Friday, October 12

I remember his eyes when he said it. They were effervescent and lively like bronze sparkling cider. "I love you, Ehlana." It's amazing how one person's words can make the universe pause, but it was the last time he would ever say them.

I didn't know that.

My heart was saturated in devotion for Colton. He had thought of everything: from a sun-dome tent and sleeping bags that zipped together, to the swim suits we would wear when we camped out at the lake. Everything was packed in the back of his boss's black Jeep Renegade we were borrowing for the long weekend.

His lips pressed to mine and every distraction from crickets chirping to the flickering of the moth light trap on the porch disappeared.

It had been one year since Colton and I had met and he had planned the perfect anniversary rendezvous.

I was going to be a virgin until marriage, or at least I had planned to be, but when I was with Colton, I forgot my ideals and became impulsive. Us, being seventeen, made the marriage part impossible, and when I was near him, he whittled down my virtuous barriers and infiltrated my senses without me realizing it.

His fingertips brushed my back sending spiraling tendrils up my spine. "I love you, too," I said.

We leaned in to kiss again but were interrupted by the vibrations coming from Colton's phone. The screen said "The Aviator." Everyone in his index had a nickname I failed to keep up with. He glanced at it and stepped back, sliding his finger across the screen and placed his cell to his ear. His smile faded as he answered. "Speak to me." I couldn't hear what the person on the other end said but I could hear intensity in their voice. Colton kicked a rock on the driveway back into the rock bed and pivoted to look back at his boss's house. "Okay." He hung up and pressed the key fob to unlock the doors on the Jeep. "Go ahead and get in. I'll be right back."

I leaned my head back with a pout. "C'mon, baby. I wanna get going."

"You and me both." He puckered a kiss in the air toward me and went back inside the house. We had just come from the party inside being hosted by Colton's boss, Will, for all of the employees on probation that did construction.

I climbed into the passenger's seat and waited for ten minutes. I looked at the time. 8:30 p.m. The stars were out. Colton... I looked to the front door basked in the glow of the LED moth light. Do I have to pull you out of that party?

Colton bolted out the door, slamming it behind him, and clambered into the driver's seat. He barely glanced at me and jammed the key into the ignition, started the engine, adjusted the rear-view mirror, and looked over his shoulder as he backed down the driveway, gassing and breaking hard. I held the handle over the door as he turned the steering wheel hard and took off down the street.

"Colt," I said, "I'm excited to get there too, but I want to arrive in one piece."

He squeezed my knee. "Don't get spicy with me baby. I like spicy. I'll eat you up." His phone began vibrating and lighting up in his pocket, but he ignored it. His confidence made him sexier, and I unwittingly let him get away with reckless behavior. I know that now. He sped down the block and slowed as we entered the intersection but didn't stop at the stop sign. He glanced to the left and made a right into oncoming traffic. The car behind us slammed on their brakes to let us in.

"Stop! You're freaking me out," I said.

He stared ahead at the road. "Okay," he replied mindlessly, but he wasn't taking me seriously.

"There's no rush-" I added.

"I know." He glanced in the rear-view mirror and hit the gas again. He got on the on-ramp to the highway and merged into traffic, riding up near the bumper of the car ahead of us.

Anxiety rose in my stomach and I squeezed the armrest on the door. "What is your problem? The lake isn't going anywhere."

He changed lanes, squeezing between a semi and a truck, and then darted into the fast lane and sped up as his phone flashed and buzzed again.

"Who is calling you?" I asked, but he was disengaged from what I was saying.

"Babe, be quiet! I'm trying to concentrate." He looked over to the right lane from where we had just come.

I followed his line of vision but all I saw was the side of the truck. In seconds we were tailgating a car in front of us like a hemorrhoid on their ass. The car pulled out of our lane to let us by and I watched as the speedometer reached eighty-eight miles per hour as we drove by a sign that said speed limit fifty-five.

"Slow down," I said.

