by Amy McClung
Mitchell got out and stormed into the woods, I saw things flying around, limbs, bushes, trees themselves, he was really mad. A roar came from the woods that sounded like an angry bear yelling Jackie’s name. Well, guess I don’t have to worry that he has fallen out of love with Jackie; it is obvious his rage is because of unadulterated heartache. After a few minutes he was walking back to the car and looked like he felt a little calmer. When he got in the car, I let out a choking sound that turned into a guffaw of laughter. He had leaves and dirt all over him. He looked at me with anger at first then I pulled the mirror down so he could see how ridiculous he looked and he broke into laughter himself. We both just sat there laughing hysterically and it felt great because it had been too long since I experienced a feeling like this.
Mitchell and I decided he would stay at Quinn’s place, since it was boarded up we figured it would be the best hiding place for him. We stopped at a convenient store and picked up some necessities for him and then stopped by his house and grabbed a suitcase of clothes. When we arrived at Quinn’s I helped him inside with the stuff and was getting ready to leave. As I turned toward the door he said my name and I turned back to face him and his arms encased me and he squeezed me to him. It caught me off guard so I was standing there with my arms dangling at my sides and he finally spoke, “I am so glad to see you alive. I just had to tell you that. I was worried sick about the three of you and just knowing that at least you and Jackie are ok, helps so much.” My arms went around him and I rubbed his back and clutched him to me. “I am glad you are ok too Mitch, and so glad someone else remembers life the way I do so I don’t have to feel so crazy.”
Leaving him there to get settled I went to get us some dinner. When I came back he had cleaned the place up nicely. I walked in and held up the bags of take-out, “Burgers and fries, the food of champions…I know you don’t have to eat but I didn’t want to eat alone so…” I said as I sat out the food. “Actually, I have gotten used to eating food to keep up the appearance of being human and being locked in that cave made me miss it, a burger and fries sounds awesome right now,” Mitchell said as he was drowning his burger in ketchup and mustard. We ate and discussed strategies on how we would find Quinn. Mitchell was going to start patrolling while I am at school and then at night he and I will go out together and look. I hated the fact that I had to go to school but I had to keep up facade so people weren’t suspicious. He and I spent hours that evening making up plans and trying to figure out different scenarios of what might have happened. We tried to avoid the topic of Jackie and Will as much as we could.
Inevitably the topic led to Jackie and when it did, Mitchell’s face dropped and he looked as though his world was shattered. I put my hand on his and tried to comfort him but it didn’t seem to be helping. “It’s just hard, Quinn has been my best guy friend and I don’t know what happened to him and then seeing Will with his hands all over Jackie…that hurt…a lot. I mean I have been missing for days and could have been dead and she didn’t even care, she just moved on to someone else,” he said as he held my hand tightly. Tears started rolling down my face and he looked up at me and tried to wipe them with his hand, “I am so sorry Parker, I am being selfish and I know you are terrified to death over Quinn and I am just rambling on about my problems…I am so sorry,” he reached over and grabbed a napkin and wiped my face, I took it from his hand and used it myself to blot my eyes. “It’s not your fault, I am just so glad you are here now and I have someone I can talk to about this. No one else even remembers that Quinn exists, I miss him so much and all I can do is pray that he is still alive,” I said through gasping breaths of emotion. He put his arms around me and I laid my head against his chest, he smelled like Quinn which made me miss him even more.
The next thing I remember is waking up and realizing I was lying against a cold, muscular chest. At first I thought it was Quinn and I snuggled up closer to him, then I heard him groan and mutter Jackie’s name and I sat up quickly realizing it was Mitchell. It was morning, I shook his shoulders to wake him and he startled awake. He was so cute in the morning, his hair was all messy and sticking up in different places. He rubbed his eyes with his fists like a child would do, I could help but admire the innocence of his motions. “It’s morning, I need to get to school but I wanted to make sure you were up before I left,” I was saying as I started gathering my things to go. Mitchell grabbed my arm as I was leaving and I turned to face him, “Thanks for last night, it really helped to have a friend to talk to.” “It meant a lot to me too, so no thanks needed,” as I said this he leaned over and kissed my cheek. I turned and walked out the front door and turned and waved with a smile as I headed to the car.
