Quandary

Forgiveness

My fingers typed away at the keyboard before me. I watched as lines of script coding filled the screen. I grabbed the root beer by my laptop and took a sip. Barry walked through the door, humming some song from Mega Man. His eyes fell on the soda can in my hand.

"You got root beer?"

"Yeah, there's some more in the fridge if you want it."

He opened the mini-fridge behind me, grabbing a can for himself.

"What are you working on?"

"Just finishing up some work on my program for my game scenario class."

"Oh nice."

I smiled as my eyes focused on the lines of text. It had been five years since all that crap went down in high school. Most people say high school is when you should enjoy your time, that it's the years you'll miss the most. But I couldn't wait to get out of school. I thought it would be hard to move on, hard to face the mistakes I made. But once I got into college life, it was easy. I never saw Braxton after the night that happened so long ago. After painstakingly getting a college me and Barry could go into with my record of assaulting someone, we ended up with a dorm together. I thought he hated me for so long... When Barry heard what I did, he thought it was best to give me some space. But he soon regretted that decision after hearing that I almost ended my life. I'm glad that I'm still in this world, I'm glad to still be here. I try not to think about how guilty Barry would have felt if I ended everything that day. I'm trying to change my way of thinking now. Instead of focusing on what could have been, I try to focus on what can be. It was my old line of thinking that led me to the dangerous state I found myself in.

"Hey they're having that renaissance festival at the center of town, want to check it out?"

I turned around in the chair, smirking at him.

"Yeah, let me just finish this up."

The two of us climbed into my car after leaving the campus. I managed to get an old Subaru for pretty cheap a year or two ago. It was quite the crappy car, but it got the job done. As the car rolled onto the main road, Barry switched on the radio, fastening his seat belt within the passenger's seat of the car. The song Highway To Hell began to play as the car sped up. I leaned over from my seat and pressed the button to change the station.

"What are you doing? That's a great song!" Exclaimed Barry.

"I've heard it too many times."

The truth was, I didn't like all that talk about hell and making reckless decisions. It gave me an unpleasant feeling. But that was all too cheesy to say out loud. Barry watched as buildings and trees passed us, one after another.

"This is a good town to live in."

My eyes looked over to him watching the window.

"You think so?"

"Yeah."

We passed a field where children could be seen playing kickball.

"Maybe you're right," I said.

We then pulled into a dirt road, careening down the path to the festival. It would be my first time to ever go to an actual renaissance fair, while it would be Barry's twelfth time going.

"Hey, you think they'll have a mace I can buy? I've always wanted to get one at these renaissance things."

"Most likely they'll have one."

We spent the rest of the day at the festival in glee. It was the most fun I had since the last time I was with Hailey. We went through all the themed buildings, gift shops, and restaurants. It was a good distraction from the hardships of life.