History In The Making

Getting to the hotel wasn't a problem at all. There was hardly any traffic and though there was a slight tension between Chris and I about what happened, everything seemed to be going better now. Except that I was in bed trying to sleep and just couldn't.

I groaned loudly and sat up, shoving the covers off of my body and standing up to change back into my clothes. Chris was out at a store getting some food for dinner and breakfast the next morning. I slipped my shoes on and made my way out the door and into the hot California air.

I started walking down a familiar street that held my favorite restaurant to eat at. I caught a wiff of baking bread as I walked by it. Pedestrians passed me, some of them pushing into me and grumbling an apology. I wasn't in the mood for people acting like assholes right now, I'd already had enough of that.

I ducked into the nearest shop I could find which ended up being a small CD store. I started browsing around, stopping at the rock section for a moment to see if any bands I liked came out with anything new. I flipped through them a little bit when I heard someone cough next to me.

"Hey, can I help you?" I turned to see a girl, not much older than me, smiling. I smiled back and shook my head 'no'. "My Chem, huh?" She noticed the CD that was currently in my hand.

"Oh yeah, I haven't had a chance to pick up their new CD yet." I smiled at her again and took in her appearance. She was a few inches taller than I was with dark red hair that brushed just below her shoulders. She was quite skinny and her smile was to die for. She wore a black tank top under a beaten leather jacket, black skinny jeans and chucks.

"Don't I know you from somewhere?" She asked. I felt myself start to panic, but played it off as cool.

"Uh, I don't know, maybe." I gave her a soft smile as she surveyed me.

"I know! You're that girl that ran off with her teacher!" I sighed and looked down to my shoes. So much for playing it cool. "Dude, you're my freaking hero!" My head snapped up to see her beaming from ear to ear.

"What?" I choked out, not understanding why she was saying this. Most people wanted to kill me for one of two reasons: either they thought I was an idiot or they wanted Chris themselves.

"Yeah! You've got nerve! Running off with your teacher and getting away with it! You've got guts! Totally impressive." I laughed lightly at her remark. "I'm Allyssa, by the way." She stuck out her hand for me to shake.

"Charlie." I shook her hand and gave her a smile.

"So Charlie, what are you doing back in Oakland? I thought you two ran off somewhere." She lead me over to a table where I sat down and she grabbed two Mountain Dews out of the cooler and handed one to me before taking a seat of her own.

"Yeah, we're in New York right now, but something went wrong and Chris's dad is in the hospital and doesn't have long. So we did a straight-through drive back and here we are." I smiled and cracked open the can that was in front of me.

"New York, huh? I've always wanted to go there. But dude, sounds like a pretty fucked up situation you're in right now. Can't imagine too many people would be thrilled to see him back here." She laughed and cracked open her own can.

"Why is that?" I asked out of curiosity before taking a drink from my soda.

"You haven't heard? The entire California school system is doing a crack down so something like this doesn't happen again. Total bullshit if you ask me." She took a drink of her own soda and continued. "I'm surprised you two even got away with it! With everybody freaking out that is."

"Well they couldn't really do anything because they found out after I turned 18. Chris did get fired from his job when we lived in San Diego though." I still felt guilty about that. Thinking about living there brought back memories that I didn't want to have anymore.

Honey, those memories are stuck with you. Just like I am.

I grimaced slightly and tried to hide it by stretching. Allyssa caught it anyway and looked at me confused.

"Oh just something that happened when we lived there." I gave her a soft smile, hoping she wouldn't pursue it any more. She didn't. Instead she stood up and walked behind the counter, typing something into the computer quickly and coming back.

"Well I'm done here so if you want to go hang out for a while we can if you like." She flashed me another dazzling smile and I nodded. "You'll have to wait outside and I'll meet you out there." I nodded again and headed for the door to wait for her.

For some reason, and this being hard for me since Joey, I was thinking that Allyssa could be a good friend. Someone I could trust to stand up for me and keep my secrets. That's what I really needed right now. Somebody that wasn't Chris that I could talk to whenever I needed. An unbiased opinion. Maybe Allyssa was this someone.