The Back Harlow Road • Stand By Me

Chapter Seven "Accept the Changes"

Home, it should be a place where you feel invited and safe. For me home is not my house anymore. I never noticed before but the sudden attitude change in my parents scared me. A lot of things scare me.

I'm not talking about spiders or ghosts, I mean change and growing up. Those kind of things scare me.

When I finally entered the house it started to drizzle outside. Not even a moment later that drizzle changed into a downpour. The sky is crying.

My parents sat on the couch but did not notice that I had entered. "I'm sorry, I'm late," I said sitting in the arm chair.

"That's ok honey, uhm," she paused slightly "I know we haven't been getting along to well lately but you know your father and I love you very much," she said and I looked at her strangely, where did this come from?

"Yes, I know that you may have been hanging out with a different crowed and maybe you aren't the same as you used to be, but we love you nonetheless, now with that being said we have some news," my father stated and this was another thing I was scared of. I was scared of the unknown.

"Ok," I said slowly, almost as if my voice could change the fate of the news.

"Well the police, they uhm," my mother started crying and I looked to my father.

"Constance, you see, Ray is dead," for the first time ever, I saw my dad cry. That's when I noticed my parents were human too, and they aren't going to be my heroes anymore. Like they were when I was a kid.

I got up from the arm chair and wobbly walked up the stairs. I was crying, but I wasn't feeling anything. The rain outside continued to pour and it fit my mood exactly.

I approached Ray's room and softly pushed the door open, it was just how he left it. I pulled out his drawer in the dresser and put on one one of his sweatshirts, I drowned in it.

The sweatshirt matched with my skinny black jeans that started to become my new statement piece.

I carefully lay on Ray's bed crying and looking out the window. I pulled the blanket up to my chin and before I even knew it I was asleep.

When I woke up it was dark out, and still pouring outside. I looked at the little alarm clock on the night stand and it was ten o' clock PM. I decided to go for a walk in the rain to clear my mind, crazy right? Our town was pretty safe that way.

Once I made it into town I barely noticed I was walking in the middle of the street. Nobody really drove in our town so it didn't matter, it was too easy to walk place to place.

I looked up into the sky, stupidly standing in the middle of the street. I mentally asked why it had to be Ray, why couldn't it be anyone else?

A car beeped from behind me and I almost jumped ten feet in the air, until I saw the familiar car. "Connie what the hell are you doing?" Eyeball shouted out and I walked over to his car.

"Trying to kill myself obviously," I said and he rolled his eyes "get in."

I slid into the passengers seat and we drove for a bit, with no real destination. "Why do you look so upset, it's making me depressed?" he asked, his focus still on the road.

"My brother died," I said and he almost slammed on the breaks. Once he recollected himself and started driving again, he swallowed whatever he was going to say.

"Sorry," he said and it sounded like a question, I just leaned my head against the cold glass window looking ahead at the road, I wasn't quite sure where we were.

"Where are we going," I asked sitting back up, and even though I was drenched in rain, that wasn't my biggest worry for some reason.

"We're driving until my car runs out of gas," he said still looking at the road and I laughed.

"Sounds like a plan," I said leaning back.

And he did just that, we stuck to the plan and drove about another three or so hours. Until we were in Portland, Oregon. "Oh my gosh, Eyeball we are in Portland," I said sitting up in my seat, my parents would worry their asses off.

He laughed "yeah, and we're out of gas," he pulled out his wallet and went pale "and money."

"That's fucking great," I said laughing to ease my nerves. The two of us busted out into laughter and anyone would think we were crazy at the moment.

We stayed in his car for a while, we were able to actually make it into a parking lot. We sat there with our stomachs rumbling but didn't say a word.

We stared at each other for a while "hey eyeball, what's your real name?" I asked curiously. He lightly laughed before looking back at me.

"Why do you want to know, no one really calls me by it anyway," he asked. I just shrugged and he pondered for a second before he sighed.

"Richard," he said and I started smiling.

"So can I call you Dick?" I asked and he shook his head quickly "no fucking way."

I started laughing and then I sighed sitting back forward "ok Richie," I leaned back into the chair.

"You're never gonna stop calling me that are you?" he asked and I shook my head "fuck," he sighed leaning back also.

I rested my head on his shoulder and he put his head on top of mine. We just sat in silence staring at nothing, but it wasn't awkward like it should be, it was actually really good and for some reason my stomach tied in knots.

Eventually I fell asleep in the silence and I got butterflies in my starving stomach as he started playing with the ends of my hair. What is going on with me?