You Don't Hate Me

It was just a party

A few months went by, and Kari and I would always hang out after school but she could never stay as long as she wanted to, her dad would always blow up her phone.

" Why won't he just leave me alone? I can't wait for graduation, I'm gonna leave and never come back.'' She leans back in the passenger seat as I drive her back home. I took a moment to look at her, that moment turned into a minute. Her long ebony legs rested on my dashboard, the passing street lights kissing her skin as if they were all saying good night. I whipped my head back when she started to sit up just in time to notice I was driving on the other side of the road.

" HEY, DON'T KILL US! Not yet at least," she shouts jokingly.

" Sorry, I'm just tired." I laugh, " Maybe it's a good thing your dad doesn't let you stay out all night, right?" I waited for her to laugh or to say some quippy thing but she didn't. She looked out the window and the rest of the ride while I spiraled, thinking I'd upset her. When I dropped her off she didn't even look at me when she got out of the car,

" Goodnight!" I shout as she continues to walk towards the house. She stopped right before the first step when her mother ran out of the house, screaming,

" You son of a bitch! I can't believe you'd accuse me of something like that!" She was so angry that she walked past her daughter without even looking at her. " I'm leaving!" I didn't know what to do so I pulled off slowly hoping no one could notice.

" Have a goodnight everyone," I whispered awkwardly to myself, still feeling the need to be proper despite everything happening. I was about halfway home when my music cut off from an incoming call from Kari, I pulled over to answer. You know me, always the responsible one.

" Hey K, you okay?"

Kari was sobbing, I could hardly understand what she was trying to say but what I did hear was,

" Kimmy, I need you." I didn't give it a second thought, I turned around to go get her. All the thoughts in my head were racing, and replaying over and over, when I got to the gate Kari was already waiting outside with a backpack, which I assumed was filled with clothes. She hops in and shoves the backpack into the back seat, it brushes against my arm and my thought was, there was no way she had clothes in there.

" What the hell is in that book bag?"

It took her a second to answer as she put her seatbelt on, sighing as she looked over at me and said,

" We're going to a party. Don't worry, I know the guy throwing it and It's BYOB so I stole some booze from my dad's drawing room. Hurry up, before my dad notices I left."

I waited until we got further down the road to ask what happened, she hesitated then looked out of the window,

" My dad thinks our driver is my real dad. He thinks my mom was planning to run off with him or something, it's stupid really."

I could tell I wasn't 'nothing', but I let it go to avoid making the mood worse than it was.

" Hang a left at the next stop sign." she wipes her face before facing forward, excitement grew on her face as we pulled off to a street filled with fancy cars from other teens whose parents had way too much money.

" How do you know this guy? You never talk about people you've met like that." I try to find an open place to park that isn't someone's yard.

" What? I talk about him all the time, he's like that captain of one of the sports teams or something. I don't listen to him when he talks but he's cute to look at." she laughs. I also laugh but only to avoid discussing it anymore.

" Gosh, there's like nowhere to park." I was hoping she'd change her mind and just ditch the party and stay the night at my place like we used to but she was going through something.

" Just drive down, there's like this crazy cliff no one goes to cause I think 5 people died there."

" Why do you wanna park there then?"

" It's secluded so no one will trash the car if they're too drunk and It's empty so when you get pooped out from the crowd like you usually do you can come and chill here." I smiled and a warmness filled my chest and my face. It happened from time to time but this felt so different. Just knowing that she thought of me like that made me feel seen.

" Would you stay with me then?" I wanted to see how much she cared, a part of me knew that I was expecting too much though.

" Yeah, if I get tired of the scene in there or if a guy keeps shooting his shots." I parked and we took a second to look at the cliff. I didn't find it that scary, though, it was kind of pretty. The lights below resembled the night sky but with more visible stars. Kari walked right up to the edge and took a peek down, her foot slipped and she fell forward. She screamed as I lunged to catch her but she still fell over the side, I had her by the arm using all my strength to pull her back up and she rested on my chest,

" Wow, your heart is beating so fast." she huffed, clearly trying to hide the fact that she was scared.

" You could've died, of course, my heart is racing. I love- I love being your friend, I'd have no one if you died." she sits up and smiles at me,

" You were gonna say you loved me, weren't you?" it was a good thing she wasn't laying on my chest anymore because it felt like my heart was about to burst right out of my chest.

" Let's just go to this stupid party already, get drunk, and go home." I pushed her off me, very gently and we started heading towards the house of drunken delinquents with no parental supervision.