Run

Part One | 9

TRIGGER WARNING: crude, mature language

Chapter 9

"I remember that it was the summer of '97. I had just barely graduated and had turned twenty years old that same month.

I had been planning on going to Colorado. All my life, I really wanted to see the Rockies. I don't know why, but I have always wanted to see them. I was going to do it. I really was."

"How did Marie feel about that? You two were still together by that time, right?"

"Yeah... Yeah, we were. She didn't like it very much, but she had known for a while that I wanted to leave. She had even told me that she was going to come with me. I didn't oppose it, but I didn't plan on her coming with me. I was going to go alone, and the more we talked about it, the more she came to realize that I had no intention in bringing her with me.

Marie still hadn't even graduated, and I knew that no matter what, her parents would never let her willingly leave with me. Marie knew that, too. When summer came, I was ready. Marie knew I was ready. I was ready to leave. But then she totally threw my whole world upside down.¨

...

Marie came over all the time. It was like she might as well live here. She had finally met my stepmother at my graduation ceremony last week, almost a whole nine months after Marie and I had started hanging out together. Though she and Gale didn't speak to each other much, Gale was aware of Marie and Marie was aware of Gale. Marie never asked about Gale and when Gale asked about Marie, I kept it on the surface level. I never referred to Marie as my girlfriend, and I think a part of Gale was really bothered by that. In the end, though, she minded her business pretty well.

On a hot summer's day after I finished working at Paolo's, Marie came over. We sat on the patio in Gale's backyard. Gale was in Boston to run some errands and Paolo went with her which meant Marie could stay a while and we could be together somewhere outside my room. And like almost everyday, she came over after having a fight with her parents. This time, she had been caught smoking weed. This wasn't an unusual offense. Marie did this all the time, but I was irritated with her because she usually smoked with me.

"It's hot," Marie whined.

She had been over so often, I almost felt like I could've beaten her to it with her whining. Lately, Marie's been so incredibly irritable. Worse than usual. It felt like that's all she did these days was be in a shitty mood. I looked down at my beer bottle, seeing that it was almost half empty. I handed it to her and lifted it to her lips. She went to drink it, but her face scowled.

I pulled the bottle away, my brows furrowing. "What's the matter?"

She puffed her lips out and shook her head. "I can't drink that."

I gave her a weird look and put it to her lips again. Marie never turned a drink down. "What?"

She almost gagged, forcing me to draw back in shock.

"What's the matter with you?!"

"Bryson, get that away from me," she ordered, covering her mouth and closing her eyes in disgust.

Awkwardly, I smelled the beer, yet nothing seemed wrong. I took a sip. It tasted fine. I don't know why I doubted myself. I drank half the damn bottle.

I pointed it toward her. "Ma-"

She pushed my arm away aggressively which forced me to drop the bottle onto myself, causing some of the alcohol to spill in my lap. I sighed in frustration. She looked at the spot on my jeans and rolled her eyes, not muttering a single word.