The Runaways

Chapter 2

    
   After the proposal, my mother took us a inside and prepared and full on feast for us.
    Later that night Chase asked me if I wanted to stay over at his house to celebrate. I shook my head. I just wanted to stay home.
    "Mind if I stay with you?"
    "No."
   By now the crowd of people had left and many people were contemplating how or when they were going to propose. Many of my friends already got engaged. Getting engaged quickly and recklessly had become the norm for 18 year olds.
    "Kate, what's wrong?"
    "It's just that..."
    "What?"
    "It's that I don't know if I'm ready."
    "For what?"
    "Don't play dumb. Just please don't, you know what I mean."
    " marriage?" He choked a little on the word. "You don't want to marry me? Are you breaking up with me?"
    "No that's not..."
    "But you said yes, I already bought the ring. It's too late to go back on it now. If you go back you are basically breaking the most important promise of your life."
     "I still love you, I am not ready to get married. Can we give it a couple of months before we actually get married?"
     "But Kate, everyone else is getting married too. I already planned our wedding."
     "You what!" I yelled, getting angry now.
     "I knew you'd say yes."
     "That doesn't mean you go ahead and plan without me."
      His face contorted into anger. "Listen I put up with a lot from you and I put a lot of money into this wedding. You said you loved me, so what difference does it make if we are married or not? You already said yes. It's too late." He bared his teeth like an aggressive wolf. I felt like crying, at this point I was being forced into this. My brother hasn't gotten married yet, why should I? I didn't cry, I didn't want him to know he was hurting me, If he did he would only try and guilt trip me even more. He stormed away and left me alone in my house.
     I ran into the house and up the wooden stairs, and I amazingly made it to my room without any splinters from the hardwood floors all the way there. I slammed the door behind me and I started breathing shakily. I wanted to cry, tears began forcing their way down my face. My nose started to run and my face was getting hot. I collapsed on my bed and bunched the blankets around my face to muffle my mournful sobs.
    I don't want to get married. I just wanted more...of this...Of laughing and loving without a care in the world, no job, no house of my own, no responsibility, where freedom is truly free. In a few days all of that would change, I would graduate and start a brand new chapter in life. I don't want to rush in to too much. If I get married I am legally bound to Chase.
    Then is when I truly began questioning my affection for him. I love him, I love him. He makes me happy, I keep telling myself.
    The tears stopped and I lay in my bed staring up at my ceiling fan that was whirling in fast circles on the ceiling. I was on the bed that is in the corner of my room. I looked over at the rest of my room. The walls were blank, white, colorless. Why did I never think of coloring them? I always thought that lots of color could cheer someone up and if that is true then if I colored my walls a long time ago I would have saved a lot of tears. It was too late now, I would be married to Chase, and he would never even think of coloring the walls.
    The hot tears began pouring out of my face again at the thought of staring at blank walls for the rest of my life and never experiencing what was  behind those blank walls. I clutched my blankets to my face and sobbed into them. I heard a knock on the door that sent me straight up in my bed and forced me to wipe my tears away. How loud had I been? Could they hear me? My mother swung the door open and stepped inside.
    "Kate..." she suddenly looked startled to witness me in such a state, I almost never cried in public,"Are you okay?"
     "No I'm not okay. I'm not sure about marrying Chase."
    "Nonsense, you two have been madly in love for months...well actually, years."
    "I just don't know if I'm ready, I talked to him about it and he already planned our wedding. He," I paused and sniffled,"said I can't back out now. What should I do?" Tears began trying to fall again.
    "Well, in the spur of the moment you said yes, with little consideration." She seemed to choose her words very carefully and she took time deciding what she was going to say. " I guess your subconscious wants you to marry him." After she said that, something occurred to me.
    "Do you want me to marry him?" She shifted as she leaned against the doorway. She looked uncomfortable. I just noticed her very strange attire. She had curled her short black hair so that it just bounced above her shoulders. She did her makeup as a natural look, with red highlighted lips. She wore a knee length dress that was made of a white flowy material. Her shoes were simple black flats. She dressed up. She knew.
    "You knew he would propose, didn't you? "
    "Every boy talks to he father before he proposes."
    "You're not the father."
    "I'm married to the father, he tells me things like this."
    "You want me to marry him, don't you?"
    "I only want what is best for you." She shook her  head causing her black curls to sway.
    "And what do you think is best, mother?"
    "I..." she choked that sentence back and switched it out for something better," whatever will make you happy." She smiled a smile that was not genuine.
   "No, you want me to marry Chase."
   "Okay, yes I think it is a good Idea for you to marry him. He is a good boy, and besides, you already said yes. You don't want to die alone, do you?"
   A look of disgust crept across my face. She didn't even care of I was happy.
    "I'm going to sleep." With that she left, closing my door behind her. I lay back in my bed and tried to relax. It wouldn't be too bad, right? He would get a job and I could get a job, we would barely see each other. It would just be like having a more permanent roommate. I allowed myself to only think of the good in Chase as I drifted off into sleep.
