when you were here

Chapter I

Song: "Settin' The Woods on Fire" -Hank Williams
Ronnie
"May I be excused?" I question of my parents politely. I feel over heated in the crowded Keg restaurant that my family is celebrating thanksgiving in. Both my parents nod back, after I've already began to slide out of the booth. I'm bulldozing down the hallway to the bathroom, not triple checking to confirm I'm entering the women's bathroom, and keeping my head down making an a-line to the sink.

I'm rinsing my face with cold water after pushing the poofy pieces of hair behind my ears. I don't have to worry about ruining my makeup because my parents have a strict no-makeup rule. "Women with a good education don't wear this shit, do you know who wears it?" "Who?" "Hookers."

A whistling to an off key tune is introduced to me before the face of a boy appears in the mirror hung in front of me. He stops dead in his tracks when his eyes meet mine, then he leans back and checks the sign on the outside of the bathroom to confirm he's in the right one. Once he's satisfied with the confirmation, he takes one last look at me, shrugs, then strides to a urinal that I wished I had noticed earlier, and proceeds to undo his belt.

"Wait don't take out your penis!" I exclaim, my hands going straight for my eyes.

"My mistake, I thought maybe you were like... y'know-" he says with not an inch of insecurity.

"No no, I must've just came into the wrong bathroom. Let me leave before you whip it out." By now I'm already halfway out the door. I stumble back to my seat, probably wild eyed. My parents most likely assume I'm on some sort of drug, I wouldn't be the littlest bit surprised if they drug tested me right here.

"-absolute animals," my mother whisper-exclaimed, turning her nose up basically to the sky, the way rich people do to the middle class. I've always been ashamed of this. I don't ever want to be seen as the rich girl, however I unfortunately don't particularly have that choice. Everyone knows me as that. The beautiful daughter of one of the top richest people in town, the girl who is nice to everyone, the poor girl who's biological father left and then went and topped himself.

"Who?" I ask, regretting the word as soon as it leaves me mouth. Then my mom goes off about some scoundrel middle class parents, while my younger brother and I just pretend to listen. Joseph already knows the drill, just smile and nod.

I am distracted by someone walking by in the corner of my eye and am taken by slight surprise. It was the guy I had the awkward encounter with in the bathroom. Lanky, mop of dark hair, and warm brown eyes that cause me to slouch in embarrassment when they meet mine. He flashes me a smile, a smile that I recognize. That's right, he's in my English class. Very clever kid, every female teacher loves him despite him being a bit of a delinquent. He has the humorous charm that all teachers adore. A few teachers in the past have definitely hit on him. The students; not fond of him. Everyone thinks he's weird and does unspeakable things with his dog that he might or might not even have. Of course, I'm guilty of making a few crude jokes about him but that's just because of the crowd I'm a part of. I do think he's weird, weird in a way that I can't place my finger on.

"Ron's got a boyfriend," Joseph giggles, catching me having almost a stare down with the weird kid. Both my mom and Simon whip their heads to see the direction in which Joseph is pointing. The weird kid looked down from me and back in the presence of what must be his mother and sister.

"Don't point it's rude, Joe," I hiss throwing as much anger into the sentence as possible. "And he's not my boyfriend, I've never spoken to him once. He's in one of my classes but he's weird." My mother isn't convinced.

"Oh god, it's the Miller kid and his alcoholic mother," my mother said not caring who heard, sounding as if she just might throw up. I prayed he didn't hear, but he seemed to frown as if he did which made my heart feel heavy as stone.