Chapter 2 - The run

"The most important thng in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in."

Morrie Schwartz

As you can imagine, there really isn't much room to run on a bus. Especially when there are like twenty five other people on the bus that have no idea whats going on.  We drove for what seemed like hours.  When we finally arrived home, I was the first person to get off that bus.  I ran to my car and drove, well lets just say, well over the 65 miles per hour speed limit, to get home as quickly as possible.  I find it interesting the amount of comfort you find in your own home. It;s like walking through the front door and smelling your normal "home smell" is going to make all your problems flush neatly town the toilet with no clogging problems. When I finally got home and got past the grilling from the parents, you know the type, "Hi honey, how was your day?", "What did you do?", "What did you learn?", "Who was there?" as if they are really going to put a face to the name of 50 teenage students they have never met that live six hours away!  So, after the endless questions, I proceeded to lock myself in my room.  I laid in bed replaying the events in my head over and over again.  I couldn't decide if I felt bad because I freaked out, or if I was completely overwhelmed because me, Rorey, little innocent Rorey, stepped outside her comfort zone and held hands on school bus.  Oh my, what a rebel I had became.  Who knew what could be next.  I could be holding hands in school, kissing under the bleachers in the gym, or professing my love to a boy in the depths of the deserted library after school hours.  None of these sounded like viable options to me.  I knew what I had to do.  It wasn't going to be easy, not for me or Charlie.  But, I knew the consequences of proceeding were going to be far worse than the consequences of facing the truth.  Sleep didn't come easy that night.  I kept replaying the events of the day in my head.  I didn't know how Charlie's reaction would be.  In fact, I didn't know how I myself felt about the whole deal. 
The next day I repeated my speech over and over to myself, on my way to school.
 "Now Charlie you know how much I care about you." No, now, was never a good way to start a conversation.
 "Charlie, you are a great friend." Oh that stupid friend word.  I hated when people did that.  I think we should just be friends.  As if we aren't already friends.  But the truth was, that is what I really how I felt. 
When I finally arrived at school, I dreaded going in.  I wasn't sure what things were going to be like.  I just knew I needed to get this over with.  I dragged myself out of my car, threw my backpack over my shoulders and slowly made the ways through the high school doors.  First person I ran into was Doddie.  Doddie is my best friend, and has been for years.  We talk about everything.  She knew how much I liked Charlie, but I hadn't gotten around to telling her about the previous days experience.  I wasn't sure how she was going to react.  We were both pretty conservative people, but she was the best friend that didn't think dating in high school was a necessity.  You better believe we went around and around about that one!  I avoided telling her about what had to be done right at the first light of the morning.  I figured I should give her some time for her coffee to kick in before I bombarded her with news.  I know what your thinking, a sophomore in high school needs coffee, but at the time, it was our thing.  Actually, I don't think that has ever changed.  Anyway, we made small best friend talk, while avoiding talking about Charlie, which let me tell you was not the easiest thing I had ever done.  When the first bell rang I was relieved that I had gotten through the first part of the morning without seeing Charlie.  Maybe today wouldn't be as bad as I thought.  Just when relief started to sink in, my nerves hit the roof when Charlie came up behind me and put his hand in the small of my back.
"Good morning beautiful, how are you?"
"I am fine," I replied hurriedly as I jerked away.
"Is everything OK?" He asked with worry in his voice.
"I'm fine." I replied shortly, "I just got to get to class."
"I will walk you," he said with slight question in his voice, as if I were a fragile baby and he was trying not to drop me.
"No, its OK, I have to stop by the library anyway, but thanks." I said while walking away.
"OK, well maybe lunch?" He asked hopefully.
"No, sorry I have plans, but I got to go, I will talk to you soon."
"Well, that went well," I thought. 
I escaped quickly to class.  As I sat through another long boring lecture about lava rocks and volcanoes, my mind wondered back to the previous day.  I loved holding hands, but something just wasn't quite right.  I felt suffocated.  I felt like I didn't know what was going on.  Maybe you should try again.  No, I thought, I cant.  The entire science class was a worthless.  I would have learned more by sleeping, at least then my mind would have been soaking up what the teachers mono tone voice was saying, but instead my mind was racing from one track to the other and none of the tracks consisted of science unfortunately.
As the bell rang I was walking out of class and bumped into Mike. 
"Hey, hows it going?" He asked.
"Hey, not to bad," I replied.
"Really, you sound like you could be better?" He questioned.
"Probably could," I shrugged.
"You want to talk about it?" He asked.
"Ya, ya that would be good."
"How about lunch?" He asked.
"Its a date," I replied.
"Good, see you at 12:05," as he walked away.
"Good, someone who might understan... Oh my goodness.. that's brilliant.. actually that's beyond brilliant.. " I thought to myself as I skipped down the hall.
"Rorey, where are you going?" Doddie asked with confusion in her voice.
"Over the river and through the woods to lunch I go," I chimed in.
"It's only second period my love," she reminded me.
"Oh, right, I was just so excited I forgot," I shrugged.
"Excited about what?" she asked.
"My brilliant, my actually beyond brilliant idea." I replied.
"Oh boy, another plan... this is never good," she exclaimed. 
"Oh my love, don't you worry, this is going to be good." I said with excitement.
I walked down the hall in a daze as the new plan started to take root in my mind. The wheels were turing.. this had to be done right... if only I had became proficient in shooting pistols...