Route 262

~19~

"So where am I supposed to go from here?" James asks. His voice is hollow, sprouting from his mouth but hanging in the air after that, like an arm unsure of whether to hold a door open or not. 

"What?" 

"Like, how am I supposed to move on after this? I'm going to go back home, and everyone's going to talk, and how am I supposed to - you know - survive it - ?" 

There's a break in his voice, and I glance over; his eyes are wet. 

"But what did you even run away for in the first place?" I say, aware of how judgmental it sounds as I form the words. "I mean what did you think was going to happen?" 

He doesn't say anything, just fooling with a thread that's been torn from his sweatshirt. 

"You know," I'm continuing, "you're saying that everything has come apart, and that you're can't get past it, but what's going on that's so terrible? You're graduating in a few months, you'll go off to school somewhere else and won't see any of these people ever again - what's going on?" 

His breathing is what stands out. It's quicker, irregular, starting and stopping as if he were in some kind of gruesome pain. 

"It's nothing," he says at last. 

"Nothing?" and before I can stop it, I can hear my voice grow a little louder. "Nothing is the reason that everyone's been worried sick about you? Nothing is the reason we've spent hours and hours on some wild goose chase for you? Nothing is why I'm down here right now, with Sydney scared out of her mind in god knows what part of this cave?" 

It's a feeling that's kindling inside my chest, and I want to cut it off, suffocate it, but it's starting to roar by the time I finish my tirade. James starts to say something, but I'm already getting to my feet and turning to leave. 

'If this has all been for nothing," I say quieter, not daring to face him, "then you aren't the same person I've been chasing all this time." 

And I start walking, aware of the way my legs push myself up, further and farther away from him. 

Except not exactly, because I can hear him scurry to his feet from behind me, coming after me. "Dante - Dante wait." 

"What?" I say, whipping around suddenly. He's closer than I thought her would be. 

He takes a step, so he's right up in front of me. "It's wasn't for nothing," he says, softly, deliberately. 

I start to say something, but it's like my mouth is disconnected from my brain. Two seconds, I'm thinking, as my mind churns. Two seconds to think, and I could come up with something - anything - to say to him. 

But those two seconds pass, and we're kissing.