Page 8 of Love You To Pieces

Saying anything else to Ariana and Tyler is pointless, I figure, given that they’re bickering in front of the car, illuminated by the headlights. Her hands are on her hips, balled into fists, and she’s scowling at him with the fury of a thousand stoned suns. Tyler runs a hand through his hair, scoffing back some response I choose not to hear, for fear that I’ll say something not so friendly. I raise my hand in a silent farewell, especially since I’ll be swallowed up by the darkness in a few moments and probably invisible to them once I do.

But if either of them notices, they’re too busy snapping at each other to say anything.

“I need better friends,” I whisper to myself once I know I’m out of earshot. The asphalt under me is easy enough to follow without using my phone just yet, thanks to the moonlight peeking through the storm clouds above me. As my eyes gradually adjust, I find it’s easier to appreciate my surroundings with no extra light than it would be with the harsh, short-range LED light on my phone.

Surely I’ll get within service range soon.

After all, this is the twenty-first century. There has to be some kind of coverage around here.

Ten minutes into my hike, I’ve lost all hope of getting service before I get within the Wolf Lake city limits.

I glare at the sign telling me the exit for town is five miles ahead, sweaty fingers clamped around the phone in my hand as I walk along the asphalt. “Ridiculous,” I grumble to myself, sweat rolling down my temples. “Fucking ridiculous. I hate it here.” Though, admittedly, I’m glad to finally have some alone time, where I can spill my feelings into the air around me without worrying about repercussions or judgment.

“Better friends,” I say again, “would’ve prevented this. Like, what the hell, Sadie-Rae?” I’m desperate enough to talk to myself, which isn’t really a new hobby, but evidence enough of my frustration. My legs burn as I push myself up an incline in the road that juts sharply upward in the otherwise pretty flat landscape, and it isn’t until I’m near the crest that I realize I can look back and see our car’s headlights from here.

Except…there are two pairs of headlights, I realize, as I stop to pant, my hands on my hips while I wheeze through my exhaustion. I’m obviously not made for hiking, which I sort of knew already, but it’s a completely different thing to be smacked in the face with that evidence that comes in the form of my struggling lungs and the way I’m unable to stand up straight due to how winded I am.

Maybe someone stopped with jumper cables. My heart lifts with relief at the thought, especially when I see figures moving in front of the headlights, going back and forth between vehicles.

We’re saved. More importantly, I’m saved. Though for a moment I waver, wondering if I should keep going and wait for my companions to catch up to me on the road, instead of going back to the car from here.

But another glance at my phone, still giving me absolutely zero service even on top of the rise in the road, settles that. I won’t make it to Wolf Lake; there’s no way. It’s better for me to just go back to the car, see what’s going on, and help…with all the car knowledge I don’t have.

Taking a shortcut feels like the worst idea ever, but I’m tired enough that I only squeak and yelp when I slide down the embankment, having underestimated just how steep the side of the road is. My phone hits a rock, and I hear the unfortunate crack of the screen against the hard ground as I fight not to lose my footing completely as I scramble and my stomach lurches.

I fail.

In the end, I reach the bottom of the rise on my ass, my palms cut open and stinging from trying to catch myself. A quick glance confirms the screen of my phone is cracked, looking like a spiderweb of tiny, skin-catching marks.

“Fuck!” I scream, my voice echoing off the rocks. “Fucking Fuck!” I get to my feet, brushing off my stinging knees that I’ll definitely be digging small rocks out of later. “God fucking damn it!” Frustration burns at my eyes, sending hot tears down my cheeks as I start walking. “I hate it here!” I yell to the night sky, finally losing the grip on my seething, simmering rage that’s been building for hours, if not days. “Fuck, I hate it!” I kick a rock that then manages to trip me a few steps later, and I almost hit the ground again in a poetic show of irony.

“I hate Tyler and I hate Scotty. I don’t hate Ariana.” My heart races in my chest as I walk, slowly getting closer to the headlights that shine like a lighthouse beacon. “But fuck, I miss my friends. My real friends! Fuck!”

It’s easy to say that, though I know without voicing it that going back to my ‘real friends’ isn’t an option anymore.

Not after college.

Not after the misunderstandings.

Not after Sebastian.

But it doesn’t mean I can’t miss them.

It takes a shorter time than I expected to make it back to the car, though when I squint into the headlights, I’m surprised to not see any movement like I did before. “Ariana?” I call, my voice swallowed up by the darkness as I wait for a reply.

But it doesn’t come.

“Ariana!” I call again, louder this time. The other pair of headlights is still here, stopped on the road, and with the vehicles being over forty feet away from me, I can’t make out anything other than the sound of a diesel engine. “Tyler? Scotty?”

My voice rises with each name, only to have my words go unanswered. Uncertainty rises in my chest, though I keep walking, still trudging toward the car.

I know I saw people moving around from the rise.

My stinging palms and knees push me forward, and my knowledge of there being a first aid kit in the trunk, though if it’s stocked is still yet to be determined. “Ariana?” I call again, seconds before I can sidestep the hood of Tyler’s old sedan to see the open passenger door where Scotty was sitting not twenty minutes ago.

But he’s not there.

The interior light is on, and the entire car looks the same as it did when I left on my hike. Even Scotty’s blue vomit is still on the road, though it’s smeared and spattered like someone repeatedly stepped in it, causing me to have to edge around the mess to avoid getting it on my sneakers.