Best Friends, Remember?

The way way home

“So… what’s the plan?”

This question, asked by Jared, sounded in Genevieve’s head and echoed strongly.

“I don’t know,” she just said; “there’s nothing we can about the fact, that Timothée might be involved in our problems. What’s more, he might be their source”

“We never can be sure,” said Jared insecurely; “but must admit, I hated this guy. Deeply and truly. From the very beginning”

Genevieve rolled her eyes, and when Jared saw that, he smirked funnily and added quickly:

“It’s true”

They went across the Foggy Corner streets, having Jack by their side and hoping next time they see these buildings, they won’t have to run away from somebody. The day was cold, the wind was blowing weakly, and the sun hid behind massive grey clouds. It seemed to be a shady and depressing day, but for Jared and Genevieve, the weather wasn’t a big problem. They even had a strong and weird feeling, that it gave the proper vibe to their situation. That fact thrilled them.

Jared told Genevieve to follow his side. He preferred to indicate the way out from Foggy Corner. Their way free.

In front of the old newspaper point, with broken windows and walls covered with a thick layer of dust, there was a group of some friendly teenagers who tried to sell some pieces of vinyl. They played some charts to encourage people to buy them.

“Are you sure we’re going the right way?” asked Genevieve.

“No, I just rely on my sense of direction. I wasn’t good at geography, though…” he joked, so Genevieve prodded him delicately.

“I’m serious. You don’t want to stray, do you?”

“No, you’re right,” he admitted; “but there’s nothing that actually hurries us”

“Uh… yeah, there is”

“Which is what?”

“The psycho couple?”

“Oh, yeah… forgot about them…”

“Jared!”

“What? The only thing that matters to me now is to bring you home safely”

“I know…” she sighed sadly.

Suddenly, Genevieve made big eyes, looking behind Jared’s back.

“You still have your gun, right?” she asked. Additionally, the “musical teenagers” played I Was For Loving You by KISS.

“Don’t start it over… I thought we’ve talked about this…” responded Jared.

“It’s not that,” said panicked Genevieve and turned Jared to see what frightened her so much. They noticed that Timothée was facing them, also having his right hand hid in a pocket.

“You two!” he shouted and put the gun towards them. He shot, but didn’t reach any Genevieve or Jared. Instead of that, all the people that were on the street started to shout and run away, not be get shot or hurt differently. But Jack stood still and started barking on Timothée.

“Hide!” commended Jared to Genevieve and Jack, so she nodded her head, took Jack with her, and disappeared behind a wall, but still observed Jared’s actions. He ran to Timothée and decked him. They started to fight, bound on the street. Timothée desperately tried to point his gun at Jared, but unsuccessfully. Luckily to Jared, he kicked the gun after he had deprived Timothée of it. Timothée pushed Jared aside after punching him hard in face. Genevieve shouted scared and worried. She wanted to get closer to fighting men, but that would only cause more trouble, she thought.

Timothée stood up quickly, so did his opponent. Jared wiped his lip on its right side and after prying his hand from his face, he noticed a sizeable spot of blood on it. He gave a killing look to Timothée.

Cause, girl, I was made for you… And, girl, you were made for me…

When the chorus was played on the street, Jared and Timothée launched themselves at each other. They fought viciously and didn’t seem to stop. Neither thought Genevieve, that they didn’t feel like wanting to stop. She heard grunts and hits. The dust was floating from the sandy main street of Foggy Corner.

“Jared!” shouted Genevieve.

Jared heard that.

“Kinda busy!” he shouted back, having Timothée on him. Then, Jared turned to be lying on Timothée. They tried to dominate in their fight.

Genevieve started desperately looking around to find something, that would help in defending Jared’s enemy.

“I have to do something… I have to… I have to…” she whispered to herself quickly.

She looked for some rock or a wooden stick… then her sight noticed the gun, that Jared had successfully kicked away.

“No…” thought Genevieve; “I’m not gonna do this, u-uh… Not gonna happen”

Jack barked at her, just like he wanted to hurry her, before it was too late.

“But you have to help Jared. You love him”

Genevieve’s heart started to beat faster after she had developed that thought.

“Oh my God,” she said panicking, crossed herself and ran towards the receded gun, lying innocently, but still looking deadly.

Genevieve, hiding behind buildings’ porches, got closer to the weapon and picked it from the ground. She looked at it, like it was something with an awful, even horrifying smell. She gave a look at fighting Jared and Timothée. They were having their hands on each other’s necks, probably trying to choke the other one. Genevieve panicked and fastened her tempo. She was holding the weapon with both hands and she put them towards herself. None of the fighting men noticed that, so it wasn’t difficult for Genevieve to surprise Timothée by giving him a well-aimed shot.

“Jared, move!” she warned Jared.

“What?” asked Jared.

“GET DOWN!”

