The Only One

Chapter 3

As we both approached the crowd of intoxicated morons that I had the pleasure of knowing for the past four years, I caught a glimpse of Bradley. Now of course it wasn’t a chore trying to find him. The kid is 6’1 and has the voice of a freight train, I could hear him chanting to his posse over the blaring music. I nudged Anna’s shoulder and pointed out Bradley for her. She nodded and pushed her way through the crowd, and I followed.

We finally got to a space in the crowd, so we could breathe. She turned to me and yelled in my ear, “I’m gonna go talk to him, stay here.” As loud as she could so I could hear her over the noise, and I could hear her. I stayed were I was, constantly getting pushed around by the dancers around me. But I stood my ground and made sure to keep my eyes on Anna. This time I wasn’t going to let her go.

I saw her tap on Bradley’s shoulder, and I think she yelled in his ear, “I need to talk to you.” I saw him turn to his friends and laugh. What a dick.

They were hard to see over the crowd but I made sure I didn’t lose sight of them. She looked nervous, like she did when we went to that barn in 3rd grade, and she was scared to get on that horse. She had anxiety ever since she was little. She’d have a panic attack in a heartbeat.

I saw her mouth, “I want to break up.” Then I saw Bradley’s face, it hadn’t changed from before. They just stood there looking at each other for about five seconds. Then Bradley lifted his hand and slapped her right across her cheek. I started to fight through the crowd to reach her. She was holding her cheek coming towards me, people passing by. I saw this one kid with a needle in his hand. He was passing through the crowd injecting whatever the hell that was in there in everyone he passed. Anna was right in his path. I tried so hard to get there in time, but it was too late. He injected it in her. She was a wreck. I held her by her shoulders and pushed through the crowd, practically kicking anyone in my way.

Anna was sweating so much and her hand had maneuvered from her cheek to her throat. “Steph-.” She thought she was choking.

“Anna, you’re fine.” But that sure of hell wasn’t working. She was having a panic attack. I led her to my car and buckled her in the passenger’s seat. I got in the car and started it up. She needed something to drink. All I had was beer, it’d have to do. I grabbed the beer and popped the bottle cap with my teeth. I had to force it down her throat, like she was a baby drinking a bottle. She grabbed it from my hands. And let it out of her mouth.

She let out a sigh of relief, the panic attack was over. “What the actual fuck just happened.” She said sounding like herself.

“Don’t ask me.” Putting on my best not guilty face. She laughed of course, then finished off the beer in one sip.

“Thanks.” She said to me, I could smell her breath, like my uncle’s on Thanksgiving every year.

“What a dick right.”

“Who? Bradley or the mystery man who injected drugs into you.”

“Surprisingly, both.” She said. I backed the car into the parking lot and got the hell out of there. “You’re not taking me home are you?”

“Hell no, if you’re parents took one look at you, they’d kill me right then and there.” I wasn’t kidding. When we were nine we went to the river and we came home all dirty. They wanted to kill me, but I was only nine. Now I’m seventeen, they’d sure as hell get a few whips at me. “You can sleep over at my house, Christina would be happy to see you.”

“She’s still lives at home?”

“No, she’s just here for the month.” I told her as we drove onto the uneven gravel of the off roads.

“Does the radio still work.” She asked (it was broken, four years ago.)

“Yeah, go ahead.”

She turned the dial to find a station, and she gasped (Shit, please don’t be another panic attack.) She turned up the volume.

“I fucking love this song.” I looked over at her as she mouthed the lyrics with her eyes shut.

“What’s it called?” I asked (Stupid question to her most likely, but I had no idea.)

“Say It, Just Say It by The Mowgli’s.” She still had her eyes shut and was bobbing her head to the bass. “My cousin saw them at this music festival she went to, what a bitch.” I laughed and looked over at her, she was now shouting out the lyrics. I decided to roll down all of the windows and turned the volume as loud as it could. She looked over at me and smiled.

As the chorus started she sung the lyrics out of the window like she was trying to get someone’s attention in the middle of the abandoned wheat fields. She was acting like she was drunk, who am I kidding she was drunk and high all at the same time, and she was having so much fun.

“Do you have one of those things that go into your iPhone, so you can play it in the car.”

“Yeah, I think check the compartment over there.” I said, and she followed, sure enough there it was. She plugged it in and she put on the same song once again. I gave her a glare.

“What, I’ll make you love this song if it’s the last thing I do.”

“Seeing you like this makes me love it already.”

·             

I helped her in through the door by putting my arm around her, My sister took her from me once we got into the house. “I’ll take it from here, Stephen. Go to bed.” She told me. So I did, I went into my bed. But I didn’t go to sleep. I couldn’t go to sleep. The person I wanted to be near me the most was in the room next to me. This had been the first and best day of my life as a free man.