Just A Kiss

Chapter 13: AnnaLyn

Jackson drives toward the park, the music playing loud in the truck, the windows down, the wind blowing through my hair.

I turn off the music when I see Caleb. Sitting on the grass. With Victoria.

My heart drops to my stomach.

"What the hell?" Jackson says.

I just stare at Caleb. His arm is around her shoulders, her head against his chest.

"I need something to drink." I say, looking away.

"Okay.." Jackson looks at me. "Beer? Wine? What?"

"Wines good." I say, looking at my hands.

Jackson gets a bottle of wine front the truck bed and hands me a cup. I just shake my head and take the whole bottle, gulping it down.

"AnnaLyn, chill." Jackson says, taking the bottle away from me. I only look at him.

Caleb is back with Victoria, and I'm still broken.

***

If I could erase certain memories, I wouldn't think twice before I erased Caleb from my mind.

I take a drink of wine.

He's constantly there, sometimes haunting me, sometimes pulling me to him. Either way, I hate it.

"What are you thinking about?" Jackson asks me. We sit close on the couch, his arm around my shoulders, watching a movie.

I sigh. Should I tell him? "I can't get Caleb off my mind." Jackson tenses up a little bit when I say Caleb. "Every time I see him, he looks happy. Why aren't I?"

"You can always be happy," he relaxes again. "You just have to want it."

"But I do." I look up at Jackson.

He looks back at me and smiles. "Then you need to live it."

He turns back to the movie and takes a sip of his wine and I put my head on his shoulder.

***

Then live it. Jackson's voice repeats in my head.

Jackson drives to a party down the street. I don't know why, but I'm nervous. It was my idea anyway. I wanted to have some fun.

We pull to the side of the road, the exterior of the house looks old and sketchy, yet big. When we walk in, there are colored lights, huge TV screens, and a bunch of people, obviously drunk. The music is blasting so loud I can barely hear myself think.

A girl starts dancing rather close, too close to another girl and I'm suddenly uncomfortable.

I take a glass of wine from man walking around with a whole plate of drinks and gulp it down.

I look around for another drink and an attractive guy comes up to me and presses his mouth to mine. He tastes like smoke. I try to push him away from he has a tight grip around my waist. His neck must be extremely strong because I can't push his face away from mine either.

"Hey!" I hear Jackson yell from behind me. He grabs the guys collar and pulls him off of me and I gasp for air. "Don't touch her again." Jackson pushes him away.

"You okay?" He asks me as I wipe my mouth with my hand, like that will take away the taste of smoke. I nod and grab another drink. Sometimes it's nice to forget.

***

I'm laughing with Jackson, my body moving like water. I didn't know I could dance like this.

Then the music stops and someone yells, "everyone hide!!"

People scramble, and I stand there, confused. Jackson takes my hand and pulls me out a side door. He pulls me down behind a trash can.

There's a cop car out front, and a policeman just walked inside.

"Run!" Jackson says quietly. I run to the drivers seat of the truck.

"Keys!" I say to Jackson and he throws them at me, but of course I drop them. I struggle picking them up, because they seem to be more to the left than they really are.

I finally manage to pick them up so I hurry and get in the truck. I start to drive, the road looks smooth yet it feels bumpy.

A stop light is coming up and I press the brake, but I don't hit the right pedal so we go flying into the intersection.

A car collides with the front of the truck, making my neck thrash to the side. Screaming, spinning, more and more cars hitting us, glass flying everywhere, pain surging through me.

And everything is black.