Tonight.

See You

        There was a girl and a beige pickup truck with a full tank of gas. But that wasn't important now. She was staring at her ceiling, a nightly routine, thinking about how she desperately wanted to escape. Thinking about how her life was going nowhere and how she didn't want to wait the seven weeks to graduate ahead of her class by seven months. She needed a way out and there was a way out. The keys were on the key rack, calling her to a life better than the one she had.

            Stuck in the suburbs.

            Dreading her life of monotony. And never mind that he lived six hours away. That wasn't that far. She made that trip there and back beforehand multiple times that she knew it by heart. It was that simple. Plus, she had a plan.

            She's been working on it for quite some time now and it didn't matter what the consequences were. She was going to make it whether they liked it or not. Her parents that is. They never noticed her around the house, more like roommates than parents. They didn't care about her until it really affected them and when it did affect them, they would resort to yelling to vent their frustration. They never really got it. Never really showed that they cared. But she would make them care. She was going to leave it all behind. Pick herself up and just leave. Run away with him as far away from her hometown as she could get by land.

            There were packed bags and a beige pickup truck with a full tank of gas. But that wasn't important now. She already moved most of her stuff up to his house. There were only a few things left to take up there, and the rest they could have when they find her room empty. She wouldn't leave a note, she wouldn't say goodbye. Strangely enough, one person said goodbye already. An old friend who knew she was tired of her old life. Someone who she held close to her, or used to hold close to her. He had recently dropped out of college and she was worried he'd stagnate into oblivion. He was too talented and full of potential to just sit on his ass all day. He told her he wasn't going to do that but she wasn't sure. She didn't want that for him and she didn't want that for herself. It was hard to tell now whether or not he was just a ghost of a past life dragging her down into oblivion with him or if he was still the boy she wanted to stay in her life as long as possible. Maybe it was better to leave some things to ambiguity.

            It was a bit easier like that.

            He knew their friendship was dwindling and knew she wanted to up and leave so he texted her a week ago to say his goodbyes and wish her luck. She told him it wasn't going to be permanent and that she needed something new in her life. Something she wouldn't get in her hometown. Her wretched hometown.

            "Don't get too self-deprecating" She told him.

            "You know me, King of Self-Deprecation" he responded. He asked her to send him a postcard from where she went. She hadn't decided on whether to actually send one to him later on down the road or if she wanted to just slip away into the night.

            Maybe she would if she felt like it, who knew?

            It was a risk, letting him know where she was going to go. It was like leaving a breadcrumb trail right to her. So maybe that was a no. But then again he was there for her when she was at her lowest and conversely she was there for him at his lowest. So maybe a simple card with nothing written on it would suffice. She would decide later. Ambiguity, once again, won out.

            There was a family in a house that haunted her like a bad memory and a beige pickup truck with a full tank of gas. But that wasn't important now. What was important was the boy that was six hours away. She loved her life with him more than anything else she's experienced previously. And she loved him. She loved him enough to leave everything behind and be with him. She would pick him up at his house, get his stuff into the back of her mother's pickup truck, and then speed of wherever the farthest place from Edgewood as she possibly could with the pickup. That one friend of hers that knew where she was going gave it a stupid nickname in homage to her old pickup. Taco Juan, or Taco Juan Originale as it was now known as. The new pickup was dubbed Taco Taco Dos.

            She missed Taco Taco Originale. Taco Juan Dos had a center console between the two seats, where as the first Taco Taco didn't. That way her boyfriend could rest his head on her lap and she could stroke her hand through his hair as she drove them to wherever their hearts decided to go on the weekends. It didn't really matter as long as they had each other. Sometimes it would be Canada, sometimes it would be someplace random in the States. Anywhere was good as long as they were good and lost. Good and lost together.

            There were seven weeks left of school for her and a beige pickup with a full tank of gas. But you know what? Fuck it. She wasn't getting any younger, and Edgewood wasn't getting any better. The plan was to wait to graduate, leave home, wait for him to graduate, then ditch for the other side of the country, but who says that had to be the plan? Who says she couldn't just drive to him, pick him up, then go?

            The keys were calling to her.

            No goodbyes. None to her parents. None to her brother. None to her friends. The only remaining person that she cared for last before he fell into a monotonous repetitious cycle already said goodbye and was probably already stagnating even though he promised her he wouldn't. Maybe he'd pick himself up and do something with his life. That was the only goodbye that sort of mattered anyway.

            Just a hello. To the beige truck named Taco Taco Dos. To her love who was unexpectedly waiting for her to pick him up and take them both to their new lives...Wherever that may be. To the open road. To being free.

            It was worth throwing her old life away. It was worth it to be happy. To be freed of this monotonous hellhole that she barely called "home." Before she could drive she used to explore her town at night by walking through it, taking in every detail, learning and feeling all she could from it. And now there was nothing left for her there. But now she graduated to driving around the country. So that was what she was going to do.

            She got out of her bed. She took her bags. She went down the stairs. Past her parents' room. Past her brother's room, past the pictures on the mantle, past her dog Sirius and her cat Cairo, past everything. She took the keys. She went to the car and opened the door. The engine of Taco Juan Dos rattled to life. There was a new life calling to her and by God, she was going to answer it.

            There was a girl inside a beige pickup truck with a full tank of gas and the open road of freedom stretched out before her. And now that's all that mattered.