This short chapter is basically just them discussing the previous night. I am trying not to put much more in case anyone wants to skip it.
Marina Pov
Marina woke up feeling like she was hit by a truck. She felt the weight of an arm over her middle, their hands clasped together. She looked over to find Kenny passed out.
She tried to remember falling asleep, and why she was still wearing her jacket and jeans.
She tried to move slowly to not wake him up, but as soon as she loosened her hand from his he sat up quickly looking over at her.
"Sorry!" He apologized after she gave him a confused look.
Marina rolled to the side to get out of bed, as soon as she went to get up she fell.
Kenny quickly moved across the bed and bent down to help her up.
"Chill out Kenny. The fuck is wrong with you." She asked rudely.
Her attitude changed when she saw he looked incredibly sad, "Sorry." She apologized.
Marina walked into the bathroom and shut the door, as she started waking up more, she thought back to last night, trying to figure out why Kenny was laying in her bed.
As she thought back, the memory of the slow feeling of losing her ability to move entered into her mind and she started feeling panicky, trying to think of the last thing she remembered.
She let out a sigh of relief when she remembered Kenny yelling at someone and then talking to her. Marina washed her face before opening the door again.
Kenny was sitting on the edge of her bed, as if he were waiting for someone to try and attack her in the bathroom or something.
He stood up when she walked out. "I was only in your bed because-" She cut him off with a hug.
"Don't explain yourself." She whispered, "What time is it?"
"I don't know actually." Kenny pulled his phone out, "Oh Shit! I am late for work! I'm so sorry to dip! You okay?" He asked quickly.
"Yes! Get to work!"
As soon as he left she called Wendy. She instantly answered the phone with, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah Wendy, I'm fine, just feeling really tired and shitty."
"Do you remember anything that happened?"
"I remember Kenny yelling at someone and Kenny talking to me." She left out how she was feeling internally, she was hardly able to admit that outloud to herself, and she didn't want to scare Wendy. "I also briefly remember Kenny carrying me outside."
"Do you remember anything before all that?"
"Yes. I remember realizing my drink was possibly spiked and I didn't think Carter would do something like that. Especially since I was planning on sleeping with him anyway. But he was the only one who was around my drink. It had to be him."
"Oh it was him. And apparently he does this often. With his friends."
"Are you shitting me?"
"No! They actually didn't know who was doing it until last night."
"That's really fucked up."
"I know. But I am glad you are safe and okay. I was so worried about you all night. I cried the entire way home. And I know Stan would kill me for telling you this but he cried too. We felt like shit for leaving you by yourself."
"I love you guys." Marina felt herself tear up, "I am so glad Kenny found me."
"We love you too Mar. And girl you should have seen him. He was a complete mess at the car, like on the verge of tears, mess. I heard someone talking about it, he was about to strangle that guy to death. That's when we all started looking everywhere for you guys."
"I heard him yelling at him, but I couldn't see what he was doing to him."
Wendy sighed, "You have no idea how happy I am that this is the conversation we are having and not a different one."
"You have no idea how happy I am about that. I owe Kenny big time. So tell me some happy things."
They talked for a bit about good things, laughing together, until finally they hung up.
Marina looked at the time, it was 9:15pm. She sighed before going downstairs.
"Hi Sweetie, how are you?" Her mom asked.
"I'm good."
"Drinking again last night?"
"Yeah, sorry." She winced.
Her mom gave her a look before going back to cleaning the kitchen.
Kenny PoV
He was almost asleep when he heard a tapping noise. He thought it was probably just an animal but it continued, and it sounded like it had a rhythm. Kenny sat up and looked around his room, he realized the noise was coming from the window right next to his bed.
He shoved the curtain back. Marina was standing on the other side of it, waving slowly.
Kenny unlocked the window and slid it up quickly.
"What are you doing?" He laughed, "We have phones."
"Am I interrupting anything?"
"Of course not. I was actually going to bed."
"Now you are not. Get dressed and come with me!"
"Where are we going?"
"On an adventure! Come on!"
"I'll meet you at the front door."
"No. That's no fun. Climb out of the window."
Kenny let the curtain fall back, quickly throwing a hoodie and sweatpants on.
He climbed out of his window, turning around and closing it behind him. When he turned back around she was standing there with a big smile on her face. "You'll need to drive." She tossed her keys at him.
"Why do I need to drive?" He asked as she started walking away.
"Because I've been drinking." She held up a cup.
"Of course." He sighed.
Marina got into the car and Kenny followed, "Soo.. Where are we going?"
"For a drive. Gonna feel that cold mountain air and breathe. Hopefully we will find a really cool spot."
"So which direction should I go?"
"Wherever your heart tells you!" She laughed.
He smiled, he was happy to see her laughing. Turning the key, the car started and Kenny tried to decide if he wanted to go left or right. He went left and once he got over the tracks, he decided to go left again, heading into town.
The clock on the dash read that it was 12:47am.
"I can't believe you were already going to bed." She broke the silence.
"Had nothing better to do."
"No girls tonight?" She asked.
"Wasn't really in the mood to hit up any girls tonight." Kenny shrugged. He really wasn't. Last night had really shaken him up. He thought back to running to the basement and he quickly thought of something else.
She must have understood because she didn't say anything in return.
Marina reached up and turned on the radio, Kenny rolled the window down and lit up a cigarette.
"Can I have one?" She asked.
"No." He shook his head.
