Chapter Ten Part Six

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            Ian had yet to leave Oleander’s side. She was laying in her bed with his arms wrapped around her waist but she was unable to feel anything. She knew what she wanted to feel, she desired something akin to that moment when she took a few too many medicine tablets and then inhaled air so frigid that she could watch it steam as it exited her mouth. She ached to experience exhilaration. She sat up abruptly and Ian arched his eyebrows and cocked his head to the side in confusion.

            “Let’s go for a drive.” She suggested while grabbing her keys and her wallet clutch. She hesitated after she opened the bedroom door, she silently stared into the corridor. She walked back towards her large princess like bed and picked up her camera and her canvas messenger bag purse, it was covered in paint splatters and sharpied on autographs from up and coming local bands. It also had pins and buttons adorning the straps, she hadn’t used it in a while not since before all of the “troubles”. She could only stand to think of the things going on with her friends as troubles, any other word was far too frightening.

            “Where are we going?” Ian asked kindly. The niceness of his voice made her skin prickle with disgust, her response to him shocked her. She didn’t use to be this way. Ian was the personification of everything she needed and had told herself what she had wanted for practically forever. She sighed heavier than she intended to.

            “I don’t know. On an adventure. Perhaps even a quest.” She told him careful to mask her disdain.

            “Well what are we seeking milady?” He respond with a brief bow. She wanted to smile and giggle at his antics. She wanted to be the girlfriend that he deserved, she needed to be the girl that he thought that she was. She wanted to be that pleasant, lovely girl but she certainly wasn’t anymore, if she ever had been.

            “We’ll know when we find it.” She assured him.

            He smiled and said “S’go.”

She exited her house with her tightly tapered jeans undone and her camisole peeking through her low cut band shirt, she had cut the trim of the neck hole off of it. Her feet were bare but she knew she had numerous pairs in the backseat of her automobile. Her dark brown hair was tousled and falling into her face she paused in her driveway to button up her jeans when the shifting of her walking legs caused her jeans to sink down too much for her liking. She opened the car door and got in, turning everything on and rolling down the two front windows while simultaneously opening the sunroof. She cranked the stereo on loudly, the bass was too loud and the band had a punk rock garage band vibe that was somehow balanced with a Brit-rock sound.   

“Who is this?” Ian asked her over the music, he recognized the lyrics but could not recall where from.

“A symptom of anaphylactic shock.” She informed him as she backed out of her driveway without looking.

The wind was causing Oleander’s loose waves to smack her in the face. She screamed the lyrics and slammed her palms against the steering wheel. The main road was empty aside from them and it seemed quite peculiar but she ignored it. Embracing the opportunity to speed. Her foot steadily applied more pressure to the acceleration pedal. Ian knuckles were white as he gripped his seat tightly. Oleander unclasped her seatbelt but Ian didn’t see. The street was ending and they were swiftly nearing the dead-end wall but Oleander appeared to have no intentions of stopping.

            “Ole! What are you doing! Stop!” Ian shouted but she pretended not to hear him.

Oleander was tempted to slam into the wall but caught a glimpse of Trent in the backseat shaking his head “No.”. She slammed on the breaks. When the car reached a stop, a very unsafe distance from the wall that was almost Oleander’s last place of life Ian opened his mouth. Oleander figured he was preparing to chastise her and she cut him off before he could begin.

            “You like this band?” She asked him.

            “Sure.” He told her, feeling out of breath.

            “Wanna go see em tonight? They’re headlining the cavern tonight.” The cavern was a local dive bar that doubled as a concert hall. It was previously “the tavern” but they stopped carding and one day everyone started calling it cavern.

“Um. Okay.” Ian answered, temporarily forgetting that he was upset with Oleander. Lately he had been feeling that he was the only one in the relationship making an effort to spend time with the other. He was excited for this. “Just us?” he asked trying to hide his hopefulness.

“No. The girls and Trent.” She replied slipping up.

“Trent from the party?” He said with a disappointed sigh.

“Oh. Yeah.” She answered as she reversed the car so that she could take the proper left out of the small town of New Devonshire. ‘Before we go home I want to stop at that field on the outskirts of town. The one with the tiny purple flowers.”

“The one between here and Shadyside? Cool.” Ian replied. Oleander removed her eyesight from the road and looked down at her lap, sending a text to Valerie, Trina and Rebecca at the same time.

Cavern tonight.

Ian, me, Trent too.

 

            Valerie was the first to reply.

Cool.

            Then Rebecca.

Kk.

 

            And Trina.

Good. We need all of us.

Think I can fix Bex.

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