To Go From There

If I’d known, I don’t think I would’ve ended up going home.

I turned into my driveway to find the graduation party that I knew had been going on for days was still raging. My house, or rather, our house is out on the outskirts of Pacific Bay. No one noticed the teenagers passed out in the lawn, the beer cans scattered carelessly.

Typical Gen.

I parked in the garage and stepped out of the car. I yawned and trudged up the stairs to my upstairs garage room. Mom let me have it when she caught Gen screwing an older man in there. Genesee now has my old room next to Mom’s. Karma’s a bitch.

I flopped down on my bed and just let my eyes drift somewhere within closed and open. I didn’t want to come home. My heart was basically breaking as I drove the streets of Pacific Bay. I wanted to turn around and drive to wherever wasn’t here. It seems very teenage angst and melodramatic, I know but sometimes, a teenage girl who’s expected to be a grown up 24/7 needs the melodrama and angst.

“Fancy meeting you here, stranger.” the sweet voice of Rhys Abbott filled my ears. My eyes snapped open and I stared at an upside down Rhys. I rolled onto my stomach and sat up.

“How’d you get in here?” I asked.

“Well, you don’t hide a key nearly as well as you think you do, Kiernan.” he smirked, dropping my key to the room on the desk beside him. The door was closed and it was just him and me in my room.

“So you broke into my room?” I asked, getting up off the bed. I fixed my tank top. I expected his eyes to be on the amount of bare flesh I was showing but no, his eyes were locked in a stare with mine. He had such pretty eyes.

“No. I didn’t break anything technically.” he said, dropping down into the car beside my desk. I crossed my arms across my chest and continued to stare him down.

“What’re you doing here?” I asked.

“Well, I was hanging out in the pool room when I saw your car pull in and I decided I’d come see what took you so long.”

“Yeah, like you actually care.” I said, tossing my hair behind my shoulder. I sat back down on the bed, facing him. I couldn’t kick him out yet. He looked so cute, sitting there with that cocky smirk on his face.

“I thought you said you were afraid of cars.” he said. He’d asked me if I wanted a ride home one day when I was waiting for Mom to drive up. I’d been sitting on the school’s stone steps, headphones in and my book sitting in my lap. He sat down beside me and pulled the earbud from my ear. After I told him that I didn’t want one, he proceeded to ask why and finally, after a good 8 minutes of him bothering me about it, I told him. He laughed, ruffled my hair and told me that his car was 100% safe and was fresh off the parking lot of the dealer. Even so, I was not getting in the car of a stranger. Mom taught me well.

“I am.”

“You were just driving one all by yourself, liar.”

“Alright, I’m afraid of strange cars.”

“My car is strange?” he asked, messing with his dark brown hair. He had to stop looking sosexy.

“I meant, like a car I’ve never been in. I’ve probably watched too many of those movies where the girls get kidnapped by good looking guys in nice cars.” I said, not even realizing what I was saying.

“So you think I’m a good looking guy?” he asked. I groaned.

“That’s not what I said.”

“It’s what you meant! No take-backs!”

I stared at him, “What? Are you five?”

“At heart, yes. Gilles swears that I was traumatized at a young age, forcing me to stay that age while my body aged.”

I sighed, brushing my hair away from my face. He smiled and spun the chair on it’s axis. I was getting dizzy simply watching him spin. I stood up and wandered into my closet. I glanced at the spinning boy before I pulled the tank top off, dropping it into my hamper. I quickly grabbed one of my old running shirts and pulled it on. I stripped off the shorts and replaced those with a pair of athletic shorts. I pushed the flip flops onto the pile of shoes and chose a matching pair of New Balances. I peered at Rhys again to find him leaned over, staring at his Converse. He looked kinda pale.

“You okay, sunshine?” I asked him, opening the dresser drawer and picking up the first pair of socks.

“Spun a little too fast. Just a little queasy.” he mumbled. I sighed and walked to his side. I took his arm, pulling him up off the chair. He swayed and I tugged him to the bed. I pushed his shoulders down until his knees gave way and he collapsed.

“Just relax, alright? I don’t need to clean barf off my carpet.” I said, putting my hand against his forehead. He was definitely a little warm.

“You’re really good at this maternal crap.” he mumbled. I chuckled and sat down next to him.

“I have a mother with cancer and a step-sister who parties too hard and gets herself in trouble. I have to be maternal or else all hell would break loose.” I informed him.

“Your mom has cancer?” he asked, opening one of his eyes. His eyelids were heavy and his brown eyes were glazed over. He was tired.

“How long have you been awake?” I asked.

“Uhhh… I don’t know.”

“Sweetie, focus, when was the last time you woke up?” I asked again. He opened the other gorgeous eye and looked up at me.

“Graduation?”

“Shit, maybe you should just sleep here.” I said. He smirked.

“In your bed?”

“Yes.” I blushed.

“Will you be here with me?”

“When I get back from my run, I’ll be here all night.”

He smiled and turned over onto his side. I got up and heard his breathing even out. He was asleep. I nodded to myself and pulled my socks and shoes on. I wanted so badly to lay down with Rhys but I promised Mom and I needed to go running before my energy died. I grabbed my Zune, a mp3 player that I’d lovingly named Rondo. Rondo is the 4th movement in a symphony from the classical music era and is generally a very fast tempo. I spent my second semester of sophomore year in Music Appreciation so I can “appreciate” all types of music.

