Ember Kate

Chapter::Four

The next day that followed, I didn’t know what day it was. All I know was that something was off; Locklan wasn’t over here waking me up. He wasn’t tripping his way through the bushes that grew outside my window. It was opened, letting in a heat that I kicked off the blankets for. I got up and did my usual thing, throwing on a button up shirt with shorts and a worn out pair of vans. I wanted to crawl through my window and see Locklan’s car there, waiting for me; then I’d get in and we'd go on our next adventure. I contemplate for a minute stealing my mother's keys, but I decide to crawl through my window, get my legs scratched by the tiny bushes, and walk into town and go buy a coke. Walking along the road with the sun beating down on my back, I wish I had a car. Or, rather, I wish I stole her keysanyways. I keep walking into town, and get there and immediately go to the tiny grocery store there.

“Is that all?” a lady asks me as she scans the coke bottle made out of glass. I swear this town is stuck twenty years behind the rest of the world.

“Yes, thank you.” I hand her the money, no room for change, and go sit on the bench outside. The sun is shining bright and I’m glad I have my sunglasses. I see a bunch of people, more people that I don’t then the ones that I do. All of a sudden, a guy in a Jeep pulls up. He’s the only one in the car, and he looks vaguely familiar. I see its Derik Aleman, a guy who just graduated in my class. We used to be friends in elementary school until he got other guy friends who told him to push me in mud, and we never had a reason to talk since.

I put my head down and hope he doesn’t see me, recognize me, or try to talk to me. He is on the welcome mat, the automatic doors open and I almost sigh in relief.

“Ember Kate, is that you?” I hear a familiar voice ask. Just because I never had any reason to talk to him, doesn’t mean I don’t overhear him in classes or when I’m walking by him in the hallways.

I look up and try not to blush, which proves to be a little difficult. “Oh! Yeah. “Derik Aleman? Long time no see!” I don’t know whether to get up or stay seated as he moves away from the door and looks like he’s struggling with the choice to sit or stand.

“I know right?” He smirks at me, and not in a mean way. His head is almost shaved; it’s more like a buzz cut thing going on. He has bright green eyes, and yet I find myself instantly missing Locklan’s crazy curly hair and band shirts. “How have you been?” I guess he finally figures it out and lowers himself next to me while I take a sip of my coke, trying to decide what to tell him.

“Good, I’m really just trying to enjoy the summer before I go off to college.” I lie. I’m not planning on going to a college. I was so certain that I was going to commit suicide that night that I didn’t bother to apply to any college, to show face I wrote my essays and filled them out but never sent them. It was obviously too late now.

“Oh definitely, me too.” He says as he looks behind him at his red Jeep. “Listen, do you want to go on a date?”

“A date?” I question, hoping I don’t come off as an idiot. Derik never showed any interest in me in all the years we went to school, why would he now? “Why?”

“This might sound really stupid,” Derik starts, and I can’t wait to hear it. “But I remember this time in elementary school when Marc Bryant told me to push you down in the mud, and you stopped talking to me. Think of this as a sorry for that.”

I didn’t know whether to believe him. Or if he was just trying to drag me off somewhere and embarrass me, but it seemed like he had good intentions. He was even blushing, which made me cave. “Sure, let’s go.”

I stand up, grab my bottle of coke that was only half way gone and walk over to the passenger side of his Jeep. “Where are we going exactly?” I ask him, thinking that I should have asked before agreeing.

“You’ll see.” He smiles, backing out of the parking space.

~

“What are we doing here?” I ask as he pulls into a smoothed out dirt path that leads to the Bend, and he was almost in the same spot I parked that night. I wonder if Locklan put him up to this, paid him to take me out here. I was angry, what gave him the right? For the first time, and never so strongly, I wished that Locklan never found me. And if he did, if he really had to, why couldn’t it have been a few minutes later?

“Cliff diving, you’ve never been?” he looks at me with a serious expression on his face, as if it’s critical to do something so dangerous that could lead to permanent endings.

“No.” I look out to the body of water wish I could say yes and mean it.

“Well, you’re going to love it.” Derik says as he opens his door. I stay planted to my seat.

“Actually, can you take me to Locklan’s house?” I felt bad, but I needed to go chew Locklan out.

~

When he pulls up to Locklan’s driveway, I get out and tell him thanks before running to the door. My anger only grew as the bumpy ride went on. I pound on the door until an older version of Locklan opens the door, a smile on his lined face.

“Can I help you?” he asks me, and immediately my anger dies down a little.

“I’m Ember, is Locklan home? I need to see him.”

“Yeah, come on in. He’s down the hall, last room on the right.” I walk past him and hear the door click before I sprint over to Locklan’s room. I stop in my tracks when I see Locklan lying in bed, looking uncomfortable. His face is flushed and he’s lying at a weird angle while propped up on pillows.

“Ember?” he gets out, obviously in pain. “What are you doing here?”

I was so confused; obviously something was wrong with him. “What’s wrong? Are you okay? You didn’t show up to take me on an adventure today and I was wondering where you were. Derik drove me over here.”

“Derik Aleman? That must have been a fun ride. Sorry I missed it.” He dodges my other questions and tries a smile.

“What is wrong with you?” I move to sit by him, and notice his room is covered with movie posters going back to B movies from the 80s.

“I think I got a 24 hour bug or something. Sorry we couldn’t go anywhere today.” Locklan looks right at me, and his eyes are so sincere it makes me want to cry. He’s obviously not dying, or in any critical condition. It’s weird that I’m so emotional about this.

“It’s cool, we can stay in. Want to watch something?” I ask him, looking around his room to see if he has a case for his DVD collection.

“Yeah, grab me that disc holder over there.” I walk over to his desk and grab the holder before he picks a movie, Bruce Almighty.

“I love this movie.” I tell him as he scoots over a couple of inches before anymore will cause him greater pain. He shares his blanket with me even though it’s a high 90 outside, and we watch the movie together.