Memories
“There’s one!” Colton’s excited voice resounded in the stillness of the night. For a moment, I was afraid someone might hear us.
The faint smell of livestock mixed in the humid air with the scents of sagebrush and mesquite, and a hint of burned wood coming from afar.
We were sitting in the back of Colton’s Chevy truck, stargazing on a hot mid-August night, counting shooting stars and making secret wishes on every one of them.
“And another! Whoa!” he exclaimed, pointing at a green trail of fire. “Did you see that?”
“Uh-huh, yeah, I did. Made a wish, too.” We were in the middle of a barren field, a couple of miles away from my father’s farm and from everything and everyone. Colton’s arm was wrapped around my shoulders, the summer night was sweltering, and yet I still shivered.
All my prayers and my shooting stars were wasted on one single wish. On one person. My father.
Please don’t let him hurt me again.
“What’s wrong, baby? You’re trembling.” Colton wrapped both his arms around me, and his lips found mine. I pulled myself closer, my lips not leaving his, my fingertips finding his bare chest under his unbuttoned plaid shirt.
“Marry me,” he whispered, his lips still touching mine.
I froze, my chest swelling with happiness to hear him say those words, and my eyes stinging with tears, knowing it could never happen.
“Marry me, baby.” Colton pulled away to look at me. His blue eyes sparkled, giving his boyish face a mischievous charm that was impossible to resist. “I’ll take care of you. I got that job at the gas sta—”
“I’m sixteen, Colton!” I shouted, angry with myself for not being able to say yes, and with him for making me feel such pain.
He shouldn’t’ve asked. “Do you think he’ll give us permission?
” Colton didn’t say anything. Just gaped at me.
“And what would we do? How would we live? I haven’t even finished school. ”
But there was something I wasn’t telling him because I couldn’t find the words. Something I took with me that night when I ran away, leaving Texas behind, and with it, my little brother, Billy Ray. Leaving Colton. Breaking his heart.