The Dark Roads: The Complete Story

Chapter 8: The Cure

Me and Tracy ended up talking to each other for almost the entire school day. It sucked that my last class of the school day wasn't the same as hers. I wanted to keep talking to her before she left. Before I could finish my homework, the bell rang. I left the classroom and saw Tracy out in the hallway. I looked down at my watch. It was only had two hours until the party began. I approached Tracy as she stood next to her locker,

"Hey Tracy, are you doing anything before the party?" I asked her.

"No not really," She said.

"Follow me," I insisted.

"Okay," She responded.

She followed me down the hallway to the gym. We walked down the steps to the gymnasium. There were a couple of people hanging around by the door waiting to be let in. The janitor saw us and waved to us, gesturing for us to come in.

The gym was the hangout spot for those who wanted silence, or in our case, wanted to talk. We sat down at a small round table, with her sitting on one side and me on the other. We began to talk. She spoke very softly, and whenever she did speak, she'd make gestures with her hands. It was cute.

"So tell me something about yourself," I said.

"Why? You got any things you want to know?" She asked.

"Yeah actually. Tell me about what happened at lunch and how it made you feel," I said, getting closer to her.

"Ok," she said.

A few seconds went by and I was anticipating a quick response.

"Tell me," I repeated after she didn't respond for a couple of seconds.

"Ok ok ok!" She said. "It's just that everything that happened feels so new and fresh, you know?"

"I just want to know how it made you feel."

"Well, first tell me how it made you feel. "She said.

I hesitated for a moment, and then I began to tell her how it made me feel. I began to talk about how I felt when she grabbed my hand. She told me about how she felt when I held her hand. When I had finished telling her my feelings, she told me hers.

"And when you took my hand, I felt the same thing," She said. " I feel the same way right now. I didn't want to go to the party without you. And I didn't want to sit in the lunch room without you. That's how I felt. And I'm happy I'm here with you right now," She said with a smile.

I smiled when she said this.

"We've been good friends for so long. I've always liked you. I've just never liked you in this way before." I explained.

"I've started liking you ever since your big breakup junior year" She replied.

"Oh. Really?"

"Yes. I wanted to make some sort of move or something. But you were pushing everybody away, including me. I thought you needed space." She said.

"I'm sorry Tracy. I didn't know you were feeling that way. I was just in a very dark place." I said trying to explain why I was so distant.

"I understand" she said sweetly.

She looked down at her hands. She was lightly fidgeting with her fingers. "I'm a little nervous though, are you?" she asked.

"Yeah, I am too," I said to reassure her.

She started fidgeting out of nervousness. Ever so slightly, we began moving closer to each other over the round table. "Are you going to kiss me?" She asked.

"That's up to you," I said.

"You can if you want to." She said with a smile.

I leaned forward till we were inches apart. Then I was taken aback when I heard a voice in the back of my head.

"You're not good enough for her," It kept repeating.

No, maybe I'm not good enough, but I'll be damned if I don't try to be!

I tried to ignore it but I couldn't. It kept getting louder and louder until I couldn't take it. Just then, I looked back at Tracy. She was smiling her heartfelt smile. Everywhere around me got brighter. That voice got quieter and quieter until I couldn't hear it.

I smiled back at Tracy and moved closer to her. Our faces were inches away from each other. All of the sudden we both stopped. I looked over at her and smiled. When she looked back at me, she smiled as well. At that moment, I knew she wanted it just as much as I did.

I gently grabbed the underside of her jaw. When our lips met, it was nothing like I had ever experienced. There is nothing like kissing someone you have been friends with for the longest time. I couldn't put it into words.

It was our first kiss that day. As we were kissing, I closed my eyes and let my imagination run wild. I was thinking of so many things that I don't really remember any of these thoughts specifically.

It was the perfect ending to a very good day. I opened my eyes and looked up at Tracy. We became still, just waiting for something to happen. We didn't talk or move. We just smiled. For whatever reason we were waiting for the other person to move first. Finally I broke the silence. "So how long do you have before you have to go?"

"About ten minutes before I have to leave you," she said, playing with her hair.

I looked at her and smiled "Wanna hang out until then?"

She smiled and shook her head no.

"Sorry Chris, I sort of want to get ready before I go"

"But you already look so.." I was about to finish but she gave me a quick peck on the lips.

"Your sweet" She said in my ear.

I looked at her a couple of second before realizing I probably needed to get ready too.

"I should get going then Tracy."

"I'm not letting you go that easy" she said as she got up and slowly moved over to my chair, holding it in so I couldn't leave. "You can't go anywhere until I get what I want from you."

"What is that exactly?" I asked.

"I want you to admit that this is the most fun you've had all year"

It was pretty easy for me to admit this, since it was true.

"You haven't had this much fun in the whole school year, have you?" She said.

"Alright Alright, this MIGHT be the most fun I've had all year."

She started to laugh. "Good. I thought that I was the only one."

I looked up to her as she put her arms around my neck. She rested her head on mine. Nothing else mattered to me, she was the only thing I could think about; until I looked at my watch. An hour had gone by and all that mattered was making sure the past wouldn't repeat itself. That I wont lose her this time. I closed my eyes. As I searched my thoughts, I was surprised to find that the darkness that once took over my mind was gone. All I saw was her.

Maybe she was the cure. Maybe this all happened for a reason.

Word Count: 1214