#rawm

His eyes nearly pop out of his skull when he starts to understand what she's suggesting. Either she's drunk or this is a cruel prank because it makes absolutely no sense.

Under his black robe, he's starting to sweat, clothes sticking to his skin.

"Carol, the hell ya talk-"

"You said you hate this town, right?" she interrupts him, more tears beginning to gather in her eyes. "That you want nothing more than to get out of here. Did you mean it?"

He shouldn't have told her that. But they'd been drunk and lonely and shit, the way she'd looked at him with those big blue eyes shimmering in the moonlight. He'd have told her anything then.

But that was months ago. A lifetime. He can still taste the wine on her lip, though.

"I did," he replies hoarsely - no point in denying the obvious.

"So do I. I can't- I can't stay here," she whispers, throwing a nervous glance over her shoulder. He'd been the first one out the door after the endless speeches were finally over, all too grateful to leave this damn school behind once and for all. Now, people start to spill into the parking lot and he knows they'll eye the two of them with curiosity.

They shouldn't even be standing near each other. It's bound to get them both into trouble.

Carol wraps her arms around herself, shivering despite the heat. "Ed. My parents... I just can't." She sounds miserable, her voice fragile like thin glass, vibrating and trembling with every syllable. "You have a car, I have money. Please."

God, the way she looks up at him. Like he's her ticket out of this shithole town somehow, like he has anything to offer except for the rusty truck that he barely manages to keep alive.

"Tonight?" he asks, waiting for her slow, cautious nod. "Where do ya wanna go?"

"Away," she replies quickly, throwing another nervous glance towards the school's entrance and the crowd pressing through the doors.She's terrified and skittish like a cornered animal. "Just... away from here."

There's a pause filled with the steps of their classmates and their families making their way to their cars. Roaring laughter and muffled sobs of proud mothers. Carol looks up at him through her lashes, tears clinging to them like jewels. "But I don't want to go alone."

All he'd wanted to do was go home, order pizza with the last bit of cash left in the house and watch TV all night. Waiting for life to just happen now that he's free. Now that he graduated, now that the old man is gone.

"Why me?" he asks. "Ain't even really friends."

He ain't nobody's friend and neither is she. Not anymore. Not since she started dating that Peletier dick. Before that, she always hung out with a group of girls. Now, she's only ever on the guy's arm, paraded around the school like one of his football trophies.

The large ring on her finger glistens in the sunlight like a chain.

"Because you understand," she breathes, and the smile she offers him is so weak, like a fractured porcelain mask. Weeping.

He doesn't stand a chance.