"Here! Hide under here!" Charlie said, towing me carefully to the river. We made our way under the bridge, scrupulously aware of where we put our feet. A single misstep could send us both downstream. Then our cover would surely be blown.
I couldn't contain my laughter once we were safely standing with our backs glued to the wall.
"What's so funny? You're gonna get us killed!" He exclaimed, covering my mouth with his hand.
I pulled his hand away and said "It's fine. I'm sure we lost them. I feel like a fugitive." I giggled again.
"Did you really have to throw eggs at them?" He asked me suddenly looking annoyed.
The previous event flooded through my mind. The gang that acts as if they run the student body with their expensive branded jackets and dyed hair had been picking on Charlie as usual. They pick on everyone. I remembered that Charlie had helped me with physics a while ago. That was my motivation. They were about to toss Charlie in the dumpster when I ran to the scene, weapons ready. I threw the whole carton of eggs at them before they realized Charlie had escaped their clutches. We ran off campus and hid under the bridge, waiting for the mob to give up. Full circle. "Physics." I reminded Charlie. "I would've failed."
"That almost sweet of you." He smiled, tucking a loose strand behind my ear.
"So... How long are we going to stay here?"
"Not sure. They usually give up after 10 minutes or so. Plus there's a storm coming in. They probably don't want to be our when it hits. In the meantime..." He trailed off, taking off his sneakers and sitting down. He let his legs dangle over the side, his bare feet in the water. I slipped my flip flops off and copied him.
"Hey, Maddison?" He asked after awhile.
"Yeah?"
"What's your story?"
"Story?" I looked at him curiously.
"Why're you here?"
"At Sandstone?" Sandstone was the boarding school we both attended. The one we ran out of a few minutes ago. It was a great place right smack in the middle of the worse neighborhoods in the entire state of Georgia. The teachers were nice enough, the education program didn't make me take Phys. Ed., and the walls weren't riddled with holes or rat colonies. But I understood his question. Most boarding school kids don't want to be in boarding school.
"Yeah." He said.
"I'm both unwanted and not capable of being wanted." I said in a hollow voice.
He waited for me to continue, keeping his eyes on me.
"I'm an orphan."
"I know. Relatives? Did you never get adopted or something?"
"Not until I was 14. And then, they just wanted fame, a good name and a part time nanny." I shrugged nonchalantly.
"And your bio parents?"
"I don't know." I said. "Dead I presume." And there was no mistaking the longing in my voice. But that didn't make any sense... I didn't even know them. How could I long for them?
"I'm sorry."
"I am too. Makes me wonder who I would have been if I had real parents. A little sister, maybe even an older brother." I mused.
"Ah the all too common 'what if?'." Charlie said quietly, touching the surface of the water with his index finger. Faint ripples spread from the place he touched.
"And your story? The car accident right?" Supposedly, Charlie's mother died in a car accident and his dad sent him to Sandstone soon after.
He was quiet for a while. When he spoke, his voice was only a whisper. "I was 5. I was sick that day. Fever. She was driving as fast as she could together me to the free clinic. They closed at 7.30 so she had to really step on it. Then I started crying because I was afraid. She turned around, told me it was going to be fine then, the that's when it happened. The truck came out of left field, hit the driver's side. Killed her instantly." He wiped cheek once. It was a disconcerting sight. Charlie was usually confident and independent. So much so that at first I assumed he wanted to be put here. "Dad sent me here because we just couldn't have a relationship after what happened."
I watched him observe the water, thinking that you can never really know someone until you really, really see them.
"It's not your fault." I said. He nodded slowly.
"Thanks." He said as he tentatively took my hand.
"We should go back." I said.
"Okay."
We carefully made our way back to the river bank and then back up to higher ground. The sky was brighter now. I guess the sky decided otherwise. I saw the rays make the slight red in his hair obvious. He smiled at me and I smiled back. We walked hand in hand to Sandstone's main gate. Before we went in, he said "You're wrong you know?" We stopped walking.
"About what?" I asked curiously.
He didn't reply. Instead, he held my face and pressed his lips to mine. The kiss was gentle at first but then grew in intensity and beauty.
When he pulled away, he said, "You're not unwanted. Not anymore. I want you."
And as he leaned in again, I swear that I heard my demons become as silent as the grave.
