On Colder Nights Without Him

On Colder Nights Without Him

A cough seemed to be burst through her lungs resonating a jolting pain through the ladders of her ribs. A window somewhere to her right seemed to poor in moonlight drowning the room in silence. Her eyes barely catching a glint of this silver lights from the corner of the room.

He lay next to her. Greg. He couldn’t be sleeping here, beat the thought with the pouring adrenaline. But after closing her eyes and tossing them open again, he was still there. The quiet gleam of his gelled hair, she had only watched him put it on this morning, or would that be yesterday already. She still couldn’t tell with this headache. I can’t let Mom find me sleeping with him, but she could already hear her mother’s distant echo, Only lasted a few weeks before you slept with this one.

Her head continued to throb. “I have to get up,” slipped between her clenched jaw, but the words transformed into a whimper as a shot of pain signaled her body’s denial to the request. All you need to do is get out of here, before anyone finds you. No one must find me. She had always been one of the stronger girls; her mother beat that into her. Now if rumor spread she… then… She had seen what happened to other girls they picked on. Her reputation would be destroyed. No one must know, especially Katie. She tried hard, knitting her eyebrows. She had to remember how she got here.

A cold gust seemed to rip through the room. Katie’s party…, drooled the thought. I have to be at Katie’s house. I must have stayed. The idea throbbed, resonating with distant thoughts that her mind was already losing. There was beer?... She didn’t think that this was correct. Maybe her mind was just jogged from her headache, but Katie had pressed for everyone to drink, she always tried. “Natasha. Come drink with us,” Katie had pushed on her more than once, but Natasha didn’t like the tin cans. Her mom didn’t have to teach her what her uncle’s alcoholism had. She knew how a body could go limp with pain. She had seen the ambulance come to his house too many times that year. She feared losing him as much as she feared visiting. Her head kept throbbing. Is this what a hangover feels like? She didn’t drink. She had been so strong and Katie was not going to be the one to ruin it for her, even if it was her birthday. She couldn’t know now, but at least that may explain why things were blurring, like her memory.  The whole room seemed to spin for God sakes and it hurt.

She pulled at her neck muscles slowly sliding her eyes to the moonlit window. She could barely make out the silhouette of a tree, but there was something weird. The tree seemed to be standing sideways, floating in the air. No. Its just me. She blamed the black spots clouding the sides of her eyes and her headache. It is just my headache.

Another gust whipped through her shawl sending shivers to crawl down her back. It was getting really cold. Trying to pull herself close for warmth, she blindly reached to her left for the sheet or the blanket, knowing it would take too much energy to move her neck again, she didn’t find them. Greg must have wrapped himself in them. He must be one of those sleepers who moves a lot. Its better to find that out now, then learn it next time. Will there be a next time with Greg? She couldn’t be sure, he had pressed himself farther on her than she would have let, or is the alcohol and Katie the ones to blame? Ug… she hated friend, that why she always tried to keep so few. But no! Katie was the equivalent of a dozen friends. She could be so much of a responsibility, like throwing a party with your parents home. She broken more relationships at school than she had of relationships of her own, and she had many. There weren’t many guys their age here, but Katie found a way to get with all of them. Natasha’s mom always hated people like that. She remembers the first time she brought Katie over to their house. Once her mother caught her babbling about the last five guys she dated, she exploded, scolding Natasha frankly. “That girl is a slut and you will not be seen with her again,” her mother had tried, but that was only the response Natasha wanted, to make her angry. At least she would tell this to her, I slept with Greg, mom. She could just see her spit out the tea she would be sipping to rain down on the rug. Her mom wouldn’t tell anyone because that would be too embarrassing.

Another cool breeze ripped through her, but this one was followed by a bobbing light coming towards her. She could barely make out the odd shape through the window before being completely confused. At this point, she just accepted it, like the floating tree. If her friends did find out… Well I guess anything could be better than that. Even a plane crash, or another tornado, or even a car crash would be better than that. She had a reputation and couldn’t lose it now. The thought of that turned her stomach pulling at it like a small rubber band. The light grew closer. She could make a strange figure behind it, but she wasn’t sure what to think of this yet. She decided to panic. The adrenaline poured thicker this time, the light coming closer. Who ever was walking towards her window would see her with Greg. She couldn’t let that happen. She pressed her body up trying to move. Her headache only grew worse as she tried. The black splotches only grew thicker. Her breathes let out as the last shotgun shells of hope, fired blankly. This is it. She was ruined. But as the strange figure made its way up to her window it began to speak to her, muffled behind the glass. Its light shined right into her eyes.

The words seemed to fold slowly wary from his lips.

“Ma’am, can you hear me. You have been. in an accident. I am here. to help you.”

This man then clumsily took out his phone to call for an ambulance, but it fell to the ground as his light caught the blood spattered, un-breathing body of Greg pressed against the steering wheel.