out with Carol. They both were also members of the High School Newspaper Club that Karla had considered joining. But this never came about because when she was supposed to be at the meeting that day she’d been in the hospital instead. When she got out, she never bothered to ask them again if the offer still stood for her to join their club. She figured they wouldn’t want anything to do with her after hearing what had happened at the party, or the fact that she had gone to a party in the first place.

When Karla looked in the direction of where Marla and Jerra were sitting she couldn’t help but notice the two new students that took seats in between where they sat and where she and Carol sat. They were two boys who had started at the school on the same day. One of them was in Karla’s math class. She had the hots for him and had walked to school with him every day since that first time they had met. She’d heard the other girls talking about him while she was in the girls’ bathroom stall early this morning. They all thought he was hot.

She wondered what they would say if they knew that she was already going out with him.

Max had told Karla he was from a city near Boston and that his old school was pretty big, bigger than this one. She hadn’t heard exactly where he was from, but she did know from others that he was from a much larger school. Even he had said so to her. And Karla thought this school was big. She couldn’t imagine attending a school as big as his was.

The two girls at the other end of the table had continued to be nice to Karla after all that happened, but Karla had continued to keep to herself anyway. She did, however, want to take part in the newspaper club, but that would’ve been the furthest contact outside of regular school hours that Karla had any desire to be around anyone besides Max.

Slowly, she also had even become distant from her old friends, Sarah and Jody.

And she hadn’t talked to Jan in over a month.

Hmm, Karla thought.

All right, if you want to make it up to me you can come home with me after school and apologize to my mom for what happened. You do know that I’ve been grounded ever since that night.

Carol looked toward Maggie. She was still sitting there glaring at her.

"All right – you got a deal. After school, it’s