Route 50

Speed limit

I woke up around noon or maybe one but I didn't care about the limits of time. School was over already by the time I got back. I grabbed my keys from my back pocket and found my car. But there on the hood of my jeep was Ari, she sat with her knees to her head. As I unlocked my car door she jumped down from the hood and walked to me.

"Where did you go?" She asked, this time with no anger following her words.

"I just I don't know I went on a run"

"For the whole school day?" She grew suspicious of my actions.

"Well I fell asleep and I had to walk back so I guess it wasn't all day" I opened the door to get inside. "Can I get a ride home, Sawyer?" I nodded my head as she walked over to the passenger side of the car. I had been over to Ari's house maybe three times, one dropping off Nevada, another picking her up and the last at a party Ari threw.

The party was the last party of the summer and Nevada convinced me to go. When I pulled up to the party it was full of dumb teenagers and red solo cups littered on the front lawn. Nevada grabbed my hand and pulled me into the crowd of people that were dancing to an overplayed song. She grabbed a joint from a freshman and took a drag off of it. As she passed it to me I felt the warmth of the small fire inside the packed joint. I took a drag off of it because who gives up free weed. The weed made the party more bearable for me, me and her were off our asses and dancing to the silly songs that played over the speakers. Ari walked up to Nevada and gave her a hug pulling her in close as if she hadn't just seen her like a week ago. Nevada's voice drowned in the loud music but I can only assume she was introducing Ari to me. We exchanged some short hello's and went back to dancing. Later after I had danced too long, I went out to the back patio and Nevada followed me. We both leaned up against the cement walls that held the building up. We said nothing, yet we both laughed for no reason. 

As everyone left the party it was made clear to me that Nevada was drunk. Her wise words were turned into slurred moans of protest. Me and Ari helped her up to Ari's guest room so she could sleep all the mistakes of the alcohol off. I was buzzed but not even near the amount of drunk that Nevada was. Ari told me I could stay the night, at first I said no but somehow her words were just as persuading as Nevada's. She let me sleep in her room and we talked for hours.

"Hey, can you promise me something?" She said with her eyes concentrated on the ceiling. Unknowing at the time I uttered the words "Yea sure"

"Don't let Nevada get hurt. Protect her please" Her tone changed from party girl to serious when she made me promise this. I uttered the words "Y-yea of fucking course" She turned over to her side to look at me, I turned over and looked back at her. In a second she kissed me, I had no clue what made her do that at the time. I didn't protest to this though.

A yelling took me out of the memory of that night.

"SAWYER FOR THE LOVE OF GOD SLOW DOWN!!" I looked at the speed I was going at and to my shock, I was doing 90. I hit my brake to slow down the car, as I did I looked over to see a panicked Ari panting. "Shit I'm sorry" 

"What is going on with you?" 

"Nothing I'm just in a weird place right now, I mean wouldn't you be if you went through what I did" My teeth met my lip as the anxiety fell upon my body.

"Sawyer you should really talk to someone about this"

"No it's fine I have a handle on this"

"No, you don't! First, you completely ignore me at the station, then you run off for a whole day and now you are speeding at a rate of fatality." She was right. I hated that she was right but she was right. I finally pulled up to her house and she got out as fast as she could, it was like she thought I was trying to kill her or something. I don't blame her though if I was her I would want to get as far away from me as possible. I put my head on the steering wheel and my eyes caught the bracelet that Nevada always wore. My hands inched over to the bracelet and picked it up. It was made of some kind of leather and it was a maroon color. There were no charms on it or anything but for some reason, it was her favorite bracelet. All of a sudden in front of Ari's house a wave of emotions crashed on me. I stepped on the gas and was speeding down the roads to get to the last place I saw Nevada. When I reached the underpass of the highway I hit my brakes and got out of the car. In the dirt, I saw a red spot covered with crime scene tape. The same feeling I had that morning came back to me but I stopped it by overwhelming myself with my own anger. The cement wall near the spot met my fist with a fast rate of speed. When you are angry you are typically dumb, or at least I was. A split second after I punched the wall the pain of the punch met the nerves of my knuckles. I instantly knew it was broken, then I started to cry. I didn't cry because of the pain but because these emotions finally broke down the wall I had put up around them. The salty tears flowed down my face like a stream and once the dam breaks it takes a while for it to be rebuilt. They didn't stop flowing. I was just a teenager under an underpass with a broken hand crying to himself.