The Man Who Ran

Always Running

-Five Years Ago

"... and congratulations to the class of 2007!"

With those seven words, and a toss of caps, it was over. Thirteen years of suffering through heart ache, vengeful classmates, and sadistic teachers, it ends in a dank gymnasium, not with a bang, or even a whimper, but in the muffled sobs of people who will be happy never to see each other again, and probably won't.

"Dude, snap out of it, we're out of this crap holee foreeevverrrr!"

Jason, my best friend, and the secret love of my life, sang/yelled at me from his soon to be wife's arms.

Yeah, you heard me, I, Chase Lucas Johanna, am in love with my best friend, a guy, who is marrying Lola, my other best friend, in two months. Sucks right?

"Stop yellin at CJ," Lola said in her thick southern accent, "You cain't neva stop a thinka from gettin lost in 'is head."

I mentally sigh. I've always liked Lola, we've been friends since she made a bigger kid(who turned out to be Jason) give me my shovel back in kindergarten, but lately, her habitual defense of me has been getting in my nerves. I mean, come on!!!! I'm a grown man; I can take care of myself.

"Listen to your girl J, and stop yellin." I said, striping off the stupid gown, and drifting again when Lola started talking about the wedding.

They looked good together, I guess. His blond hair and bright blue eyes contrasted with her flaming hair and dull green eyes. They had similar builds though, like swimmers, with him being a little bulkier from baseball. But they were happy, and madly in love, which was why I never told anyone about my feelings, except my mom, and why I was leaving, before the wedding, so I wouldn't have to go through the pain of seeing the man I loved be happy with someone else.

"CJ. CJ? CHASE!!" I was interrupted from my brooding by Jason yelling at me again.

"What???" I demanded, glaring at him through my onyx eyes, for causing me to jump. He knows it scares me when he yells at me when I'm thinking.

"Nothing much, I just forgot to ask you to be my best man." he says, with a look of innocence and hope that fit perfectly with his boyish face.

I sigh out loud this time. I'd been hoping to tell them I'm leaving after dinner, but he just had to go and ask a question like that.

"J, I..."

"Demetrius Jason Harding," interrupted me from telling him.

"Oh no, the Dragons breathing fire." J said, halfheartedly looking for an escape.

The Dragon is what we call J's mom, due to the fact that when he does anything wrong, and, consequently, me because I'm always with him, she is on our asses so fast the heat from her breath burns our butts.

"Come over here and give your mama a hug." she all but demanded, not leaving him the room he desperately wanted to escape.

"You to CJ, Lola," she said to no one's surprise, we were like the other kids she never got the chance to have. As I embraced her, I couldn't help but to think of my own mother, who had died last year, leaving J's mom to care for me.

"Oh honey, don't cry," wait? What? I'm crying? "She'd be so proud of you." she soothed, making me realize I was in the middle of the school parking lot.

"I'm sorry, I'm fine." I say, withdrawing, and wiping my eyes. And then I'm slapped lightly in the face.

"I told you never to apologize for crying over your mother." she said softly. "Even a grown man can get away with crying over his mama."

I couldn't stop myself from sweeping her into another hug. "Thank you so much for everything you've done for me, I can't even begin to repay you."

"I've got enough payment from having you around all these years," she grins, "now let's go eat!"

"Wait wait wait. I still need an answer; will you be my best man?" J butts in.

"J... I can't." I sigh, looking away, not really wanting to say it.

As expected, after a pause, J blows up.

"Why the heck not?" he screams.

Thankfully the parking lot is empty, so no one is around to hear. I sigh again, still staling, wanting to bury it all, and be his best man, and meet some girl and have a normal life, but I don't have a choice now.

"Because I'm leaving tomorrow, I'm joining the military."

As you can imagine, the rest of that night went peachy. Not.

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Present Day

What the hell was I thinking? Oh that's right, I was just running. Always fucking running. And now I'm in the middle of a desert, surrounded by sparse vegetation, baking, because I had to run from him.

"Jesus, its hot." said Derek, one of my squad mates.

He was one of those happy-go-lucky types, always with a smile, and B.S. to make you feel better. Sometimes I wanted to shoot him.

"No shit," I started, panting slightly, "we're in full BDU's carrying 100+ pounds of gear in the middle of Iraq, dumbass."

Damn, I'm becoming a dick. What can I say; I lash out when I'm uncomfortable.

"No need to be an ass Chase." he replied carelessly.

He's always like that, this short, brown haired, green eyed kids feathers were never ruffled and he took everything as it came, with that damn smile. Pisses me off. Not that I'd ever show that it affected me any.

Keeping my blank mask on I replied, "There is when your mouth goes stupid on us, D."

He merely smiled and rolled his eyes. We walked in silence for a while, our eyes scanning the desolate land around us.

"Hey when do we meet up with the others anyways?" he asked, glancing at me while my eyes kept to our surroundings.

"Don't know, few minutes maybe."

He nods, falling silent once again. After a couple minutes of this I'm about to speak, but he beats me to it.

"Hey, CJ look! I see them." and with that he takes off like a kid in an amusement park. I swear, he never really got past ten.

"D, wait..." and somehow I'm air born.

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A.N. sorry, I kind of left it on a cliffy

I'm a bit evil

Tell me what you think of it, and be honest, I can take it