I started down the stairs, Rondo starting up and my legs aching to move already. I reached the garage and I locked the door behind me, tucking the key back into the pile of screws and nails from when my dad used to use the garage to work on his house projects. I put my headphones in, tucked Rondo into my pocket and jogged in place for a few seconds. I stretched down, touching my palms to the cement. I did a few lungs and leaned on each leg until I felt the muscles loosen. Once I was warmed up, I was on my way.

The music kept me going. I sprinted to the road sign at the end of my road, which was a football field and a half. I turned onto the main road which kept all the roads of Pacific Bay tied together. I headed for the center of town, the sounds of my favorite bands pumping from the small headphones, pumping into my system and acting as an energizer. I kept my legs moving as I circled the town. I passed George’s old house and my heart stuttered but I kept on running. I forced myself past the baseball fields, past the playground, past the school and around the giant hill that circled up behind the high school and back down to that main road. I took a different path when I reached the middle of town, pushing myself over the bridge, past the firehouse, the library, the middle school, the church district, the cemeteries. I took the road that ran up Brooklyn Hill and around to the highway. I ran silently alongside the highway until I branched off at Menard’s, the junkyard. This took me up another hill, a quiet country road where the houses were a half mile apart and where no one minded each other. I continued until the pavement turned to dirt and I looked around before sprinting across Old Man Kendrall’s backyard and cut into the woods. From there, I found the path that all the runners had wore in the ground and followed it out onto the other side of Brooklyn Hill which was called Bradley Hill. I found my way down that onto the back road of the Church District and then onto the main road before heading back towards home. The sun had set and the only thing lighting my way was the dimmed, old streetlights.

I glanced up and found the sliver of a moon up in the sky. My legs screamed for me to stop but I pushed myself up the hill towards my house where I found all the lights in the house on, kids puking in the shrubs, a kid passed out in the garden with Mom’s tomatoes, a kid asleep on top of a very large SUV, a kid laying in a pool of his own vomit on the blacktop. I didn’t care. I fished out the keys to my room and made my way upstairs. I turned Rondo off and stripped down to my underwear and bra. I pulled on a large, baggy shirt that belonged to my father and collapsed onto the fullsized bed beside Rhys. He turned in his sleep and I couldn’t help myself. I crawled into his arms and dozed off into a deep sleep.

***

When I woke up, Rhys wasn’t there. I groaned and leaned off the bed, my spine cracking. I smiled and picked myself up off the bed. My stomach rumbled and I decided I should brave the kitchen. I didn’t care that I was wearing just a big shirt that barely came to my ass, I slept in the same bed with Rhys Abbott! There’s nothing that can top that right now.

I picked my way through the house, stumbling over cans of beer, even more passed out teenagers and- I shudder still at this- used condoms. I had locked Mom’s door before we left for the hospital so her room still should be untouched. The entire bottom floor of our house was a ridiculous mess. I groaned and jumped over the sleeping dog pile of half naked jocks. The kitchen was not any better but at least there were no teenagers naked in here. I did find Rhys sitting on the counter, sipping at a mug of coffee.

“Mornin’.” he said.

I chuckled and searched through the cupboard, which unfortunately was between Rhys’ legs. I tried to ignore our position but it was a little hard when he used me as a footstool.

“So I woke up in my clothes this morning and I can’t remember last night at all. I don’t even know why. I don’t think I drank that much!”

“You were relatively sober when you fell asleep last night, unless you’re even better at holding your liquor than I thought.” I said, grabbing the box of Captain Crunch and standing up. He smiled at me and I smiled back, setting the box beside him. He popped it open and took a handful of cereal out. I rolled my eyes and tossed my hair over my shoulder.

“So why were we sleeping in the same bed last night? Oh my god, we didn’t have sex, did we? I’m sorry, Kiernan, if we did! I’m such an idiot when I drink.”

I laughed loudly.

“We didn’t have sex, Rhys. You were doing something stupid, like spinning around in a chair and got sick so I let you sleep in my bed. I went for a run and when I got back, I couldn’t bare to wake you up so I just slept in the bed with you. We didn’t do anything.”

“Oh, thank you!” he kissed me on the forehead. I blushed and reached past his head for the cabinet door. It gave way and opened, causing me to stumble back. Rhys laughed at me, he laughed!

“You’re real graceful, Kay.” he said.

“Shut up.” I mumbled, grabbing a bowl from beside him. He took it from me and started pouring cereal into it. I went to reach for another when he put the bowl in my hands with a childish smile.

“Thank you, Rhys.” I said. He shut the cabinet and opened the one between his legs. He somehow successfully managed to put the cereal away and shut the cupboard without looking like a fool.

“I didn’t know you ran, Kiernan.” he said thoughtfully, taking a sip from his coffee. I shrugged.

“I don’t participate in gym because I always get those sexist pigs that you call friends and they like to harass the girls because our gym uniform is tiny.” I informed him, pushing my hair away from my eyes.

“I noticed that. It’s kinda sad that you guys have to wear the itty bitty shorts or you fail.” he said.

“Like you don’t like watching girls run around in the itty bitty shorts.” I shot, pulling open the door to the fridge with a little more force than I realized was necessary.

“Hey, you don’t know me, Kiernan. One of those girls you’re talking about, sweetheart, is my sister so don’t start talking shit if you don’t know what you’re talking about.” he growled and slammed the coffee mug down before storming out. I stared after him in confusion as I heard him slam the front door shut, several teenagers yelling at him in husky, tired voices. I leaned against the counter and stared at where Rhys had been and then at the kitchen door.

“Well, what the fuck?” I asked no one but myself.