Run Right Back

Madeline was sitting on the couch in black shorts and an oversized army green v-neck. There was sleep on her face and a cup of Earl Grey tea in her hand. She had her right knee drawn to her chest on her other leg tucked under her bottom. She lazily looked over at Jon who was sitting on the other side of the couch. “Maddie, where are Kim and I going that I had to dress in a suit?”

“I’ll be out in like ten minutes! I am sorry! My hair isn’t cooperating!!!” Kim yelled from her bedroom, over the music she was playing while getting dressed.

Madeline yawned. “She didn’t tell you?” He shook his head. The doctor gave him a sleepy smile. “Sounds like Kim. Yep. I’ll see you later, Jonny boy. I can’t even drink this.” She placed the cup on the ground. “Take care of Kimmy for me.” There was a failed attempt to send kisses the air but Maddie just looked like a guppie out of water. She stumbled into a wall. “I’m fine.” The sleepy doctor kept ambling down the hall until she made it safely to her bedroom.

It had been 5 days since Jon broke up with Virginia. Since that day he hadn’t heard from Virginia. It wasn’t like they would ever accidentally run into each other except at this French bakery that he used to visit to escape his friends. It was the place where he met her. The bakery was always packed and a few times Jon couldn’t find a seat except at Virginia’s table. They started sitting together and hitted it off. That lasted only 7 months and some change. One of Jon’s longest relationships.

The music shut off and Kim walked out of her bedroom. Her hair was pulled back in a messy updo with curled strands hanging down. She was in a purple strapless bubble dress, gray tights, and her Doc Martens. Swung across her chest was a red patent leather purse shaped like a heart. The girl looked pretty, but for what.

Her perfectly poised red lips open. “Okay. I’m ready to go.”

“To where?”

“Some place called Meadow Hills. It is like 20 minutes out of town. So you’ll be driving for a bit. I hope you have some good tunes in your car.” Kim looked ill. Her face was pale and her hands trembled. Jon knew something was wrong with her, but Kim would have denied any problem. He asked her anyway, in vain.

“Hey Kim,” Jon rose from the couch, striding over to her. “Are you alright? Do you want to go out? We can just stay in and eat Chinese food, have something nice to drink, maybe play some video games.”

Kim smiled weakly at him. “Yeah, and have a repeat of what happened last time you were at my place for Chinese food and wine? Nice try, Mr. Smooth.”

“Where are we going, Kim?”

The girl only raised her eyebrows and put a finger to her lips. “Secret.” They walked out of the apartment building to Jon’s car parked by the curb. Jon opened her door and then got into the driver’s seat. It took them a little over half an hour to get out of the city. Then they took a back road for fifteen minutes until they arrived at a very crowded place called Meadow Hills. Cars pulled around a bend where a man in a red suit took the car and parked it. Girls in pretty dresses and men in suits walked around laughing and smiling. It looked like the cover to a JCPenny catalog.

The building looked elegant and chic. There were men standing by the front door escorting people in. Jon pulled up to the valet and cautiously gave over his car. He stood by Kim’s side. “Kimberly. What are we going to?”

“A funeral,” she said calmly. The two walked up the steps and into the foyer. A woman with tight skin stretched across her skull and blinding white teeth strode over to them.

“Welcome to the union of Amanda and Scott Sullivan. May I have your name so I can help you get seated?”

Jon looked over at Kim. There was an exterior to her, shell-like. Jonathan didn’t know where they were or what they were doing but he could see on her face that she was going to crack. Something was going to break her and he didn’t know what. He looked around the foyer for a familiar face. He found none.

“Kimberly Parker and guest,” she said in a voice a tad louder than a whimper.

The botox woman guided them into the main hall. There were round tables clustered around the hall with an open dancing space and a long table in the front with about ten chairs on one side of the table. The couple was placed at a table near the middle of the hall with a few people already sitting down. The chairs had white lace slip covers over them. On the table was a candle center piece, lace doilies, silver lined dishes, silverware wrapped in pretty silver napkins, empty glasses and a shimmery table cloth. It looked like they were at a wedding reception.