"I can't."

"Yes, you can."

"Trust me."

His eyes darted back to the mirror which was at an angle where I couldn't see what was behind us so I looked through the back windshield to see a black car pulling out from between the semi and truck into our lane and speeding up.

"Are your friends following us?" I asked.

He didn't answer and stared ahead as we were coming up fast on the car in front of us. Just as a space opened between the car in front and the lane to our right he cut in and sped around the car impeding us in the fast lane.

I put my hand over my heart as we nearly hit the back bumper. "Colton, what is going on?"

"You're distracting me. Relax. I don't want to get in an accident."

"You're about to cause an accident!"

The phone buzzed and lit up again which he ignored. Colton made a split decision to cut across two lanes of oncoming traffic and squeeze over to the next exit.

"Where are we going? The lake is that way." I pointed back to the highway.

He ignored me.

The road we were on was a single lane through dark farmland with only our headlights to show the way. His eyes stared hard at the rear-view mirror. I turned back to see a car pulling off the exit ramp and speeding up behind us. The Jeep's engine hummed as the speedometer climbed to seventy-five... eighty... eighty-five... ninety...

"Colt, whatever game you guys are playing just stop. Stop it right now."

He ignored me. We went over a small hill and he shut off the headlights while slamming on the breaks and swerving into a cornfield.

"What are we doing?" I yelled, as the sound of the tall stalks hitting the hood softly pelted the metal for a quarter mile in.

He put the car in park and killed the engine. "Shhh. It's alright." He took off his seatbelt and leaned over, hugging me. "Just hang tight while we wait this out."

When I met Colton, he had just been released from juvie. I later learned his father was a con artist that scammed people out of money. He pulled Colton and Colton's best friend, Aiden, into his shady practices and in the end Colton and Aiden took the fall for everything. Colton is embarrassed of his past and I wouldn't have fallen for him if it wasn't for him expressing how he wanted to leave that life behind.

"Are you running from someone?" I asked.

Colton turned toward me and held my hand. "The less you know, the better."

"You'd better tell me. If you've been doing anything shady, Colton, I swear!"

"I haven't done anything shady."

I gave him the evil eye as I was having trouble believing him.

"I swear. I earned the money; I didn't steal it. When we get to the lake, I'll show you how. You're going to be so excited."

Suddenly, a darkened figure wearing a black hoodie and black bandana wrapped over the bridge of his nose appeared at the driver's side window and I jumped as a pick smashed through the window. Glass shattered over Colton's left shoulder. Both of us gasped. Colton reached for the keys in the ignition while the person standing at the door grabbed Colton's shirt by the neck and pulled. "Give me the money." The voice was muffled and it was too dark to make out the only part of his body that was exposed: the eyes.

Colton grabbed the person's wrist. "Fuck you." Colton attempted to turn the key as the person pulled the door open and yanked Colton out of the truck onto his back. I leaned over and saw their dark shadows thrashing. The person had a knife poised under Colton's throat and held Colton's hands to his chest with the other.

The blood in my veins froze. "Just hand over the money, Colton," I yelled.

"No!" He spat in the person's eyes.

"Ahhh!" The person jerked the knife across Colton's throat. Colton choked and grabbed at his neck, thrashing his legs.

I jumped over the center console. "Oh my god! Leave him alone." My palms landed in broken glass on the driver's seat. I gasped and stopped to pull a large shard out of the palm of my shaking hand.

The person pulled the money out of Colton's pocket and ran to the car that I hadn't noticed had pulled in behind us. I jumped out of the driver's side and as the engine roared to life the headlights blinded me. The car backed out into the dark cornfield, leaving the cornstalks bent and flattened.

"Colton?" I frantically kneeled at his side, but now that the car had pulled back onto the street, I couldn't see anything. I laid my hands on his chest. "Are you okay?"

There was no reply, only the sound of gurgling which sent me into panic. My hands shook as I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket.