Breathless

Chapter 15

You know, it's weird, because Christian and I went to the same High School, but we didn't even know each other.

Heather left, and Amber and Luca left, and I'm sitting on the couch with Christian, and we had sex so we're both naked with a fuzzy blanket over us, and he's playing with my hair.

"I have a plan and you're going to kill me." He says.

"What is it?" I mumble.

"I want to move to Marshall. I want you to come."

When I was a teenager, I blamed Marshall for my problems and the reason I had no friends, and I swore I would never go back there.

I realize now that the issue was me. Marshall was so pretty and rural, and I don't like big cities.

"No." I say.

"Why?" he whines.

"Because we just moved across the country. I mean, I finally got a job as a Vet!"

"So find one in Marshall!"

"No, it's not happening. I refuse."

"Will you at least think about it?" he asks, pulling me against his bare chest.

"No. If you wanted to move there to begin with, you should've said something."

"Please?" he asks. "All I'm asking is for you to think about it."

I sigh.

"Fine. I'll think about it, but my answer won't change."

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Work was fun all week, and Christian is going to Marshall this weekend, and something is holding me back.

My whole family is going to Marshall too, and they begged me to come, Christian did, too, but I said no.

I just, I can't, and I don't know why.

I was depressed in Marshall. I was a fat teenager. I was bullied, I had no friends.

Nobody wanted me.

Nobody even knew me.

<><>

I found myself sinking into a depression, and I don't know why. Christian is spending more and more time in Marshall, my entire family moved into Marshall again. Mom and Dad bought back the house I grew up in, and Grandma and Grandpa bought their house back also.

Amber is my best friend, and she and Luca moved, and Aubrey and Dylan moved.

Christian is getting really frustrated with me because everyone we know and love lives there.

I just got off of work. It's been two months now, so it's June, and there's a party across the street from Calhoun County Fairgrounds Office at the river, and everyone from our high school are going to be there. It's a big event of the town that everyone always goes to, and all my family is going to it, and Christian is going to be with all the pretty girls that bullied me from high school, and I've seen photos of him in high school. He had bad acne.

But now he doesn't. He's hot as shit.

The party is tomorrow and he's staying with his cousin for the weekend.

He drives an hour and a half to Marshall once or twice a week and stays every weekend up there.

I feel so depressed.

I miss being happy and being close with him.

And I'm sitting alone, and it's seven, and the sun is almost gone.