"You're smoking in my car, and I can't have one?" She deadpanned.
Kenny sighed before handing her the pack, he was only giving in because he felt bad for her.
She lit it up and rolled her window down, he watched out of the corner of his eye as she inhaled slowly before blowing it out, coughing a little. "Not as bad as smoking weed." She giggled.
He smiled softly as he focused on the road ahead of him.
"Kenny?" She asked.
"Marina?" He replied.
"Can I ask you something?"
"Always."
She was quiet for a couple seconds, "Do you ever feel like life is too much? Like that there is so much shit on your plate, leaving hardly any room for the good stuff?"
Kenny looked over at her for a second before looking back at the road.
"Life is just entirely shit honestly. It feels like I usually have both hands full of shit and I have to pick which one I would rather smell."
"That isn't fair though." She sighed sadly, taking a drag of the cigarette, the way she smoked it made him wonder if she was secretly smoking.
"Life isnt fair. Never really is." He shrugged, taking his own long drag, letting it calm him.
"I miss being young and dumb."
"We are still young and dumb." He smirked.
She thought about it for a minute, then she smirked as well, "True. Hey do you want to drive up to the lookout?"
"Sure." He nodded, heading that direction.
Kenny looked over at her as she sat leaning out the window, her ponytail blowing messily in the wind. Her eyes were closed, and he knew she had to be cold. She had on an old hoodie and she looked like his best friend again. As soon as he parked she opened the door and got out, she almost ran over to a pile of snow off to the side. Kenny shut the car off and got out.
She was lying on the snow looking up at the sky. Kenny pulled his hood up and then laid down beside her. "You know, before I lived here, I didn't know it was possible to see this many stars." She told him, "I remember my mom was so excited to move out of the city, she told me we will be able to see a million stars. She told me that my dad took her on a date once, he drove 2 hours away just to sit on top of the car and look at the sky." She sighed, "My dad smiled when she said that. And I thought to myself, that I want that kind of love. I was 10 years old. Boy was I wrong... Wrong about a lot of things." She sniffed, "You don't have to lay here with me, I know it's cold. I just wanted to, " Her voice cracked, "to feel it."
Kenny reached over and put his hand over hers, she let out a soft sob, turning her hand to face up under his.
"I heard you talking to me." She choked out.
"You don't have to talk about it, Rina." He told her gently, rubbing his thumb up and down her hand.
"No, I want to get it off of my chest, now." She sniffed again, Kenny didn't let his eyes leave the sky, he knew if he saw her crying right now, he would too.
"I don't even know when he did it. I didn't even think he would. Honestly I had planned on sleeping with him before leaving. When I couldn't feel my hands and everything started feeling like it was underwater and slow motion, I was thinking maybe I was just hungry. I was going to stand up and go find something to eat, but my body wouldn't move. I went to ask Carter what was going on, but my mouth felt like it was taped shut."
"It wasn't." He assured her.
"The longer I was sitting there, feeling like I was losing myself, the more confused I was. Trying to figure out who did it. Still didn't think it was Carter until I felt someone sit next to me and they asked Carter if he knew how much longer. He said I should be ready in 15 minutes. I was.. so scared."
Kenny couldn't stop the tear that escaped out of his eye. He blinked and one escaped on the other side as well, he sat as still as he could.
"It wasn't long after they left that you came in there. I heard you yell and I have never felt so relieved in my entire life. When you asked me to look at you, I was trying so hard. I could barely feel your hands on my face." She put her hands on her cheeks, "I finally saw you when you moved me to be able to.. I was trying to tell you I was scared, but my mouth wouldn't move and that scared me even more."
Kenny sniffed, he couldn't help it anymore, tears were flowing freely down his temples. He just wanted to roll over and hug her, hold her and tell her he would kill those guys if he ever saw them again.
"I just wanted you to know that I did hear you, but I just couldn't tell you that. And I wanted you to know how much I really appreciate you. I saw you, I remember you carrying me to the car and I remember sitting in there and hearing you guys talking. I think I fell asleep on the way home though. I know that it could have been worse. And I was stupid for trusting him to make my drink at all. Especially a stranger and after the warning. I don't even know how he did it, I watched him the entire time. I just don't understand why he would do that. It was obvious I wasn't going to turn him down. Why spike my drink?" She looked over at Kenny.
He turned to look back, not even hiding that he was crying with her anymore.
"Um." He sniffed, letting out a shaky breath, he looked at the sky again, "When um. I touched your face, and saw your eyes.." He shook his head, trying to pull himself together, "I felt it. I could feel how scared you were. It like, actually made me feel sick."
"For real?"
"Yeah. I also heard some guys talking about a cheerleader and that's why I ran down there. I just had this gut feeling it was you. I almost killed Carter, but I'm sure you heard that."
"I did." She looked at the sky again, "I shouldn't have been so stupid."
"You weren't stupid, you didn't expect him to do that. You just have to be more careful and pay better attention."
"Yeah." She sighed.
"I'm sorry that you were left all by yourself."
"Don't be."
He nodded slowly, not looking away from the sky. She scooted closer until their arms were touching.
"Thank you, I know you were probably busy, I really am grateful for you."
"Marina, besides Karen, I will drop literally anything and anyone to be there for you. Please don't forget that."
He heard her nod against the snow, briefly seeing it in his peripheral vision.
They had laid there for a bit longer before finally getting into the car and heading home.
