Here and There

Chapter 7

From here on, most of the chapters will be the flashbacks that lead up to the certain event that landed her in the hospital.

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Everyone knows there’s that particular stage in every relationship where everything is perfect and you can’t stand to be without the other person. It happens to everyone; there’s no avoiding it. The good thing is, although you are oblivious to how annoying you are to other people, it’s a wonderful feeling to experience.

 

For the first month and a half, Colton and I were in that stage. But once we hit a two month anniversary mark, we started to get more serious. We still hung out and we were still into each other. The only thing was we sometimes needed some space and some peace to recollect our thoughts and feelings so we would not create a mess of something we had lovingly created.

 

It was sometime in January of my freshman year that we had gone on one of the best dates we ever had. It started out with a simple trip to the movies but afterwards it turned into a slow ride through town looking at all of the christmas lights that had not yet been taken down. Eventually, we drove to an old baseball field. We laid in the back of the truck and watched the stars.

 

For some strange reason, Colton always kept a blanket and a pillow in the back seat of his truck. So, we weren’t freezing but it wasn’t exactly summer weather, either, which is why we basically cuddled.

 

“So, Nina,” Colton smiled at me lazily. “I want to know everything there is to know about you.”

 

“Why?”

 

He chuckled. “Because you’re my girlfriend, silly.” He sighed happily before saying, “Tell me a secret.”

 

At the time, I was not interested in spilling out my entire life story to a boy that I liked a lot. I was afraid he would think of me differently and I didn’t want to lose him.

 

“I don’t have any secrets, Colton.”

 

“Sure you do. Everyone has something they keep to themselves. Tell me it,” he said while staring up at the sky.

 

“You tell me one first, then,” I said trying to prolong the time without having to tell one.

 

“Alright,” he sighed. “My mom left me and my dad when I was 5.”

 

“Wow. That was unexpected. Why’d she leave?”

 

“I don’t really know. She didn’t leave a note to me and my dad never wanted to tell me so I stopped asking long ago. My guess, though, would have to be my dad’s drinking. I remember he used to go out often and that always made my mom upset. It made my mom even more upset when he came home hammered and passed out on the couch after puking everything up on the living room carpet. I guess after a while, she got sick of everything and she finally decided to leave. I respect her for that but I really wished she would’ve taken me. I didn’t want to have to live with him, either.”

 

I was watching him speak while he was looking up wistfully.

 

He looked back down at me and smiled again when he noticed I hadn’t replied, “But hey, I survived so far.”

 

“Do you have any idea where she went?”

 

I truly felt sorry for him. Especially for having to deal with a drunken father every other night.

 

He shook his head. “Even her brother doesn’t know where she ran off to.”

 

“You still talk to him even though she left you guys?”

 

“Oh yeah. He and my dad are great friends. On a different note, it is now your turn to tell me something,” he poked me on the nose.

 

I was going to tell a simple little story of how I broke a special vase my mother loved several years ago but having listened to Colton tell a rather serious one, I decided to tell him a serious one, too.

 

“Okay. Well you know my parents are getting a divorce right now, but I don’t think I have ever told you why they were splitting. I was eleven, I think, when I saw my mom’s phone light up on the kitchen table while she was at the stove. I sneaked a look and saw she had a message from some Leo guy. So, I told my dad later that night and then the next night is when the fighting started. Apparently, Leo was her ex-boyfriend she had dated in college before meeting my dad and they had reunited and started messing around, I guess. So basically, I caused it all. It was all my fault and I feel terrible about it.”

 

Colton sat up and pulled me up with him. He looked at me with a serious expression before saying, “Nina. Your parents problems are not your fault at all. Your mom should not have cheated. It was your mom’s fault. It just so happened that you saw it and did the right thing of telling your dad.”

 

I shook my head. “You don’t understand. If I wouldn’t had told him, they wouldn't be at home fighting right now.”

 

He pulled me into a hug and rubbed my back. “There’s nothing you can do about that. Sooner or later, they’ll have to stop.”

 

And that night we had our first kiss. But too early, I had to be home so he dropped me off and went back to his house and that was it. I revealed myself to him that night and he stayed.