《︎𝘈𝘶𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘳'𝘴 𝘗𝘖𝘝》︎
They arrived at the train tracks. Chloe leads him into an abandoned train cart. She grabs a match and lights a candle.
"Is this where you take your victims before you murder them?" Ren questions.
"No silly. Everybody calls it the yearbook. I don't know when it started, maybe 10 years ago or so."
Ren walks over to a wall that has stuff all over it."What is all this?"
Chloe walks around him and towards the back of the cart. "Some are songs, Lyrics, Quotes from books, Poems, Music we're not supposed to listen to."
Ren sits down in a chair. "What do people do? Just hang out?"
Chloe shrugs. "Yeah and other stuff." She looks down awkwardly. Ren stares at her. She looks up and makes eye contact with him."You think I'm small town, huh?"
"I think Bomont is a small town." He shrugs
"You think? Try living here your whole life." She grabs a bottle of water and starts chugging it.
"Oh come on, at least you're used to it by now." Ren says.
She shakes her head and walks over to the entrance of the cart. "Bomont is a nice town if you've never lost something of yours."
Ren furrows his brows. "Care to elaborate?"
She looks back at him. Ren can see the pain in her eyes. "When I was eight, my dad left my mom and I. My mom always said that it was for the best and that he didn't need to be apart of my life, so I had to get over it. Then she met Roger, they immediately clicked since they both had daughters."
Ren gives her a questioning look. "He has a daughter? I don't think I've ever seen her before."
"Oh you have.." She whispers. He continues to give her a blank stare. "Just let me finish." He nods and let's her continue. "Mom passed away a few years ago. Dad was out of the picture and obviously wanted nothing to do with me so I was stuck with Roger, who thinks that you can solve your life long issues by changing your name and forgetting about what you can't change."
"I'm sorry, Chloe. I had no idea." He says sincerely.
"Don't be. You're not the one blaming me for-" A lump forms in the back of Chloe's throat. "Everything." She laughs, trying to hold back tears.
He walks over and hugs her. She wraps her arms around him. "What ever it is just ignore it. This town is trash and so are half of the people in it."
"Thanks, and you're right I mean everything will change once I'm out of High School. I've applied to colleges. Heck, I've applied to colleges Roger don't even know about. Nobody wants to see Bomont in their rear view more than me." Ren pulls back and stares at her. Chloe looks back up at him.
Ren smiles. "You want to kiss me?" He teases. Chloe rolls her eyes.
"Depends do you want to kiss me?" She asks somewhat sarcastically.
"Maybe someday." Ren shrugs backing away from her.
"What's this "someday" crap." She asks.
"You want to drop down and tumble right here? Ok. But we both know that sweat's gonna dry and you're still gonna feel like crap." Chloe nods. She hears a train horn go off in the distance. Her face lights up.
"Did you hear that? Come on, hurry!" She grabs Ren's hand and runs outside to the tracks.
"Sometimes back in the day when I was a "party animal", after football games we would all come out here and when the train passes, all the couples would just make out like crazy." Chloe said as she walked backwards towards the tracks. "Or we just play chicken." She says, standing on the tracks. The train lights shined on her face showing all of her features.
"So, you're just going to let the train hit you?" Ren asks. Chloe shrugged.
"Maybe." She looked back at the train. It eased up, getting closer and closer.
"Okay this is dumb. Get off." Ren said walking up to her. She huffed and tried to walk off. But she stumbled a bit and her foot got stuck under a board.
"Oh shoot." She whispers.
Ren huffs and gently grabs her wrist."All right, stop fooling around. Get off." Chloe calmly looks at him.
"Ren-"
"Chloe! Get off the track!" He yells. She saw the train lights getting closer she tries to yank her foot out from under the wood plank. The train's whistle starts to blow at her.
"Ren help me! I'm stuck." Ren runs over and tries to help. She looks forward and sees that the train is way too close for comfort.
"Ren!" He gets up and jumps at Chloe. Her foot comes out of her shoe and they start to roll down on the grass. They huff as they see the train shoot past them. They make eye contact. They were in an awkward but intimate position.
"Are you okay?" He huffs. Chloe nods. He quickly gets off of her. "I-I uh. I should get you home."
"Y-Yeah. Roger is gonna kill me." The ride to Chloe's house was silent, when they arrived. Ren grabbed Chloe's wrist.
"Would you like to go with Rusty, Willard, and I tomorrow night. There's this bar a few towns over-"
Chloe pretends like she thinking for a second before nodding. "Yeah sure. Sounds fun."
Ren smirks. "Alright. I'll pick you up." He says winking at Chloe. She playfully rolls her eyes and shuts the door to his bug. She walks into the house and sees Roger sitting at his kitchen table.
"How can Reverend Shaw and I impose a curfew on the young people of our town if I can't enforce it in my own home?"
Chloe sighs. "Roger, I can expla-"
He cuts her off. "Have you been drinking?"
Chloe takes her backpack off. "I haven't been smoking, drinking, dancing, reading books I'm not supposed to. I'm just late. I was out writing my essay look." Chloe hands him her notebook.
Roger looks over it then back at her. "Who brought you home just now?"
She crosses her arms before whispering. "Ren McCormack."
"I don't want you to see that boy again." He says.
Chloe's jaw drops. "Why?"
"Because I have reason to believe that he's trouble."
"Trouble? Well, man born of woman is of few days and full of trouble. Job 14:1. You know, from the Bible?" She says as she starts to walk to her room.
"Your behavior has been atrocious, young lady, and it seems to have started when Ren McCormack came to town."
"Trust me, Dad. Ren's the least of your worries. I'm just trying to be nice. The kid has been through a lot and Vi said I need to be there for him. If you have a problem with it then feel free to discuss it with the Reverend's wife." Roger's eyes widen. "Yeah good luck trying to tell her you don't like the orphan boy."