Driving to school felt like the most ridiculous waste of time, I knew I should be out looking for Quinn but I had to pretend everything was normal. Locking the car, I turned around and Will was walking toward me. Great, this is just what I needed. Ignoring him, I started toward the front of the school and heard him calling my name. Finally, I just turned around and screamed, “What?!” It startled Will for a second but not enough to make him leave me alone. “Geez Parker, you are always so angry lately. I just wanted to apologize for the way you found out about me and Jackie, I didn’t mean for it to happen that way. We just kind of fell in love, we didn’t do it to hurt anyone. Mitchell wasn’t paying attention to her and she felt alone when she was bitten…so…” I stopped him before he could go any further, “I don’t want to hear anymore, you and Jackie can have each other. I don’t want anything to do with either of you anymore. And I believe I have plenty of reasons to be upset based on current events.” I just wanted to get away from school right now, I didn’t really care that Will and Jackie were together except for the fact that they were hurting Mitchell. Heading back to my car I decided to join him for patrolling instead of going to school today. I called my mom and told her I had a migraine and wanted to stay in bed so she called the school for me.
Arriving at Quinn’s place I ran up the walkway and opened the door and then screamed and shut the door quickly. I stood outside for a minute with my back against the door. A few minutes later I fell inside the house when the door was opened behind me. Mitchell was standing above me with jeans and no shirt on and he put his hand out toward me to help me up as he was laughing at my situation. I took his hand and made my way back to a standing position. “I am sorry, I didn’t know you would be nak…um…undressed…I would have knocked…” stumbling over my words as he was still laughing at me. He grabbed a t-shirt from the couch and slid it over his very defined chest, wow I never realized how hot he was. It was like watching one of those TV ads for t-shirts where the guy is slowly pulling the shirt down over each ab individually. His voice brought me out of my spell, “So what are you doing back here, what happened to school?” he asked me. I turned away because I am sure I was drooling, I manage to stutter out, “I…uh…I ran into Will as I was headed into the building and suddenly felt ill. I had my mom call in for me. So I am going to help you patrol.” When I turned back sheepishly his grin widened and he said, “good, I couldn’t ask for better company.” He grabbed my hand and took my keys from me. He even opened the car door for me, such a gentleman.
We drove to the area we were going to patrol today. Mitchell and I headed out on foot to the woods, we decided to start in a different area than we usually patrol. “So, did you see Jackie at school?” He asked. What he really meant was did I see Jackie with Will at school. “No, I didn’t even make it inside. Will just stopped me in the parking lot and we got into it so I left. Well it was more like he was trying to explain things, translation lie more, and I snapped at him that I was tired of hearing his crap.” He just nodded. “Look this isn’t working,” he said out of the blue and I stopped a bit staggered. “We need to split up…we can cover more ground that way.” With relief I said, “Oh, yeah, of course.” His forehead scrunched as he looked confused at my reaction. Then he seemed to shake it off and he went left and I went right, agreeing to
meet up in four hours back at this place. Walking through the woods, I wasn’t sure what I was looking for so I started calling Quinn’s name out loud, hoping for a response. Searching for any sign of life, a struggle, something out of place, but there was nothing. Tired of walking, I sat down against a tree and shut my eyes for a minute.
