Stay With Me, Forever and Always

Vincent: September 16, 2:36

Vincent closed his eyes, basking in the familiar scent for the first time in what had felt like days.

Although in reality, it had only been a couple of hours.

He had lost the trail, even though her presence in this forest was unmistakeable.

Vincent had to have her. He’d made up his mind about that a long time ago.

And he wasn’t going to take no for an answer.

Charlotte: September 16, 1:34 p.m.

“Karmichael, Charlotte.” Mr. Johnston called out in his usual monotone.

“Here.” I answered, just as bored.

He moved on down the list, and I wondered for the thousandth time about why I agreed to take AP Calculus. It was a form of torture, especially considering that I sucked at it.

Thank God this was the last period of the day.

It had dragged on enough as it was.

First period, I had the teacher drag me aside and accuse me of cheating on our last test. She’s been waiting for an excuse, I just know it. Mrs. Teeter has hated me since she saw me in my skinny jeans and Paramore t-shirt.

God, I hate labels. They’re freaking useless, and annoying for those of us who don’t belong to any kind of clique.

Some would consider me antisocial, but I just don’t like people.

Wait, that’s not right...

I snorted, and the people sitting around me looked at me like I was some kind of freak.

Which, you know, is nothing new.

Anyway, so after first period, the freaking principal pulls me aside to ask if I’d been attending class regularly.

God, you skip school once, get caught by the cops, and everyone thinks that you’re a criminal that does drugs and skips school all the time. (By the way, I despise drugs; I even refuse to take over-the-counter medicine.)

And I said all of that to his face and stomped off.

Which leads us to what happened in third period: Ms. Hoff handed me a pink slip with a sorrowful gaze.

Everyone knows that the pink slip means detention.

Which brings us to the present.

I sighed.

“Charlotte, perhaps you could tell us the answer to number fourteen.”

I internally groaned, and repeated what I’d wrote down.

He smirked, like he already knew it was wrong.

I gulped.

He glanced down at his answer sheet, then did a double-take. “That’s...correct.”

A look of astonishment passed over his face. Then he glared at the answer sheet, like it had just lied to him, and continued on with the homework review.

Inside, I was dancing with happiness.

Finally, the first good thing that’s happened to me all day!

I stopped the victory dance in my head, realizing something else.

Crap, that must mean that something worse is going to happen to me later.

That’s just how karma works with me.

And sure enough, when class was over, I was the last one to pack up all my stuff, and ended up missing my bus.

Now I was standing under the overhang, wondering as to which way I should go.

The forest seemed like the fastest and safest way. And as an added bonus, it ends up directly in my backyard.

Sweet, huh?

Besides, I don’t feel like taking the highway route, and getting run over by some idiot who can’t drive right.

It’s not as bad as it sounds, I told myself, it’s only, what, three miles? Yeah, I can do this.

Then it started raining.

“Do you hate me? Honestly, do you?” I shouted at the sky.

To be honest, it’s not the rain that bothers me; it’s the fact that I have to walk about three miles in it.

I grumbled incoherently and absentmindedly started walking towards the forest.

Forty-five minutes later, I was still trudging through the forest, completely soaked and annoyed.

I stopped walking and stared at my feet dejectedly.

I sighed. My poor black converse were soaked, of course.

That’s when I noticed something move out of the corner of my eye.

I glanced up, expecting to see a squirrel or a rabbit.

Instead, I saw a black bear.

And it did not look happy to see me there.

I froze.

Please, dear God, do not let it charge --

And of course my prayers weren’t answered.

It roared, rearing back on its hind legs, and clawing at the air menacingly.

And I crumpled to the ground.