Jared immediately understood Genevieve’s intention and obediently move away. He rolled on the right, living Timothée harmless, standing in front of Genevieve. After he had noticed, that he stuck in a dead point, he rose his open hands above his head and gave Genevieve a look that said: “yeah, sure, you will shoot me… stop dreaming – you’re only a girl” Genevieve didn’t like that vision, so commended him not to try any god damn move unless he wants a bullet in his head. Okay, let’s be honest, she didn’t tell him that face to face, but she smiled to her inner self about that idea. Anyway, nothing like that happened eventually. Instead of it, Jared surprised Timothée and hit him in back of his head. Timothée felt on the ground on the right chick, unconscious. His dark waves covered his left cheek.

Jared and Genevieve were breathing deeply. They looked at each other at the same time and one gave an admiring look the other. Suddenly, they fell into a deep kiss. Foggy Corner’s residents started to come from all over the building they were hidden in. They started to cheer and clap their hands in excitement. When Jared and Genevieve unattached their lips from each other, they laughed. Suddenly, some two middle-aged men and Jared took unconscious Timothée and it turned out, that they locked him in Foggy Corner’s jail. Jared was surprised, that such a small town had a jail, so was Genevieve.

When saying goodbye to Foggy Corner and its people, Jared and Genevieve, having their bags and packs with themselves, receded from the town. They walked two miles. Then it started to get darker and darker, finally the sun set, so they started seeking a place to stay and spend the night in. They luckily found a small and cheap hostel. After saying goodnight, laying to each other, none of them fell asleep right away. They couldn’t dump their worries and doubts. Especially – the miserable fight about coming back home.

Hitching. Shifts. Rides. Tens of roads and paths. Myriad stars in the sky and corns on the fields. Hope-bringing sunrises and relief-giving sunsets. Jack’s company. Millions steps. And uncountable words exchanged. That’s how Genevieve’s and Jared’s way home has been spent. How their days passed by. After a week, there eventually came the inexorable moment of heading London.

During the whole way to London, there was not a single time, when Genevieve or Jared tried to move the topic about getting apart from each other. At one point they both noticed a sign telling London was five miles ahead.

“Huh, only five miles. Just a nick of time” Jared just said, trying to make Genevieve speak instead and move the unpleasant topic.

“Yes, it is” she responded evasively. She looked at him and it turned out he was looking at her too. Everything that reminded them of their separation drove them mad. It was better for them to ignore that, but that was insanely hard. Even impossible. Things were only getting worse and worse from

a second to a second. It got the worst when they had seen the Eagle Eye on the horizon.

Their eyes met, so Jared finally gave up and said:

“Look…”

They stood and exchanged looks again. Genevieve interrupted him. By exploding…

“I know what you’re trying to say”

Jared was looking at her. It was so quiet, that Genevieve could hear Jared breathing not calmly. He stared at her in a complete silence, until she said: “London is just straight ahead. I’m not gonna spend the rest of the time we have with each other, it probably means a couple of minutes, keeping my mouth shut. I’m sorry”

“Listen…” Jared tried to say something, but Genevieve was unlikely to let him speak that moment.

“No… I’m just…” she said and then tears started to fall from her eyes and drop on her hair, which was on her arm.

“We both knew that day would finally come” commented Jared.

“But you said…”

“Yeah, I know, what I said. I was trying to cheer you up. But face it. You have a sister at least. You still have a home. Can’t you see how lucky you are?”

“But Jared, you can have it, too” cried Genevieve.

“How?” he asked, his voice was breaking noticeably; “I don’t have much money and I live far away from London. Even now I’m not even closer to my home, than I was in Mist Hill”

“Why don’t you wanna live in London? Move”

“The farm I live in belonged to my dad. That’s everything I had. Even if

I wanted to sell it, nobody would buy it, because it’s hell filthy”

At that moment Jared wanted to protect Genevieve, so he came up with

a drastic idea of how to discourage Genevieve from sticking to her nature of unconditional willing to help.

“You don’t want to wash walls from blood, do you?” he asked and waited for Genevieve’s reaction. A thought flew through her mind. “He killed someone… But that would mean he had a proper reason for doing that…

I know Jared…”

“I don’t care” she responded untouched and unbroken.

It was at this moment that Jared knew… He f****d up.

“Don’t make me doing something, that we will both regret” he warned her, but she stood still and apparently didn’t want to give up. She rose her left eyebrow, asking:

“What is it?”

Jared thought about what to say, but that was too cruel.

“You don’t love me” Genevieve guessed automatically and scoffed. When she saw Jared’s serious mine, her smile darkened and she started to breathe hard.

Jared’s heart started beating faster, although he felt it had just torn in half. Of course he loved her! But that enormous lie would keep her alive.

“Oh my God…” she cried.

Jared tried to hug her, but she stepped back and then ran straight ahead. At first Jared wanted to chase her, but then he killed that idea. Also crying, he receded from the place they had fought. Jack obediently followed him. Suddenly, Jared stood and turned to see if Genevieve was still there. It turned out she did the same thing and observed Jared. Genevieve quickly turned her head away when their eyes met and kept running as fast as she could.

When she disappeared behind the corner, he thought: “Now she’s going to be safe. Far away from me…” In fact, it was quite the opposite…