English homework 11/2/2004
Seth drove. He drove not really knowing where he was driving to. All he knew was that he needed to get them far away from here. He needed to get them as far away from the mistakes and the memories and the past as he could. He needed to do it for her. He looked over at her sleeping in the seat next to him. She looked peaceful, almost; like she had no idea what terrible hell they were leaving behind.
Her Best Friend. Seth thought to himself. Her Best Friend. He didn't know if she was going to get through it, all he knew was that he would be there. Of course he would. He kept driving.
About an hour later Seth pulled off the road to a motel that he saw, just north of Tijuana. Looking at the place he felt a faint glimmer of déjà vu, but he shook it off and crept around to the passenger side of the car. Opening the door, he quietly unbuckled her seat belt and pulled her out. She didn't wake up the whole time that he carried her inside. The check in desk was awkward. It turned out to be pretty difficult to pay for a room while carrying her, but Seth managed. And even though she was kind of getting heavy he managed to get her back to the room and to a bed too. As he was laying her down, the déjà vu returned. 'You make a move, I rip out your jugular.' He blinked in surprise as the memories came rushing back. Aw crap. He thought. What had he done? They couldn't stay here. He glanced at her sleeping contentedly in the bed and sighed. He just couldn't bring himself to wake her. She would wake up soon enough and realize where they were, but for now he let her sleep. He knew that he himself would not be doing much sleeping regardless of where they stayed, whether it be here, or somewhere without all the history. So much for escaping the memories, he thought to himself as he switched on the television. Static. He should have remembered that.
About twenty minutes later she woke up. It almost killed him to watch her face as realization of where they were slowly crept in. As she looked over at the small pull out couch by the door, where not so long ago her best friend had cried herself to sleep, she began to cry. She wasn't crying easy silent tears either, these were heart wrenching sobs. Seth got up and went over to the bed. He sat next to her and let her cry, feeling to ashamed to comfort her. He didn't deserve that privilege. After a while she stopped and the room was quiet except for her ragged breathing. He looked at her laying there and couldn't resist telling her it would all be okay. She didn't answer, just picked up her purse and went into the bathroom. Seth sat on the bed for a while. All of the sudden the worst flash back yet filled his memory. He saw her step mother's pills sticking out of her purse. He saw her best friend taking the pills from the purse and walking out of the shabby motel room. HE got up and ran to the bathroom, praying with all his heart.
She had the pills in one hand and a cup of water in the other. When he burst through the door she just looked up at him. Slowly she poured the water into the sink and let the pills fall one by one into the toilet. Then she slumped to the floor.
"I want to keep living, I want to keep going. She wouldn't want me to give up," she whispered. Seth knelt next to her and as the tears poured from her eyes, into his shirt he felt for the first time that Summer was going to be okay.