Runaway Thoughts & Crashing Truths
718 Words
Chapter Seven
Runaway Thoughts & Crashing Truths
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
The most obnoxious sound on Earth tore through my peaceful sleep. I groaned and rolled over, clinging to those last few seconds of dreaming...
Until JJ burst into my room and launched himself onto my bed.
“Okay, okay, I’m up!” I laughed, wrestling him into a tickle match.
We got ready for school together like any other normal morning—except nothing about today felt normal. Em showed up right on time, and we made a silent pact: no talking about him until after school. The fewer people who knew, the better.
But school had other plans.
Something felt off the second I stepped into the hallway.
Em was already pacing by her locker, snapping at anyone who got too close.
Cole stood further down, head low, hands jammed into his pockets, shoulders tight.
Rixon’s name was already vibrating in my chest like an old wound reopening.
I tried to ignore it.
Pretended today would be normal.
But it wasn’t.
I wasn’t.
I was sitting in class when a message from Rixon lit up my phone like a grenade:
We need to talk. I messed up. Please.
I stared at the words until they blurred. My heart raced. My palms went clammy—
And before I could think, I was shoving my stuff into my bag and bolting.
I ran—no, escaped—to the office.
“Hi,” I told the receptionist, forcing a shaky smile. “I’m not feeling well. Can I go home?”
I pushed through the doors and out into the parking lot, lungs burning.
I needed air.
I needed space.
I turned off my phone.
Mistake number one.
My crazy, loving bestie was not going to be happy.
At home, I found my old pushbike gathering dust in the shed.
Surprisingly, it still worked. Thank God.
I needed to get away, farther than walking distance.
Further than school, home, Rix, or anything that reminded me of before.
I pedalled hard until the world blurred past me, my thoughts riding the wind.
I ended up at Castle Beach, a secluded little stretch of sand barely anyone visits.
I dropped my bag, pulled out a book, and forced my eyes to follow the words.
But my mind wandered.
I don’t even like the beach. But the smell of salt, the crash of the waves, the way the sea just keeps going even when everything else stops...
It matched my mood perfectly.
When the book ended, I walked barefoot along the shoreline.
The sand felt strange—soft but grounding.
I watched an older couple walk hand in hand, and it made me wonder...
Who do I want to grow old with?
For nearly two years, it had always been Rixon.
He was the boy in all my daydreams. My someday.
But now?
Now I couldn’t even imagine letting him back in—no matter how much my heart still remembered him.
They say first loves rarely last. But when you're in it, you believe they do.
I’ve shut everyone else out for the past nine months.
Maybe I believed no one else could ever feel like that.
But… then there's Cole.
Cole, who helped me breathe again when I thought I’d never stop hurting.
Who never pushed. Never judged. Just stayed.
Who wiped away my tears and made me feel seen.
Was it more than friendship?
Could it ever be?
I closed my eyes and let the crashing waves answer for me.
When I opened them again, it was dark.
Panic hit like a jolt.
How long had I been out here?
The beach was completely different at night—unfamiliar, eerie.
I scrambled around, searching for my bike until I finally found it tucked behind a bush.
I started riding as fast as I could, weaving through the traffic, hoping no one had noticed I was gone.
Mum was going to freak.
I hadn’t told her anything—about Rix, about how it all felt like too much.
And Em...
She would kill me for letting this all get to me.
Then it happened.
My front tire hit a pothole. Hard.
I flew over the handlebars.
The world tilted—
Sky.
Ground.
Pain.
And then—
everything went black.
- Writer
