The Overpass.

On the Marilynville overpass, Ruby swallowed down a hard, burning gulp that made her green eyes water. It stung her throat and she was sure she could feel the liquid traveling warm-sharp into her stomach.
She hid a cringe by shaking the dark auburn fringe from her eyes and passed the bottle back to Dex.
She watched her feet dangling below her into the darkness. The passing cars below were all headlights as they zoomed by and Ruby blew out a puff of air when she sighed.

Dex was guzzling down the contents of the bottle and somewhere, not far away, she could hear a siren.
Re-adjusting her jacket to try and stay warm on the cool September night, Ruby looked up at the stars, like tiny headlights millions of miles away.

They came here to get away.

Moonlight struck the bottle, glistening as it dropped from Dex's hand and tumbled down below.
There was another world down there.
(She heard it hit the concrete and bust.)
Another world full of tiny headlights and broken glass.
Emergencies and ugliness.
There was another world...

But up here, they were safe. Here, they could get away. Suspended above the world like ghosts or... even stars. This was refuge.
Dex took a cigarette out of a crumpled, half-empty pack and lit it, placing it between thin, pink lips.
He took a drag, turned to Ruby and said, "Tim will be fine."
And it never really occured to Ruby that he wouldn't be until Dex said that.

A week ago, Tim was the picture of health. His wide, blue eyes lighting up his face with a childish grin as he told embarrassing Junior-High stories to Dex's mom.
How can someone be fine one minute and gone the next? Pam said it was an accident.
That it was no ones fault and it could have happened to anybody, and 'yeah,' Ruby had thought. 'Anybody.'
But it wasn't anybody, It was Tim.
Tim got in the car wreck, Tim was in the coma, and Ruby felt like the world was splitting in two.
Like her life was the car wreck and she was alone on some highway, littering the roads.
It was Tim who'd been in the accident, but Ruby was the debris.
The leftover pieces of the aftermath of someone's scattered life.

The last time they spoke, Ruby was late for a lunch date with Tasha.
She passed Tim on the sidewalk on the way to the French bistro, hurrying along with her bag on her arm.
Tim greeted, "Hey buddy!" joyfully, an honest happiness in his voice and Ruby turned to look at him with the sunshine in his face and his wide, excited grin. She could hear her ringtone chiming out a cheerful melody from within her pocket that all but matched her anxious mood and managed a "Sorry, Tim. In a hurry. See ya!" before scurrying along her way. She didn't even like French food...

On the Marilynville overpass, Ruby was trying not to cry.
She breathed in deep through her nose and the wind carried the spicey, dark aroma of Dex's cologne.
The smell of leaves and motor oil and even liquor on her breath was suddenly overwhelming. It was all too much.
Just the knowledge that even though it didn't touch them there, the world was still waiting.

Tim still existed in a vegetative-state, and all things hard and ugly and gritty, they didn't go away.

She blinked back tears and Dex leaned in, wrapping his arm around her shoulder.
He smelled like cedar and cigarettes and alcohol and Ruby just wanted to forget.
He pulled a silver flask from his jacket pocket and handed it to her and as Ruby took a sip, she wondered how much of that liquid it would take before the world just disappeared.
And suddenly, "Hey," his voice was scratchy and brought her out of her head. She looked at him. "It gets easier." Dex nodded reassuringly. "I promise."

This was where they came to be alone. And she felt it.
But for the first time since Tim's accident, she felt safe.
And maybe Dex was right; maybe everything would be easy, someday.
Ruby smiled and passed the flask back to Dex.
The moon looked beautiful tonight.