Promise Me It'll Be Alright

The acrid smell of cigarettes hung in the air, tinged with the scent of alcohol and open whiskey bottles. Boxes were stacked in corners along with piles of clothing tossed aside. They were curled up together on a bed, vacant of sheets, but equipped with two limp pillows. The blanket they had been laying on was tangled beneath them, hardly covering the bare matress below. 1

The boy was breathing quickly but the taste of beer and smoke on his breath didn't even bother the girl. She held him close, running her hand through his dirty, dyed hair, touching his soft face, feeling the cold sweat slick on his skin, drying against her. She wrapped her arm around his stomach and pressed her body closer, needing to be near him, needing to know that this was real. She layed her head on his chest, the thump of his heart slowing to normal. His big, green eyes looked up at her and he smiled.2

"I love you," he whispered.3

She smiled back and kissed his chin, saying, "I love you too."4

They layed together quietly, eyes closed, bodies entwined. And everything was alright. Everything was perfect.5

The night was beautiful and still except for the random blaring TV sets in next-door rooms and the hum of cars passing by. They walked down the sidewalk hand in hand. He, a little drunk, and she, sober enough to think clearly and take care of him.6

"Where are we?" he asked, breaking through the silence.7

The girl averted her gaze from the moon to his face. She rolled her eyes as she kissed his cheek and told him again for the fourth time.8

“I’m so drunk,” he noted as he took another sip of his Coors.9

She just laughed and shook her head as she led him down the sidewalk towards a little playground, next to a pool, whose waters were calm and blue this evening, uninterrupted by screaming, hyper children. A grin broke across the girl’s face and she ran forth childishly to the junglegym. She hadn’t played on one in years. She climbed up and picked a seat, wrapped her arms through the bars, and gazed up at the sky. She looked back down to watch her boyfriend.10

“Maybe you shouldn’t come up here,” she suggested, more joking than worried.11

He clambered up anyways and sat next to her.12

She looked at the stars for a moment than looked back at him.13

“Will we see each other again?” she asked him.14

They had run away to be together and she was so happy and content, she hadn’t even considered the consequences. She wasn’t even thinking about them now.15

He nodded his head and said, “We will, I promise.”16

She smiled and looked at him for a while. All she wanted was to be with him. She couldn’t ask for anything else.17

“Do you promise you won’t try to run off?” the sheriff asked as he hesitated about handcuffing her scarred wrists.18

The girl nodded silently. She couldn’t say anything, her mouth was glued shut and her teeth were grinding to dust as she tried to keep from screaming.19

She sat down next to her boyfriend on the steps outside his work. They had made the mistake of coming back up to get some cash for their little vacation.20

He found her shaking hand and squeezed it tight in his.21

Their fun was over now.22

“Everything will be alright,” he told her as he hugged her tightly. She held on desperately, not wanting to let go of him.23

“I have to go now.” He pulled back and gave her one last kiss.24

“I love you.”25

“I love you too.”26

Then he disappeared with his dad and she fell back into the chair, waiting for her own parents to arrive.27

“Did you really think that after what you did we’d let you see him again?” her dad asked her.28

Her hand was shoved up against her mouth to keep her from screaming and she was crying openly now. She didn’t care anymore.29

“We’re just doing what we think is best for you,” her stepmom said.30

“We want you to be happy, really we do,” her mom reassured her.31

She could have killed her…she could’ve killed herself.32

But instead, she did what she was told, in hopes of seeing him again.33

“It’s best if you two just don’t see each other again,” her mom decided after an hour of screaming about the news…she was pregnant.34

“It’ll just complicate things more, so it’s better if he doesn’t know. I will help you with the baby and that’s what’s going to happen.”35

The girl was silent, once again tears rolling down her cheeks. She remembered the last time she saw him and that he said everything would be alright. She ran up to her room, falling into her bed, hoping that if she closed her eyes, maybe it would all go away.36

The doctor pushed the squirming baby into her arms. She looked into its face and burst into tears. He had the same bright green eyes. The baby waved his arms and echoed her wail, as if mirroring all her pain.37

Her baby was one and a half now. She was home-schooled, and nearing the time to finish up and graduate… Finish up?! She would never finish. She had become a failure, a lifeless robot, falling deep into her depression until she was nothing but an empty shell performing the necessary routine mindlessly.  She spent countless hours in her room, holding her baby, telling him stories of long ago when she was happy…hugging him and crying…wishing that one day everything would be okay.38

It was one in the morning. The night was still and quiet. The girl shoved the last suitcase into her car and buckled her baby into his carseat.  He grinned at her with big green eyes and tugged at her hair. She bit her lip to bite back the teas as memories of her boyfriend assaulted her frail mind. She got into the driver’s seat and pulled out from her house, never even bothering to look back.39

(One Year Later) The girl pulled into the day care center to pick up her son on her way home from work. She drove home to her filthy apartment in a crime-ridden city in California. Her son walked at her side as they clambered up, holding her hand tightly. A young girl dressed in a skimpy outfit was led by them by a man much too old to be with her. The girl looked away and went on to room 125. Her son snatched the key from her  and attempted to unlock it himself. She smiled as he struggled then helped him.40

He dashed into the apartment, going straight for his little toybox in the small living room. She had managed to scrounge up 75 bucks to buy him a lego set and the box to hold them last Christmas. He sat on the floor, the carpet stained with piss and wine from past owners. She didn’t have a TV but she had a small couch she had found at a bargain store along with a five dollar coffee table. She tossed her purse on the table and went into their one bedroom to change out of her waitress uniform.41

She was making her son some macaroni and cheese when she was startled by the shrill ring of her apartment’s doorbell. Her son ran over to it and reached up with his two little hands to turn the doorknob.42

“Johnny, don’t! I’ll get it!” she shouted as she started for the door behind him. 43

But he already opened it.44

And there he was, standing in the doorway to their crappy little apartment. He was wearing a black band t-shirt and blue jeans held up with his studded green belt that was finished off with a large skull belt buckle. His hair was longer and was now dyed black.45

“Hi!” Johnny said to him with a big grin. “Mommy, someone’s here to see you!”46

She was barely able to move as she stood behind her son. Her heart was palpitating frantically, barely getting enough beats to pump blood through her viens. She couldn’t speak. She could only stare at him unbelievingly, wondering if he was real.47

“What do you want?” Johnny asked with authority.48

“I came to see your mommy.”49

Those sad green eyes gazed hopefully at her. 50

Then his arms were around her, pulling her close, holding her as if he would never again let go. And she knew that everything would be alright.51

The End52