Read Cold Summer Nights for Free Online Page A

tell who was to blame, the crazies or the underpaid nurses.
    He picked up a silver framed picture of him standing between his grandma and his mom. Wide smiles graced their sunlit faces as his grandma leaned on her cane in front of a cluster of tall lilac bushes in her backyard. Must have been ten years ago now. He missed his mom and forlornly set the frame back down on the dresser, filled with dingy hospital gowns, grandma-panties and socks.
    “Your mother says to stay away from her,” floated out in a hoarse voice behind him.
    His heart spiked while the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. Slowly, he turned around with wide eyes. His grandma swallowed with her doughy eyelids still sealed shut, the largest sign of life he had seen from her in years. His eyebrows dipped and with heavy legs, he trudged over to her bedside, his face contorting further along the way. “Grandma?” he quivered.
    She didn’t respond.
    He cleared his throat and took a step backwards, expecting her to suddenly rise and start floating after him, just like in his stormy nightmares. But she didn’t. Her skin clung to her unmoving bones like always. He glanced to the doorway just as someone walked past. Grudgingly, he turned back to the lady withering away in the bed in front of him, his blood pumping in his temples. “Grandma?”
    Golden liquid started dripping into the plastic bag hanging on the side of her bed.

 
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Five
     
     
     
     
     
    Ke$ha’s Blow assaulted the warehouse-sized room. Visible air ducts and metal girders ran the length of the tall ceiling above. The driving beat slipped in and out of the rotating flashes of colored light as young men and women danced like they might rip off their clothing and start screwing on the dance floor at any second. They grinded against each other with the beat, sweat glistening from their skin.
    Nick’s mouth hung open as he stared at Rusty with narrow eyes. “What do you mean you could see your breath?” he shouted over the music.
    Rusty grimaced. “I told you, I don’t know what happened! All I know is it threw my whole game off and I might need you to stick it out till one,” he said, knocking back a Jack and Coke.
    Nick’s face soured in the spinning bursts of bright lights. “What?”
    “I told ya though!” Rusty shouted, nodding to the throbbing dance floor. “Ass-soup!”
    Nick shook his head and took a pull from a bottle of Coor’s Light, the club’s deep bass vibrating every inch of his body. He wondered how the DJ could see anything with shades on in here.
    “It’s barely eleven-thirty!” Rusty said. “And it’s already packed.”
    “Well, you better start pullin some digits before your ride splits in five minutes,” Nick replied coldly.
    “Give me a minute to get into a groove here, Nick. Will ya ?” Rusty said, letting his eyes roam free. “I gotta tap into the bar’s vibe.”
    Nick gestured with his beer towards the bar. “What about those two brunettes over there.”
    Rusty followed his gaze and smiled. “Oh, I’d like to tap into that too! Nice spot. What else we got? They’re way outta my league and not near drunk enough yet.” His head bobbed with the music as his eyes drifted across the room.
    Nick watched the animated crowd, primarily made up of bartenders and easy waitresses, who danced like strippers and usually went home with the bartenders after it was all said and done . It was their one night off a week to let loose and they didn’t call it S.I.N. for nothing. He took another drink and decided he didn’t miss this scene. The constant game. Loving it that night, hating it the next morning. He pulled his cell out again and subtly checked the screen. No messages. He exhaled a long breath and slipped the phone back into his pocket, formulating the perfect text to send Summer real quick. Something brief, yet witty. He took another drink and discarded the entire idea altogether, refusing to fall into that trap