The sound of someone calling my name made me open my eyes and Quinn was running towards me. I stood up and started running toward him and he grabbed me up and swung me around. “Parker, I thought you were dead,” he said as he breathed in my scent, “I have never been so happy to see someone in my life.” He put me down and placed his hands on either side of my face and kissed me passionately. I was speechless to say the least, and I was in shock that he was standing here. “Where have you been…what happened to you…I missed you so much…” I was rambling on and on without giving him a chance to answer. He started laughing, “Your rambling is what I missed the most I think.” We were both laughing now and hugging as tightly as we could. Tears started rolling down my face, I nestled my head against his chest just taking in the moment. “Please don’t leave me again, please” I begged him. He kept running his fingers through my hair and whispering it would be ok and then just repeating my name over and over. “Parker…Parker…”
I opened my eyes and it was Mitchell standing above me and shaking me awake saying my name over and over again. Startled I realized it was just a dream, Quinn was never here. Jumping up I started yelling, “NO…No…where is he…he was just here” I was running in circles confused and I stopped as I saw Mitchell’s face and I started to collapse as I said, “it felt so real!” Mitchell grabbed me and pulled me against him, he was patting my hair and telling me it would be ok but I kept struggling against him and fighting him with all the strength I had, but his strength doubled mine. Finally I collapsed in his arms in exhaustion. We both fell to the ground and Mitchell held me, “I am going to take you back to Quinn’s house. You are not ready for patrolling. You are too emotional for this right now. Quinn would never forgive me if he found you an emotional basket case.” I looked up at him, “you believe he is alive, don’t you?” He shook his head, “of course I do, the thought of you is probably keeping him alive. I know that the thought of Jackie did that for me.” A sad look came across his face.
He stood up and stuck his hand out to me and I took it and pulled myself up. We started back to the car and as we were walking he reached out and took my hand. It felt nice to connect with someone like this right now. My best friend stole what she thought was my boyfriend, my real boyfriend is missing, my other close friend thought he was my boyfriend and he cheated on me with my best friend, is anyone else’s life this complicated and screwed up?
Mitchell started toward Quinn’s and then veered off in another direction. “Um…where are we going?” I asked timidly. He reached over and patted my leg, “We are going to go do something fun. We both need some fun and I know a great place not too far out of town where we can just let loose for a bit. Do you trust me?” He wiggled his eyebrows at me and I suppressed a giggle, “Of course.” Once he pulled the car over I looked at the sign of the business we were in front of. “Oh my gosh…are you serious?” I asked, “Laser Tag? I love this, I used to play as a kid with Jackie, did she tell you?” He chuckled, “Of course, she said it was the best way you ever found to relieve stress. She said you brought her here when her mom was sick.” At first that brought back some memories that I had to push back out of my mind. I missed Jackie so much and right now if I think about how much I miss her and Quinn I will break and I can’t afford to do that. Instead I am going to focus on how amazing my friend is to want to cheer me up. This was awesome, it had been years since I played. This is something I recommend everyone try at some time in life and it doesn’t matter if you are a kid or an adult. You wear a vest with targets on it and you have a laser gun and you shoot people to get points while running around a maze in a room full of black lights and neon wall décor.
Mitchell came over and helped me out of the car and he paid for both of us too. We went inside and got all geared up. He was acting goofy by holding the gun and doing lines from Arnold Schwarzenegger movies. The buzzer went off and we took off in separate directions, we were competing against each other in this game and he didn’t know it but I was going to kick his butt. You can pick fun nicknames so we chose for each other and for me he picked Lupita which is Spanish for little wolf, and I came up with Fangs for him. There was only 10 minutes on the clock but you can get a real workout in that time. We took off running and I hit Mitchell first and when you get hit your vest goes down for 10 seconds. So, I took off running to hide before he could retaliate. He got me once his gun functioned again and I screeched and cowered in the corner to plan on how to exact my revenge. When the buzzer sounded to let us know there was 30 seconds left I went for the big kill and ran into the center of the room and he must have been hiding to the left because he came running out, shot me and then tackled me. We were rolling around on the ground both laughing and trying to catch our breath. The game was over and he helped me up and we turned in our gear. We actually ended up tying each other at 10 hits each.
We turned in our gear and I put one arm around Mitchell’s waist as we walked out. “Whew, Fangs, that was the most fun I have had in a really long time, thank you,” I said as I stood on my tiptoes and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Me too Lupita, that was a blast. You are a lot of fun. I could get used to having a gal pal like you.” Mitchell said with a wink as we were getting in the car. “I love that name, Lupita, it sounds so cute,” I said as I was buckling. He looked at me and said, “It’s fitting for you, cause you’re so cute.” He squeezed my cheek like an annoying Aunt would and I cringed and he laughed wholeheartedly. Half way home he pulled over and ran into a convenience store saying he had to get something for the house, when he came out he had a mixed cherry and cola ICEE in his hand and he brought it to my side of the car. “You are freaking awesome, how did you…dang…Jackie and I really are a lot alike aren’t we?” His head made a very slight nod and he jumped back in the car, “So, did this help your day end on a better note?” Without taking my mouth off the straw I nodded and then grabbed at my head, “Brain freeze!” He let out a loud chuckle as we drove off. It’s not hard to see what Jackie sees in him, Mitchell is so very thoughtful and attentive, any girl would be lucky to have him. Unfortunately, the one he wants, doesn’t deserve him right now.
