Run

Her feet pounded into the pavement in time with the pulsing beat in her ears. Her breaths were short and labored and her legs were throbbing, but she ignored it and focused on the bass line pounding in her chest in time with her hammering heart. She immersed herself in the music, closing her eyes and opening her arms like a champion runner crossing the finish line. The pain was erased, stifled by the music. She was happy, she was free.

Broke from her reverie by a car rushing by her, she realized that she had reached a bridge. She paused her music and leaned against the railing, panting. She rested her warm, sweaty hands on the cool metal of the chain-link fence above the bridge railing and looked out at the cloudy, lazily flowing water. The tress were the bright, lush green of summer, and their vivid color contrasted the river and made it look murky and dirty. She frowned, noticing the trash and the off tint in the water. This didn’t surprise her, the river was man-made anyway. A true stamp of suburbia. All pavement, chain-link fence, fading graffiti on the giant rain pipes opening into the river. She looked down at her shiny running shoes, only slightly muddy from her run, and her short running shorts and tacky neon green dry fit tank top. She was just a staple of suburbia like the rest of it, the grey monotone with fake rivers and grime around the edges. Just another tall, skinny brunette with clear blue eyes.

Sticking in her earbuds once again, she realized the irony of the song she was listening to.

To live and not to breathe is to die in tragedy
To run, to run away, to fight what you believe
And I leave behind this hurricane of fucking lies…

To run away.. Why not just run away? Fuck it all and get out of town? She felt like she could run forever. Why not?
She smiled to herself as she sprinted away to the final beats of her favorite song, not knowing or caring where she would go, or if she would come back.

You’re leaving, you’re leaving, yeah, you’re leaving home…