One Minute

Chapter Six- Texas

Eric never talked the whole drive to the airport. But of course, you didn’t talk to me much either. You were always so shy.

Finally, we reached the airport. Cars were rushing to and fro, planes were taking off, people were waving goodbye to their loved ones. We parked and all got out of the car. My backpack was slumped over my shoulder lazily. You had a nice suitcase that was probably packed with all your stuff—but you left it in the car for some odd reason. You said that we’d most likely meet up with Eric again once we landed in Texas.

“So we depart for now it looks like!” Eric clasped his hands together, smiling widely at us. I tried to smile back, but I was too tired to do so. I rubbed my eyes and I ended up dropping my backpack.

“Well… we’ll never get anywhere if there’s a sleepy girl walking around with no clue on where she’s going.” You chuckled softly and lifted me into your arms, cradling me close to your chest. My eyes grew wide and you breathed softly like this was no big deal. “Calm down now… I won’t bite… for the most part…” You smiled at me and chuckled softly.

“So two weeks, right?” Eric looked at us. He gave you an odd look and stuffed his hands in his pockets.

“That’s what I’m planning for.” You cleared your throat. “See you there!” You turned away and walk off.

Two weeks for what?

It took forever to check in the luggage and go through security, and once we were finally done with all that, we sat down and waited patiently. Most people were asleep, and some were playing a game on their phones or something like that. It seemed like hours since we left the small town of Hollister, heading towards God knows where.

My voice was weak like I was; drained of energy. “When’s our flight…?”

“About half an hour or so it seems like. I dunno—sometimes the flights are delayed, but I think we’ll be okay.”

You flickered gaze over at me for a moment before looking out the window, watching the airplanes. I nodded faintly and tugged my navy blue long sleeve up, gazing down at the scars on the inside of my forearms, tracing them slowly.

The longest one on there was about an inch and a half long. For a moment, I thought that you saw them and immediately I pulled my sleeve back down.

Our flight was delayed.

There was a horrible tornado in Texas and until that was completely gone, we couldn’t look for Raymond. With a soft sigh, I looked at my watch. It was already six o’clock in the afternoon.

The sky was almost like a rainbow as the sun began to set. The bottom started off as a nice shade of red with orange in between, fading into yellow along with the hint of green and the large patch of blue and finally all the way up into the sky was a darker shade of blue that was probably purple.

The sky is truly the most beautiful rainbow there is.

“Tell me, Zora…” you began, clearing your throat, “I hope that this isn’t too personal—the question that I’m about to ask…” Slowly, you took my arm and tugged my sleeve up, turning the inside of my forearm upwards so you could see. Your grip on my arm was gentle, warm, “But may I ask how you got these scars?”

For a moment I felt my heart stop and sink into my boots. Never have I told anyone (besides Alison and Raymond) about my cuts. Deep inside my heart, there was something inside me that wanted to tell you the whole truth, that wanted to explain to you why I cut myself—what these cuts are from.

“I… I’d rather not talk about it right now…” I looked down at my arm and pulled my sleeve back down to its former position.

You dipped your head as you nodded and I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath and I decided to take a nap for a good while.