One Hundred Absent Days

“Ah, shit,” I huffed as I clambered out my bedroom window. Once I got off the phone with Mike, I changed into a pair of black skinny jeans and a v-neck t-shirt with the Marvel logo across the bust. Afterwards, I waited for the text saying he was at my house, then went about climbing out the window.

“I’ll catch you!” Mike said with a low chuckle.

“I’ll crush you!” I laughed back at him as I landed softly on the ground.

Once I was safely out of the house, Mike and I climbed into his car. “Where’re we heading, sweetheart?”

“Are there any parks or anything nearby?” I asked, since I had just moved to California, I really had no idea what was around. “I just wanna go someplace where we can be alone and look up at the stars,” I said wistfully, staring out the car window.

“I know just the place.” Mike smiled but said nothing else.

Realizing that he wasn’t going to tell me where we were headed, I just turned up the radio and sang along softly. Mike looked over at me periodically, but I pretended not to notice.

About fifteen minutes later, Mike pulled into a gravel parking lot and cut the engine. “Is this the part where you kill me and chop up my body?” I asked with a dark laugh.

“Yes,” Mike said with a smirk before hopping out of the car and coming around to open my door.

“Did you bring the weed?”

“Of course I did,” he said, grabbing my hand to help me out of the car.

“Where is it? I don’t smell anything.”

“In the trunk. I don’t want my car to stink.”

I agreed that that made sense, then watched as he went around and grabbed a baggie and a small glass bowl.

“Where are we going?” I asked as I watched him pull some blankets from the back of the car, then begin to walk away from the parking lot.

“Somewhere we can lay in the grass and look at the stars. Just like you wanted,” Mike said while smiling at me. We walked together until we reached a grassy clearing near a picnic table. After spreading out a blanket, Mike gestured for me to sit down next to him.

I reached for the bowl that Mike had pushed into his front pocket, but he flinched when my hand touched his thigh. “I’m sorry,” I laughed, “I was just reaching for the weed!” Mike stared at me with a shocked look on his face, and I laughed even harder. “What?”

“I- I just-,” he stuttered, “I thought you were-” his statement fizzled out, drowned out by my laughter. Once his shock dissipated, Mike flung his arm over my shoulder and laughed with me. Making a second attempt, I reached into his pocket and pulled out the bowl and the baggie.

He didn’t flinch.

“Need a light?” he asked. Looking directly into his eyes, I pulled a lighter from my bra. As I wrapped my lips around the end of the bowl, I tore my eyes away from Mike’s burning stare to watch as I held the flame to the herbs at the end of the bowl. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Mike biting his lip.

I inhaled deeply, looking up at him through my lashes. “Your turn, Mikey,” I sighed, releasing the smoke from my lungs and handing him the bowl.

“So,” Mike began, then paused to take a drag from the bowl, “you ever gonna tell me why you’re starting school here in the middle of the quarter? What’s your story?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” I muttered.

Notes