Run Away With Me

Sea Foam and Shattered Dreams

"Madeline, wake up." A voice whispers and shakes my arm violently. I groan and roll away from it. "C'mon Miss Maddie, you need to wake up right now." The voice says more urgently.

Reluctantly I open my eyes slowly, preparing for the sun to burn them and make me regret my choice. But when I open them, no burning rays of light invade my senses. Instead it's just darkness, and Jack.

"Why am I awake before the sun is?" I whine like a child.

"Bucket list remember? This one is easy so we can cross it off right away." He smiles at me from beside the bed where he is crouched. "We have a big day ahead of us too."

"I don't like big days." I whine again.

"I will take off my shirt right now and- "

"I'm up, I'm up." I throw the covers off me and swing my legs out, making them brush against his until I stand up.

He hands me a sweat shirt and takes my hand in his. "Careful with the stairs, it's really dark in here." He leads me down the steps, making sure I don't trip. He takes me through the living room and out of the double doors that lead outside. Instead of stopping at the lounge chairs like I thought he would, he keeps walking us down another set of steps and into the cold sand. Without the sun, the beach looks isolated and menacing. The moon is nowhere to be seen, and without the light, I can barely see Jack beside me.

"Over here." He pulls me in the direction of the shoreline but stops a few yards out. On the sand is a blanket sprawled out with two couch throw pillows on top. "If we are going to watch the sunrise, we are going to be comfortable."

I note to myself how romantic this all looks, but don't say anything to Jack about it. Instead I sit down on the large blanket and lay back against a pillow. I fight the urge to close my eyes because if I do, I will fall back asleep. The wind is whipping all around us and making me cold. I remember the jacket Jack handed me and decide to put it on. I scrunch it up and put my arms through the holes, then my head. The sweatshirt falls around me and pools loosely around my stomach.

"Where did you get this thing? It's huge and it-" I breath in. "It smells like you." I remark.

"That's because it's mine, I didn't want to go through your things without you knowing. Hope you don't mind." I look up at him shocked and see his face flush, even in the darkness. I already know he can see that what he did was unintentionally romantic, but there's no going back now. I don't tease him, though. If he hadn't have brought this for me, I would have been freezing.

We sit quietly for quite some time; the sounds of the ocean fill the silence. From the corner of my eye, I see Jack check his watch then nod his head. "few more minutes." He sighs. I sense relief but I could be wrong.

Just as Jack said, the sun's rays started pouring over the sky in shades of pink and purple. The dark sky slowly came to light, the birds visible in the skyline flying in groups and swooping down to the calm ocean waters to retrieve their breakfast. Seafoam now visible on the sand, bunching together as the water retreats again.

The sun still not visible on the water line, only its beautiful colors. In the distance, I could see a wisp of water shoot above the surface.

"Did you see that?! Was that a whale?" I asked and I grabbed Jack's arm in my hand excitedly.

"I think it was." He squints at the water where we saw the mist. Another spray comes up out of the water followed by two more. "Yep, there's probably a herd of them out there. I guess that's another thing we can cross off your list." I look at him curiously, wondering what he means. "Sunrise on the beach and whale watching. I was up all night last night thinking of things for us to do this summer."

"It's awesome. But..."

"But what?"

"Where's the sun? I can see its light but in all the pictures, the sun is on the water as it rises."

"Sets."

"What?"

"The sun rises in the east. And sets in the west." Jack says matter-of factly. Like its obvious I should know this.

"Oh my god." I palm my face. "I feel so stupid, of course. I knew that." I feel a rush of heat reach my cheeks. Of course I knew that. How did I miss that when we were eating dinner on the porch last night?

"I thought it was odd that you wanted to watch the sunrise. I mean, it's still pretty but the sunset has it beat."

"Well we will just have to come back out at sunset then."

"It's a date."

I blush at his meaningless little words and turn back towards the ocean. Today has been good so far, I bet it will only get better.

~ ~ ~

"Twenty minutes? That sounds fast but that's perfect thank you." Jack whispers to the scruffy man behind the counter.

Me however, my face is still blood red with rage. My arms are crossed over my chest defiantly and I'm pacing back and forth around the small smoke shop he dragged me into. "So much for a good day." I mutter grumpily to myself.

"Will you stop? You're acting like a crazy person. It's just a fake ID. You don't have to use it if you don't want to but it would be kind of fun to get into clubs or maybe buy a case of beer for home."

"It's. Illegal." I emphasize each word in case he doesn't understand.

"Even if you get caught, they just take it away, you don't go to jail." He whispers harshly back at me. I glare at him instead of a reply. Today was going great. After we finished our sunrise watching, Jack took me to the aquarium where we played with the otters behind the scenes. After that we got lunch at the pier and across from the restaurant we sat in was a night club. Jack started talking about how he had always wanted to go to one. I reminded him how everyone in our town knew whether you were 21 or not because it was so small. That's when a wild grin appeared on his face and he told me I was a 'genius'. Hence the reason we are not standing in "Vape Craze" getting our fake ID's made.

"I actually hate you a little bit right now." I spit at him.

"You know Madeline. I don't care." He glares back at me and it throws me off balance, shocked at his anger. "You were the one that invited me because you want to live your life. I'm helping. You will have fun and I think that's what you are afraid of. You may have set out on this adventure of yours but you had no intentions of actually doing anything exciting. So far we have stayed at a hotel, walked on a pier, watched a sunrise and went to an aquarium. All things you could have done back at home or with your family. How about you start living a little and trust me?" He pauses, his nostrils flaring as we stare heatedly at each other.

"You know what?" He stops again, backing away from me. Panic seizes me, he is leaving. He doesn't want to help me anymore because I'm a wimp and he is right. I try my best to hide my panic though because even if I know I'm wrong, I'm still stubborn. "That's it. No more babying you. You wanted to have fun, you wanted to experience life well that is exactly what we are going to do. Things are going to change starting now" I look at him confused. He isn't leaving which is great but babying me? What does he mean things are going to change? Change how? "We had a deal. You agreed you wouldn't say no to me. To anything. If I tell you to do something, if something is offered to you, your answer is yes. Well, I'm invoking it now."

I stare at him still. Do I go along with it? I did come here to live and become someone else and I still haven't. I am still Madeline Parker, playing it safe because it's easy.

"Ok." I say defeated.

"Good girl." He says but his angry attitude still hasn't lifted. "Now c'mon, our ID's should be ready." Jack walks away, leaving me behind feeling like a child.