Even Death Won't Do Us Part

Chapter 1

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I'd forgotten what it was like to be that alone.

For the 14 dreadful days of winter break, I drove. I made my way past the crumbling houses in my neighbourhood, the mansions a few miles away, out towards the hills and then back again through stretches of cold, flat land. Up and down the Delaware River and up and down the Susquehanna , I cranked the radio and sang aloud. I needed to hear a live human voice, and I was my own best hope.

But now, break is over. I'm walking up toward school from the farthest lot, and I'm happy because I'm here, because it's done. I know you're supposed to like vacations. But mine was lonely, that's the thing, it was like I was floating off into space , tethered to nothing.

My phone buzzes in my pocket. I fish it out, it was a text from Peter who I haven't seen yet since he only got home last night :

Sweets :
hey, got you something from Illinois that I wanna give you

Then a second later ,

Sweets :
not herpes

I write back

Me:

Good because it'd be really awkward if we got each other the same present.

I click send with one frozen finger as warm puffs of air escape through my smile.

I entered the suffocating hallways with my head down as I walked into something hard and irregular. It was someone. I walked into someone. Great, first day of school and I've already made someone angry.

The figure looked up as her face softened into a smile, it was Delilah. I had a few classes with her. "Oh my god,Lilly," she says. Her eyes are half opened and she's wearing a pair of plain white glasses instead of her usual contacts. Her unruly hair tied up in a ponytail with a white hair band. "Is it possible, medically, that I'm still having a fever since last Monday ? That was one whole week ago ! "

"Given everything, yeah, that seems likely. Although, how you still manage to look like that still remains a mystery," I say. She grins as though I mean this as a compliment.

The only thing I did over break, other than drive, was go to a party at Delilah's rich boyfriend's house , which is a little weird since we're not close friends or anything. But, we do talk in class sometimes cuz we're desk mates, and neither of us has a lot of other options to go by. The latter, however being the sole reason why I agreed. When I got the text about her boyfriend's party , I'd been alone for so many days that I just said yes.

Her boyfriend, Marco, lives thirty-five minutes away, right at the edge of Philly, in an avant-garde condominium that he shares with his friends. He's older than both Delilah and I, and his friends are too, some of them in their twenties. The party was mostly guys and the air was hazy with a few kinds of smoke.When I walked in, Delilah was already heading her way up to Marco's room. I later found out that she was bed-sick with fever. As I glanced back at the crowd , I felt all these guys turn and give me the up-down, their eyes trailing my movements. And I suddenly realised why I'd been invited-not for her, but for them. I spent the whole night leaning against the wall, not really talking to anyone , watching the party like a movie.

"Marco asked me to get your number for Josh," Delilah says. She rubs her droopy eyes.

I have no idea who Josh is. Maybe he's the tall guy who kept coming out of the bathroom sniffling and wiping his nose, or the guy with P A I N tattooed on his knuckles, or the one in the velvet shirt who kept asking if I wanted to touch it ( I didn't) and who tried to put a lamp in the fish tank ( I stopped him).