Fly ∆way Girl

|37|

|FULL CIRCLE|

Josiah and I waited for Harley in the dark backyard. I didn't like it one bit, but we sat in the exact same spot me and Larson sat in the last time I was with him.

There was a party going on upstairs, perfectly syncing up with my previous memory snippets. They are all starting to make sense now, although I'm not loving the turnout.

The beast jumping from the roof with its gnarling teeth bared was an all to prominent memory that I couldn't help but play through.
I could have "died" that night, and my adventures in the after life would have ended there. Although, I would be in the dark place if Josiah hadn't come to my rescue.

I noticed myself inching a little closer to him just in case something else comes jumping from the roof.

I glanced over at him, for a second imagining it to be Larson's smiling face instead of Josiah's serious stare. He wasn't looking over at me, his eyes were focused on the full moon that peeked down at us through the skeleton trees.

The bright light illuminated his beautiful face, highlighting something different. I studied his face harder, wondering how long the changes had been there.

Tiny hairs were poking through all over his jaw and upper lip. I know a beard isn't that strange of a thing on a guy, but Josiah has never had one before. The thought has never crossed my mind, but he looks exactly the same everyday, perhaps because he is just a memory I have of the real Josiah, or JT I should say. So why not today?

It was a silly question to ask, the kind we shouldn't waist time on, so, I changed it.

"Josiah, where are we?" I asked.

His head rolled over to look me in the eyes. His eyes have been tired lately. They hang low like they're sad or maybe bored. Perhaps he's growing restless with helping me; maybe to him I'm a lost cause. Why does he follow after me, protecting me, when I'm sure there are many other people that deserve his help more?

I could tell he was listening to my thoughts, he does that when I ask a question. He's no doubt editing his answer to what he thinks I want to hear. Answer the question. I thought.

He smiled a weak smile and turned back towards the great light in the sky. "This is Leslie's house."

I should've guessed that with the massive party and all. "Why did I go through all of that trouble to come here?"

"You came to blame her." He said bluntly.

I thought about the creepy little letter I left in the jewelry box up there. It's your fault this happened..

Well if not her fault, then whose? I still blame her. If she wouldn't have caused such a scene at the prom, I would have never called Baylor to come pick me up, and we would have never wrecked. So yes, I still blame Leslie.

Josiah didn't object. I assumed he heard those thoughts too, maybe my bad attitude is a lost cause as well.

Suddenly, we heard crunching and panting, indicating the mad woman also known as my former self had arrived.

We didn't move as we watched her pace over to the flower bed. I wasn't sure what she was doing. All I could see was her bent over body carefully shuffling through the dirt and stones. Oh yeah, she needs a stone to break the window. At least she had enough sense to prepare ahead of time instead of trying to use her fist.

Suddenly, the blaring song ended and the night was quiet except for the drunken teen laughter and shouts. The song that I heard in the memory now began. This is exactly how I saw it the first time, so that means it must be true. A part of me was hoping that I had misinterpreted it. There's still more to go I guess.