Two men were sitting at their table. The men looked incredibly bored except when on their phones. One was checking a football game’s score and the other was playing Tetris. Kim looked down at their name tags. ‘Kimberly Pocker’ and ‘Pocker’s Guest’. “Someone failed on spell check when they made these,” she remarked.

Jon looked around the hall. “Who got married?” He whispered the question to her. Yet again, she avoided answering his question.

“Hey,” the guy playing Tetris said to Jon and Kim. He had soft curly brown hair and thick brown framed glasses. “I’m Peter. This is Grant,” he pointed to his friend who had a stern look to him and a crew cut. “What are your names? How do you know the lovely bride and groom?”

Kim squinted her eyes and then made an ‘oh fuck’ face. She tried to quickly erase any traces of the look on her face, but Jon caught it. “I am Kim and this is Jon.” Jon shook the men’s hands. “We know the bride. Old friends.”

“Oh yeah. So is my lady and his. Nice to meet you.” He went back to his game of Tetris.

Kim covered her face shamefully with her hands and turned into Jon’s shoulder. “This was a terrible idea, Jon. I walked myself into a trap.”

“It’s a trap,” he playfully said in a mock tone of Admiral Akbar from Star Wars. It earned him a smirk and her hand. He held her hand firmly.

Two women walked over to the table. It was none other than Heather and Caroline from Kim’s old sorority. Kim had figured Heather was going to be one of the girl’s at the table because she remembered Peter. Peter was the one person in Heather’s life that wasn’t turned off by her abrasively horrible attitude.

Heather’s lip snarled at the instantaneous realization of who had joined their table. “Oh, Scott and Amanda are fucking hilarious for putting you at our table. I thought I had escaped your ugly face, Kimberly.”

“And I thought I had escaped you, the bitch from Hell. Who arranged the seating chart? Someone with a sense of humor?”

Heather gave Kim a wide toothed smile and sat down next to Peter. The rest of the dinner Heather ignored Kim, blocking her from her view with a flower bouquet center piece she traded with a nearby table. Before dinner was served the newlyweds took their seats at long table along with their court. Amanda was Mindy and Mindy was the bride. Scott Sullivan was Sully and he was the groom. It clicked for Jon. They were at wedding reception for Mindy and Sully. He couldn’t believe it. No wonder Kim didn’t say a word. She would have broken into a rage. Kim watched the couple eat and their guests say speeches as everyone ate. Color sprouted on Kim’s face. By the time dinner ended and the speeches were done she had turned a blossoming red. Jon gently held her hand, giving her a cautious look.

The two other couples at the table left to dance in the dance area. When Jon and Kim were finally left alone, he turned to her. The saddest look was on her face. She reached out and grabbed her glass of gin and tonic off the table. It was her fifth. “Kimmy, why didn’t you tell me Mindy and Sully got married?”

“Because maybe if I didn’t acknowledge it it wouldn’t be true.” She sadly pulled her hand from him and slowly got up. “I’m going to go to the bathroom and then we can leave.”

“You don’t want to say hi to them?”

“She saw me and smiled. That’s all that matters, honestly. I’ll meet you in the foyer. Thanks for taking me, Jon.” Before she left the table she crouched beside him and said, “Wrap up some of those deserts in a napkin and put it in my purse for me.” A small kiss was placed on his cheek.

Jon did as he was told, even wrapped up a piece of cake for her, and walked into the foyer. There was an elderly couple walking out the front doors. Then there was just Jon and a purse full of stolen deserts. Waiters walked in and out. Drunk people stumbled around. Jon took a left down a hall and looked for the bathrooms to find Kim. There was an argument happening down one of the halls. Jon followed it, hoping that Kim wasn’t in it but knew that she was in an aquarium of sharks so there was bound to be some bloodshed.

Everything he hoped for was shattered. “Hey! Get off of her Sully.” Jon jogged down the hall and shoved Sully roughly. They both fell to the ground struggling to hurt another. Before Jon turned down the hallway Sully had Kim pinned against the wall. He had outstretched arms on either side of her body, blocking her in. She looked sick. Sully was gloating over how vulnerable he made her feel.

