Run for It (Sequel to 'A Crush or a Friend')

Chapter 1

It has been six years since I kissed that tiger I fell in love with goodbye... and six years I haven't spoken to him...

June 28, 2016

The Javelin Express for Washington D.C. rockets southbound, its next stop scheduled to be Boston South station. Passengers sit quietly working away on their laptops, reading novels, basically anything to pass the time. Another train heading north for Maine departs Boston and starts its journey north. The driver of the north bounder has recently had a child with his beloved wife and hasn't been able to get much sleep because of it. The bags under his eyes were clear as day as he gave the engine more throttle. The Javelin enters a single stretch. This single line heads eighty miles south to the junction onto the main. Usually the Maine bound service waits in a side track for the express to come through. The Javelin Express passes another clear signal and the driver gives it more speed. The exhausted driver enters the siding but at this point is dead asleep in his seat. He passes a red signal and slams the switch open and merges back onto the main and starts heading west to Vermont. The Javelin Express passes another signal but as it passed it turned red instead of turning red as the first car clears the signal. The express banks into a curve and as it exits, the lights of the other train are visible. The driver blares the horn and slams the brakes on. Passengers that were once sitting comfortably in their seat are now flung across the aisle. The tired driver hears the horn and slams his brakes on. The wheels locked and sparks flew, the engine jumped and they collided. The first carriage of the Javelin express got completely crushed whilst the rest of the train sandwiched, ejecting passengers through windows. The north bounder's cars scattered all over the place, toppling onto one another and such.

It wasn't till I returned home with Rowan that I was told that Channing had died in the crash, his body was never found. The driver miraculously survived and was arrested for involuntary manslaughter, battery and the company that operates the north bound service was sued. Donna and I were messes and Rowan tried to stay strong to help us. Each of us attended his funeral, they read speeches they wrote to him... I couldn't even muster a word. I sat next to his parents who I hugged a lot through the ceremony. My dad was there to hold me when they slid his coffin into the ground... I could feel my legs giving out and my heart being stabbed... Nothing was there to prepare me for this... The last memory I had with him was kissing him goodbye on that platform... saying we'd see each other after that summer...

10/4/22

In those six years, I went to off to college, Donna moved to Germany with her parents, Rowan went with me to M.I.T. and Nikita stayed in as a singer, coming up with her own music, married and had kids, after college Rowan went off to starting his own technical company that sells many common appliances in an upgraded fashion, Donna found a new love for baking so she spurred from her original dream of being a fashion designer and I'm still here, not knowing what I would like to be. I moved down to Reston, Virginia, a thirty-minute drive southwest of Washington D.C. I got a job in D.C. as an architect's assistant till I found something I'd devote myself to. I still occasionally do DJ gigs, but those are only during the summer.

My alarm starts blaring and I roll over with a groan. My day starts at a reasonable five o' clock. I turn off the alarm and look at the notifications on my phone. "Oi," I drowsily groan. I sit up and rub my eyes and look out at the bustling street below from my condo. I slid some underarm on and walked over to my closet and grabbed the usual suit pants and white button up shirt. It hugged my torso, mainly because my physique has built up. In efforts to get over or ignore the pain in my chest after his death, I clustered my life, from booking dozens of gigs, to working out, to studying constantly and for this part, we will refer to Channing as him or he. I slid the belt through the hoops, grabbed my phone, earbuds and brief case and walked up the street to the coffee shop and walked in. The air was cool and I was more than happy to feel the warmers inside the shop.