Holding My Breath [Wattys 2016]

4 3 ~ R u s t y

                

Present Day ~ July 10, 2011

"Music!"

"Food!"

"Music!"

"Foo--"

"Oh for the love of god!" I yell over the sounds of the fair, glancing between Blue and Sawyer. "Flip a coin or something."

Blue just laughs. "Great idea. Let's go to the coin toss!"

"Yes--" Colt gets interrupted.

"No!" Bailey grabs Colt before he can bolt for the next booth. "A kid puked over there."

"Do you really want more food?" I ask, shaking my head. For the last few hours, we've gone around to every booth we see, drowning ourselves in the food and music. We've tried so many different desserts that I can't tell the difference between them anymore.

"No, music!" Blue yells over them. "A new band just got here!"

"Right. I vote music!" I agree.

Blue and Sawyer look at each other and shrug.

By the time we are heading off to join the crowd around the stage, I'm almost too tired to keep going. The adrenaline rush of running wild in a place as big as this has kept me up, and has made me forget all about my plans. I haven't seen the man anywhere, the one Caesar wants me to find, but it's not like I've been searching.

For just a few more minutes, I tell myself. I can let go for just a few more minutes. Then it's back to reality. Back to the search.

I make the most of those minutes, too. I Sway to the music, laughing along with them, finding that my thoughts are getting jumbled with all of the noise. But I don't even care that I can't think straight, that the music pulls that out of me. It's like I'm playing my guitar again, a pure state of release. Breathless.

I lose myself, for just that moment.

But that was the moment that someone chose to find me.

It happens when I'm stepping away from the rest of the group, yelling something about finding a bathroom over the music's strong base. It happens when I'm still letting my guard down, when I'm smiling again.

Her voice, one that I would recognize anywhere, cuts through the music. The free-flowing melody that flew through the air all just pauses for a single moment when I hear it. When I hear her speak a word I hadn't heard in months.

"Anna?"

My name.

It takes me a second to even recognize it... I've gotten so used to Rusty. Slowly, ever so aware of the moving bodies in the crowd around me, I turn to face her.

The girl who was the last one to see me before I ran.

"Charlie?"