Getaway Car

1-little moments

With his fingers intertwined with strands of my hair, I cling to his lips, holding onto them as if they are the only reason I'm still living. He smells of rust and sweet peaches, which is an odd combination but it brings a smile to my face every time I get a whiff of it.

My fingers dig deeply into his back and I laugh against his lips as he kisses my neck tenderly.

"What are you laughing about?" He says silently, as he begins to chuckle too.

"Nothing, just-" I try to keep in my pestering laugh. "Just keep going." I smiled as his beautiful, deep brown eyes stared into mine and I collapsed backwards onto the bed, and he hovered over me, his lingering gaze bringing giggles back once again.

I didn't like grand gestures, or materialistic things. All I needed were a few happy, small moments to satisfy me for eternity.

It was the little things, the little moments that made me smile so deeply.

•••

"Hey, babe I'm heading out for a while, I have some work to do. Call you when I'm done, okay?"

With a small frown on my face, I nodded and kissed him goodbye, my lips grasping onto his; a weak attempt to prevent him from going out the door.

I was busy anyways as well, and as much as I would like to spend 24/7 with Alistair, I knew it wasn't a possibility.

My phone buzzed on the table, causing me to jolt a little. I picked it up and saw a text from Julianna, or Juli, my best friend of 10 years.

Juli : hey b we going out to celebrate your 27th bday tonight or what?

Oh shit.

I'd completely forgotten today was my birthday.

I was never really one for birthdays or birthday parties. I found it meaningless and stupid that you would celebrate being one year closer to death. Especially since growing up, I never really had birthday parties or gifts. My parents were always too broke to buy me anything, and they were sometimes too busy fighting to even remember that it was my birthday.

So I forgot about it too.

Aiya: where to? gf?

("Gf" stood for "Golden Flamingo" which was our favorite club in NYC.)

As I was preparing to meet Juli for brunch, she replied.

Juli: yass bitch. les do it
Juli: who else am i inviting

No. No one else was coming. After my troubled childhood, I had commitment issues and had trouble trusting many people. Juli's been one of the few people that've proven to be loyal during my entire lifetime. Everybody else I trusted was in another state or country, and so I couldn't invite them. Well, except for Alistair, but he was... a different story.

Aiya: no one. please. can it just be a girl's night out?

Juli: not even your mchottie boyfriend 😉😉😉

I rolled my eyes exaggeratedly. Me and Alistair had been on and off for nearly 2 years. He was always off doing unpredictable and stupid things, that sometimes I feel I would be better off without him. Then I recall all the times he stood up for me, trusted me, stood by me, and was there for me. He and Juli have undoubtedly been by me through my perilous mental rollercoaster.

But the reason why I didn't want to invite him was because we had just recently gotten back together (again) and the wound he created was still pretty fresh.

Aiya: nah i have to wait a little before he gains my trust again

Juli: i swear, you guys break up and get back together so many times, it's like those hollywood relationships they gossip abt in magazines 😒

I️ smirked to myself and quickly typed in a snarky reply, but saved it for when we'd meet in person.

•••
"So," Juli muttered with a face full of pancakes.

"Why'd y'all get back together again?"

I sighed, knowing what would come next. After I explained my reasoning she would just tell me to dump him already, or that I'm too good for him and I should move onto someone new and blah blah blah.

She's probably right, but hey. Love makes people crazy.

"I saw him one night at a bar with his friends. He was looking extremely hot that night; maybe it was just the dark lighting or the fact that I was drunk beyond words. But anyways, I don't remember much, but I remember waking up in his house and us being back together, so. That's that." I shrugged and looked at her nonchalantly.

She sighed dramatically and literally slapped the table so hard everyone in the restaurant turned to look at us.

"Get over yourself, Aiyana! He's broken your heart so many times and he's always missing somewhere, leaving you alone in the dark when you need him the most. Who was there for you on those nights where you were crying because you were having a panic attack? Who was there for you on those nights where you felt like killing yourself? Because if I'm correct, it wasn't him!" There was intense anger yet passion in her voice, as if she was debating with me, even though I already knew she was right. Still, I didn't want to admit it.

I simply sighed and continued cutting my waffles.

•••
I was putting on my golden hoop earrings when Juli texted me, asking if I was ready.

Obviously not.

I typed a quick "no" while I briefly looked back on the fight we had today. Being friends for 10 years means getting into a lot of fights, though, so we got over it.

I swiped on a coat of mascara and some bright red lipstick as I observed myself in the mirror. Tonight was all about having fun and forgetting about the pain and the misery. Tonight was about having fun with my best friend and getting so drunk I'll have regretted it deeply in the morning.

Tonight, I would have so much fun that I wouldn't even notice that Alistair still hadn't called me yet. And I wouldn't be angry at him until the next morning.

We caught a cab pretty quickly and made our way to the club. On the way there, Juli started talking about some awful armed robbery that occurred downtown somewhere, but I was too busy looking at people outside the window to really process what she was saying.

"I mean, I just find it so terrible that people would do such things like this. And the fact that so many robberies have been occurring lately, just like this one? They're obviously connected, you don't even have to be a cop to figure that out." I looked over for a quick second to see a scornful look in her eyes.

"Yeah, it really is." I said indifferently. "It really is."

We got there about 15 minutes later, and soon enough, we were dancing so hard my knees were buckling, and ordered so many drinks that I couldn't even keep track.

"To 27! I love you so much Aiyana." Juli gave me a warm, one-armed hug.

"I love you too, Juls."

Everything after that was basically a blur. I don't even remember what time I got home, but I remember passing out and just waking up the next morning with a killer migraine.

And a rage-fueled anger.

Because when I touched the space next to me, I realized it was unoccupied.

Which meant Alistair wasn't home yet.

That in itself was enough to cure my hangover.

•••
I wanted to dedicate this chapter to autheras ,who inspired me with her book High School Hit List (which is a great book) to write this story. I've never put so much effort into a story before now, so thank you.