I dropped Mitchell off at Quinn’s house and headed to my own. My parents would be home soon and I couldn’t let them notice that I didn’t stay home with a headache like I said I had. Luckily they don’t check on me much at night unless they hear noises, so they had no clue I didn’t sleep at home. Running up to my room I changed quickly into my pajamas and got all comfy in my bed. Hugging my pillow I fell asleep and dreamed of Quinn again, good dreams. My dad woke me up, he wanted to check on me and make sure my head was feeling better. I hate lying to them but there was nothing else I could do right now. He kissed my head and told me he loved me and then shut the door quietly as he headed back downstairs. My phone rang, I looked at the caller ID and it was an unknown number, at first I was going to ignore it but decided against it. “Hello?” I said, no response so I repeated, “Hello? Who is this?” Someone started whispering and I couldn’t understand them, “I can’t hear you, can you speak up?” “Parker, oh thank God you are alive, it’s me, I need help…please…go to the waterfall…our spot…I love you” and the call ended, I dropped the phone. It was Quinn and he is alive. I jumped up and threw on some jeans and grabbed my jacket and keys and headed downstairs.
My parents were watching TV in the living room. “Where are you going young lady?” my mom asked. “Jackie called me, we have been fighting lately and she wants to see me, so I am going to go talk with her and get things right again…is that ok?” I asked politely and my parents agreed it was fine and didn’t argue further. I ran to my car, but first I dialed Mitchell to tell him what was going
on, he was going to meet me halfway there. He showed up on the side of the road along the way to the waterfall and I stopped and let him in. Before we took off again he noticed I was shaking and he opened the door, got out and walked around the car, he made me get out of the driver seat and ride along instead.
At the waterfall, I get out of the car and start running toward the cave. Mitchell is running behind me. At the entrance of the cave I stopped, I was scared of what I would find inside. Slowly, I start my way in and when I came to the open room, I saw something lying in the floor. It was the clothes that Quinn had been wearing that day, the last day I saw him and they had blood on them…my blood it seemed. I grabbed up his clothes and held them to me. Mitchell walked in the cave and I turned to him, “these are Quinn’s…so where is he? Why are his clothes here?” I asked, but Mitchell was as confused as I was and just stood there with a blank look on his face. We took his clothes with us and headed back to the car. “He should be here Mitchell, I know that was his voice on the phone, where is he? Why did he want to come here and find this?” I said with panic in my voice.
My phone rang again, it was an unknown number. “Hello, Quinn…baby is that you?” All that came from the other end was laughter, a woman laughing, “Are you missing your Quinn baby? Aww…that is so sweet. Oh honey, I am taking such good care of him for you, believe me. You know, he shouldn’t have called you before, I had to punish him for that…of course I kind of enjoyed it so I was glad he was a bad boy.” I was angry and scared now, “Who the hell is this and where is Quinn? You better not have hurt him or I will hunt you down and kill you!” She started laughing again, “That is so cute that you think you could do anything to even hurt me let alone kill me. Deep down you know who this is and you know that there is no contest between me and you.” My heart was racing and my chest was tight, I started to scream into the phone but Mitchell grabbed it from me and calmly tried to talk to the woman while I walked away to compose myself. My body was quivering all over, I held back a scream as my hands started twisting and my bones cracking. I bit down on my tongue and could taste the blood in my mouth. I started filling my head with good memories, happy ones to subdue my anger so I wouldn’t shift. My mind went back to earlier today when we were playing the game and how free I felt, how happy I was during that time.