Ribs

Ribs: Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"Look me in the heart and tell me you won't go. Look me in the eye and promise no love is like our love..." - "Where Does The Good Go" by Tegan & Sara

Corey has a navy blue truck. Inside, it smells like pine cones. I sit in the passenger seat, which is a lot more comfortable then it looks. I pick at the black fabric. I don't want to go home. I look at the clock on the radio. Two A.M. Good thing it's Friday. Er, I guess technically it's now Saturday.

"I don't want to go home." I tell him suddenly. His thick eyebrows raise just slightly.

"Where do you want to go?" He asks, his voice like honey.

I don't want to be the girl that will always tell the boy 'Anywhere'. So I say, "Turn left here." He does and then asks, "Where are we going?"

"I don't know." I shrug. "Turn right." I can see Corey smile in the dark. "Right again."

It goes on like this for twenty minutes, until we reach a dead end: an old abandoned house. It only looks slightly creepy, so as soon as Corey turns off the car I get out. "You're going in there?" He asks, surprised.

"Yea." I tell him, leaning into his window. "Aren't you?" I turn and hear him get out of the car as I reach the door. It's not rundown whatsoever, other than the fact that there's no electricity, plumbing, running water, etc. But it's not a bad looking house. I tug my jacket a little closer to my body and then try to open the door.

It's locked. Disappointment runs over me. Corey comes up behind me.

"Locked?" He asks. I nod. I turn around, meeting his chest. My eyes run over his chest before reaching his face. "Hold on." He says. Suddenly he's walking around to the side of the house. I watch him with my eyes as he starts to hit at the window.

I gasp. "You're going to break him?" He grins and grabs a rock off the ground.

Then he throws it.

The window breaks immediately, and he starts to crawl inside. "Coming?" He asks. He crawls all the way in and helps me in with him. The house is almost pitch black, and it's quiet. We're in the kitchen, somewhat clean tiles tell me that it hasn't been abandoned that long. I grasp onto Corey's hand and tug him along with me. I pull him through different rooms, looking at the house that looks so peaceful, and practically new-looking. Why would you abandon that? A home all to yourself, no monsters on your bed or in the other room.

My stomach knots, thinking about my father. "You want to go?" Corey whispers to me in the dark.

"I don't know." I whisper back to him. I'm unsure if I want to stay here. But there is always one place I've wanted to go: Corey's house. "Could we go to your house?" I ask him.

Usually, when we're together, we're at the house Corey's grandfather left for him when he passed away. Corey has yet to sell the house. It amazes me how much responsibility he gets since he's eighteen, one year older than me. I've always told myself as soon as I turn eighteen, I'm out of my father's house. And there's a small glimpse of hope that maybe Corey will let me stay with him.

He looks surprised. I don't know when I became so bold. But Corey leads me back out to his car anyways.