Sully, who was now on the ground, pushed Jon off of him. The shove was soft and limp. Jon could tell that Sully was liquored up and feeling surly. “Who the fuck—You again?! Fucking seriously? I can’t get rid of you.” Sully looked up at the shrinking Kim. “You are still with this fucking guy? I thought he left your ass. I thought I broke you two up.”

“Like you have that much power,” Jon said firmly. “What the fuck do you want from her, Sully?”

“I want her dead,” he said flatly. “How do you feel right now, Kimmy? Do you feel like you’d rather be dead? Because I’ll take that.”

Jon wanted to scoop her up and run to his car with her thrown over his shoulder. She walked over to the fallen Sully and knocked him back down with her foot. She then placed the heel of her boot firmly against his throat. When he tried to get up he only choked. Jon watched in awe of how badass she was at the moment.

Kim waited until he stopped gagging to talk. Her voice was soft and calm. “Listen Sully. I get it. You hurt me the best way possible. You destroyed my college career, broke me up with my boyfriend, took away my best friend, knocked her up and married her. You kind of fucked up everything for me. You broke me. Congratulations.” Her left eye twitched. “But Mindy is happy now and she loves you. So stop fucking around. Don’t tell me about the groupie bitches you fuck because you know I’ll have to keep those secrets because I don’t want to break her heart in telling her that the man she loves fucks around.” Sully looked like he was about to speak so Kim pressed harder against his throat. “Shut the fuck up. I will hold your fucking secrets even though they are breaking my heart. But you need to fucking stop, Scott Walter Sullivan. Stop talking to me. No more calls at one AM confessing shit when you are blind drunk. I don’t fucking care about you.” Kim kept her strong stare with Sully, fearing that breaking it would release her into a rush of tears. “Listen to these words: Do not ruin Mindy, asshole. Do not ruin your child, the one she is carrying inside of her. I never hated anything as much as I hate you, Sully.” She bent down a bit and spat near his head. “I fucking hate you.” She stepped harder on his throat until he was gagging and smacking at her leg.

The man was looking incredibly weak beneath the heel of Kim’s Doc Martens. The tables turned on him with the appearance of Kim’s guest so suddenly that he couldn’t prepare for this. Sully didn’t think he’d end up on the ground choking. Jon scooped Kim, throwing her into his arms, and carried her down the hall. She fell against his chest and looked down at her dress. There were shouts from Sully behind the two but they ignored him. Kim whisked a lonely bottle of vodka of the table it was sitting on in the foyer before Jon carried her outside. She cradled it against her chest. A valet pulled up Jon’s car and the couple quietly scrambled inside. Jon drove out the parking and turned onto the dirt back road but slowed to a stop, pulling up the emergency brake. Without turning to look at Kim he asked, “Were you going to take your foot off his throat?”

“Probably not had you not been there. He was wasted.”

“What about yourself? You had five gin and tonics.”

The bottle cap to the vodka was spun off. She took a deep swig from it. “And now I have this vodka. I am so incredibly sad, Jon.” She started to cry. The cap was safely put back on and she dropped the bottle to the ground. She pulled her knees to her chest and cried. “He did fuck up my life and is still fucking it by tainting my best friend. And then there is this sticky mess with you. I am so miserable. I hate myself!” She tapped her head against the glass window. “I hate a lot of the stupid choices I made. It was stupid of me to be a DJ. Stupid to trust Sully. Stupid to sleep with you and not knowing you had a girlfriend. I should have asked. Why wouldn’t you have a girlfriend? You are a catch. I just make stupid decisions that ruin shit for me.” She hits her head against the glass. “I loved you,” she mumbles. “When I ran after our break up I felt like shit. I felt like shit for such a long time because there was never going to be another guy like you in my life. Never. I just have felt like such a sad sack for so long that it is taking its toll on me. I am broken.” She bites her tongue to shut herself up. “Hate myself.” Thud. “Fuck.” Thud. Jon panicked. He started the car and just started driving; driving to a place he thought would be safe for her.