Sincerely, S.H

Chapter 11

“I’ve got to be honest, Shauna, I wasn’t expecting such… bravery from you.” Drake’s jaw even remains dropped after he finishes speaking. So this is what it’s like to truly shock someone. No wonder Drake does it so often.

“I guess I’m just full of surprises,” I think about my ghost, and about how much I would like to prove it wrong. I can be brave, and I can be my own person. I don’t have to depend on Nick, and I won’t fear Drake; I have too much to fear anyways without worrying about harmless lunatics like myself. “So what’s your plan?” I ask

By the look in his eye, it seems like, having not expected me to show up, he really didn’t fully develop a plan. “How about a movie,” he says, clearly coming up with the idea on the spot. I can’t say I’m disappointed that he chose something legal, though given the one thing I ever did with him was technically illegal, I can say that I’m a little surprised. I guess it is unfair for me to expect that his first suggestion would be something illegal. What we did yesterday was really only illegal for me, and it’s stupid to think that even the hardest of criminals commits crimes as first dates. If that’s what this even is.

“Okay, you drive.” I say, seemingly surprising him again. He must expect that I’m going to back out at any moment. I guess I just have to prove him and they voice wrong. And also myself because I still can’t believe I’m skipping work. I’ve never taken even a sick day before in my life, and now I just walked out with only a text message as backup. Hopefully Tammy will show up. If not, I’m as good as fired. On the other hand though, maybe if I stayed I’d be as good as institutionalized.

“Okay,” he agrees rising from his casual leaning position against the statue of the schools founder. “Let’s go.” Brazenly he puts his arm on my shoulders and we fall into step beside each other. As if by black magic, my burdens fall off of my shoulders as soon as his arm lands on them. It’s not so much that I am comforted by his presence; on the contrary, every inch of me tenses at his touch, and there is a part of my mind, somewhere in the back, that is screaming that this is all a terribly bad idea. However, the ease whit which he goes about his own life is contagious. I feel like I should care more that I just abandoned my post at my job to go to a movie with a stranger that I find repugnant, but somehow I don’t. Somehow being here feels more right than obeying the rules by which I have lived my life thus far.

It’s not long before we reach a parking structure lot by a dorm, where I presume, his car is located. Despite the nice temperature and sunshine of the day outside, the parking structure still manages to be damp and a little foul smelling. As we walk through the structure on the bottom floor, he pulls out his key and clicks a button that causes the lights of a car at the back of the line to blink as the horn beeps in recognition of the radio signal of the clicker. It’s a small red convertible that’s a little less than ten years old. A reasonably priced automobile for a twenty-one year old. But the price of the vehicle is the only thing that is reasonable or practical about it. To start, Elberton University is in northeastern Minnesota, and no person who lives in Minnesota full time drives a convertible, especially not one with a dent on both bumpers and a broken headlight.

I open the dented passenger door and realize just how much I am tempting fate. If the universe wanted me dead, I am handing it the perfect opportunity to kill me, and the powers that be could quite reasonably say that I brought this upon myself. In a seemingly futile gesture of self-preservation, I click the seatbelt into place around me. Well, I don’t so much click it into place as I put it into the slot, and hear nothing to signify that the action had proceeded correctly. I pull on the strap and I find that the mechanism remains in place, and I decide that I have no choice but to be satisfied with that. I look up to the skies for a moment, both asking it how my life got to this point, and asking it to let me survive the car ride.