    I remembered the time that he took me to the zoo. We had such a great time then, we laughed so much our sides hurt. A smile crept across my face. This might work.
    In the morning I awoke to strange amount of conversation going on downstairs. No one in my family was ever this talkative in the morning, yet I could hear, 1,2,3,and 4 voices. 4 voices. Who else was here? I couldn't recognize the voice from upstairs so I went downstairs.
    "Who's here?" I called as I walked down the stairs. Then I watched as Chase came from the kitchen down the hallway to the stairs.My heart skipped a beat, I didn't know if I was  ready to see him. Who let him in? I stared at him, I didn't know what to say after I had told him how I really felt. "Hello." I said awkwardly expressing how uncomfortable I was in my tone.
    "Morning honey." He grinned.
   "I'm sorry about..." he cut me off
   "It's alright. No worries." Why did I apologize for speaking my feelings? He was that type of person that could make you feel bad for something you shouldn't feel bad for. I stood at the foot of the stairs, gazing into his dark brown eyes.
    "So, breakfast?" He asked.
   "I'm sure my mom is cooking."
    "I want to take you out."
    "Um, my mom is cooking breakfast today thanks anyways."
    "I insist."
    "Please I just want to eat at home."
    "Don't argue with me Kate."
    "Okay but just breakfast."
    "I'll wait here."
    I ran upstairs and threw on a t-shirt and some long skinny jeans. Then I grabbed my tennis shoes and jammed them on my feet. I met him at the bottom of the stairs again.
    "All ready?" He asked offering me his arm. I didn't grab it, I just walked side by side with him to his car. He opened the door for me and then closed it behind me. Soon we were off to breakfast.
     "Are we good?" He asked drumming his fingers on the steering wheel.
     "Sure."
     "Kate, tell me how you really feel."
    "I just did. Where are we going?" I abruptly changed the subject to a less provocative topic. He ignored my question and pulled his car into a coney island restaurant. We went in and got a seat by the window looking in to the edge of the forests. We sat in silence until our food came. I ordered eggs and bacon and he got a stack of pancakes. I poked at my egg with a fork. He glanced up at me, then continued eating his food. I kept poking at my food. He looked up again. I wasn't very hungry and I didn't want to eat, I felt sick.
      It had been about two minutes of this. He finally slammed his hand on the table, no doubt getting the attention of the entire restaurant.
    "Dammit, Kate! Eat your food." He stared up at me with malice in his eyes.
    "I feel sick."
   "What?"
    "Please take me home."
    "You're kidding. I bought you food and took you out and now you're not even going to eat it?"
    "please, I feel like I'm going to throw up."
     "You're fine. I'm starting to feel like you're still mad at me."
    "I'm not mad. I want to go home." At this point I was angry, I simply wanted to go home. I didn't really want to go out in the first place.
    "Fine let's go." He stood up seething with rage and slammed a twenty dollar bill on the table and stormed out of the restaurant. I followed him out, he was the only way I was getting home. He got in the car and I got in after him. He didn't say anything or even look at me the whole way home. He stopped when we got home.
    "Get out." He growled at me. I got out and rushed into the house. It shocked me how quickly sweet gentleman like Chase turned into angry and mean Chase. My mom still thought I should just be patient with Chase, and that he was still technically a moody teenager. I tried to forget his aggression and remember the loveable and romantic Chase. It was hard but I did it and I felt like we would make it work.
   I was about to sleep again when I heard a knock at the door. I went downstairs and opened it. There he stood, Chase, again. He leaned in and kissed me. I could smell the alcohol on his lips. It made me gag. He was totally drunk.
    "Kate I love you." He muttered.
    " Ok, you're drunk you need to go home."
    "No. You know, I love you and I'm startin' to think you don't love me." He was slurring his words and skipping syllables.
    "Chase leave."
    "No. I'm in love with you. Why don't you love me?"
    "Chase I..."
    "And you don't want to marry me either? Tough luck. We're getting married anyways." He stumbled closer into the house towards me. He leaned in for another kiss. I pushed him away. He looked offended and hurt. "Now you're just being a..."
    "Chase please just go home."
    "No I'm not gonna go home 'till you 'pologize."
    "I'm not going to. You're wasting your time."
    "Apologize." He growled. I was a little suprised at how well he articulated the word, he was so drunk.
     "No." He got close to me, then balled his hand into a fist and swung his arm with full force and full speed into my face. His knuckles impacted my face and it stung like nails. He pulled his fist away and held his hand. I touched my face and when I looked at my hand I saw blood. I was now afraid, but every instinct told me to run, run as fast and as far as I could. I shoved him out of the doorway and bolted out of the house. Tears fell down my face as I ran down the street. I didn't know where to go and I was so upset and confused. I ran to the end of the street and only saw more houses all identical to mine. Then I recognized this as our bus route. I went down the street, took a left and threw my body at full force into the forest. As I hit the ground my vision went entirely black.