Ember Kate

Chapter:: One

When I wake up the next morning, it’s not by an alarm clock that I forgot to turn off after the last day of my senior year; but instead it’s Locklan.. His hair is curly and he wears contacts now instead of his glasses. He wears corduroy pants and has a different band shirt for every day of the week and more. Today he is wearing brown pants with a white The Beetles shirt.

“What the hell are you doing here?” I croak at him, covering the pillow over my mouth. I try to think of last night and if I’m wearing pants, and I can’t tell so I hope he’s not seeing anything.

“To discuss,” he says shortly as he sits on my bed, eyes still looking at me. “Why you were on top of Bend last night.” I want to laugh it off, and tell him what he saw last night was a figment of his worst imagination. But I couldn’t do that, because he had seen and I didn’t want to tell anybody. When people would know, it would already be too late. But how do I explain that to him?
“I had a bad night, okay?” I sit up and rub my neck, trying to look around my room to see if I left anything embarrassing around; like underwear. “Um. Who let you in?”

He looks at me like I’m stupid before saying, “Your door was unlocked.”

“Oh, right. It should probably be locked.” I didn’t want to bring up what he said last night, didn’t want him to know that the thing I wanted most was to be reminded why life was worth living.

“You don’t get to change the subject. I have bad nights all the time, and I don’t go to a cliff and try to jump.”

“Do you want me to say thank you or something?” I shove the covers off and find it hard to get up dramatically like I want to. His eyes are looking at my legs and arms, which are covered in healed burn marks and a few new ones. He looks up at me with a look I don’t know what to make of, and I get up and look out the window. “And don’t pretend you know me. We’ve gone to school with each other for a few years, yes. But that doesn’t make you an expert on why I was there last night. And why I do this to myself.”

If he was straight up asking me why I was doing this, I wouldn’t be able to tell him. Emotions bubble up and I’ve fallen into the system “if I burn, I will be alright.” My legs and arms agree with that, and it actually works.

“I don’t want a thank you, because I’m glad I showed up. I do know you, Ember. You’re the girl I like. The one who always shows up to first period, even on a Monday. You’re the one who always has a smile to spare, even if you were crying an hour before. I’m not going to conclude this by saying I love you, because you’re still a pain in the ass and I don’t understand why you were there last night. Regardless, let me show you why you should live.” He stands up and holds his hand out to me, and I freeze. He likes me? He smiles at me, and it’s something hopeful that I haven’t seen in a long time.

“Okay.” I walk over to him and grab his hand, thinking we have to start somewhere.

~

“So, whose car is this?” I ask as he unlocks a 1998 Honda Civic DX. It’s a light brown sort of color and it doesn’t look like it will run.

“Mine.” He smiles as he gets in and leans over to unlock my door.

“You’re aware that this looks like a piece of shit, right?” I ask him as I slam the door shut, when he starts it the engine starts up right away.

“Yeah, but it works like a beauty.” He promises as he pulls out of my driveway.

“How do you even know where I live?” I question him, suddenly really curious.

“You ask way too many questions. Why don’t we listen to the radio?” He puts on a Beetles CD and I want to ask him if this thing has air conditioning. I’m in shorts and a t-shirt, but that doesn’t stop the heat. We lived in a small town North of Las Vegas. Beatty, Nevada was a really appeasing place for tourists; our town claimed that it had the prettiest gas station around. People also called it the gateway to Death Valley.

I couldn’t help myself. I turned the radio down. “I need the AC, and where are we going first?” I didn’t know if it was out of state or not, but I concluded that my parents wouldn’t really care. I wrote them a note saying that I am staying the night at somebody’s house.

He looks over at me, a smile on his face. “You just can’t stop, can you?” he flips on the AC and ignores my second question. Turning the radio back on, he sings loudly. I don’t recognize where we are going as he gets on the highway. He floors the gas until it hits sixty, and he’s still singing. I’m so worried where we are going that I can’t sing along to Tickets to Ride. He exits at the fourth exit and I try to think of what’s here, and I come up blank.

He turns a few corners and I see him pull alongside a movie theater. Beatty doesn’t have one, so I would see why he’d have to drive a town over.

“You think this will have such a big impact?” I scoff at him as he gets out of the car, me following. He comes around and locks my door with a key before he wraps his arm around me, guiding me to the ticket booth. I almost take it off, but I find the expression on his face stopping me. Pure enjoyment, either from great memories of coming here or the excitement of somebody’s who’s never been.

We get our drinks and popcorn from a bored looking high schooler, and I wonder what movie we are going to see. “What movie are we going to see?”

“Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.” He wiggles his eyebrows as he hands the tickets to the person.

“Go down here,” he points to the left, “and down to number three. Enjoy your show.”

Once we get settled and we start throwing a little bit of popcorn at each other, the movie starts. “This is why you want to live.” He says, and his face is lit up by the low light coming from the screen.”

“We’ll see.” I whisper, not sure if he hears me.