Chapter 2

She was in her thoughts when her phone rang. She sprang up to her feet to check the caller, and it was Tristan. With shaky hands, she picked up the phone and waited for him to speak. He was out of town to visit his mom because his parents were separated, but then he was on his way back. Seeing his mom would be forever, but once Jolene left, his mind told him there was a possibility he’d never see her again. So, he needed to see her urgently.

“I’ll be around the corner in an hour’s time, can you meet me outside? I don’t think this would be a great time to meet your parents,” he said.

Jolene nodded to what he said, and when they got off the call, she started preparing to meet him outside the house. Going through the front door didn’t seem like a great idea. A parent who was forcefully moving their child away wouldn’t allow them to leave the house alone because they could be running away, Jolene thought. She had always seen it in movies. Even though this wasn’t a movie and she would never think of running away, her parents probably wouldn’t believe her.

When she was done with taking a bath, she threw on loose jeans, a loose shirt, and sneakers. Then she opened up her window to get a better view of the roof. This wasn’t the first time she was going out through the window, but the last time was about three years ago when she was fourteen. She wanted to hang out with Tristan and Patricia, but her parents didn’t want her to. They grounded her for failing her math test and insisted she’d only hang out when she aced the next one. But then, it was their friendiversary, and there was no way she was going to miss it because of some stupid maths quiz.

When she jumped out of the window on that fateful day, she felt her feet go numb, but she didn’t care either. She managed to get to the celebration, which was at Golden Gate Park. How she got home that day was quite funny because her parents tracked her down through her phone location. She got her ass whooped that day, but that was all in the past. It was a great story to tell now.

Remembering that day brought a smile to her face as she stood at the window staring down at the roof that led to the lawn. While she was still reminiscing, Tristan’s call came in, and she knew exactly what that meant. So, without giving it a second thought, she crept out the window and silently closed it. Then she got on the roof.

Surprisingly, the ground looked closer to her, and she wasn’t scared to jump like she was three years ago. Looking at the lawn, she slowly put her feet out in the air, and then she closed her eyes and took a leap of faith.

When Jolene landed on the lawn, she paused for a moment to know what her body felt. Realizing she didn’t feel pain or numbness, she began walking. She walked to the corner behind her house where Tristan waited.

On getting there, she saw his black car, which his dad got him for his 18th birthday, parked close to a building. The building was two blocks away from theirs. Rushing over to the car, she pulled the door open at once.

Like butter melting on pancakes, Jolene’s heart melted when she got into Tristan’s car. She attacked him with a hug and sobbed hard on his body while he held on to her.

“It’s okay,” he said, patting her back.

Even though he knew it would never be okay. He was about to lose the love of his life, and he didn’t know when next they’d meet. But he had to man up to console her because if they cried together, there would be no one to console her.

They were both at the receiving end, but she was worse. At least he had Patricia and other people they had known for years, but she was going far to an unknown town. All they could do at the moment was make the best out of the last week they had left.

“I’m so sorry,” Jolene said to him, pulling away.

He pulled out tissues from the glove compartment and dabbed her eyes with them.

“You shouldn’t be sorry. It’s not your fault. Life doesn’t always work the way we want it,” he said to her.

Tristan said a lot of things to cheer Jolene up. It made her stop crying, and they laughed for a while. When she realized she had stopped crying, a sudden cloak of sadness hovered around her. This made her realize how much she was going to miss him. He made her so happy that she was used to forgetting how sad her life was each time she was with him. He was doing it again right now, yet he was in pain too.

While Tristan was still talking and making jokes, Jolene leaned in and kissed him. This was to stop him from talking.

“Let’s get out of here and see the world for the last time before this stupid thing happens,” she said to him.

Tristan leaned in for another kiss because he didn’t get enough of the first one. It was short, and he wanted more.

“Okay, anything for you, my lady,” he said and then turned on the car’s ignition.

He drove off in a flash, and Jolene connected her phone to the car sync system.

“A little bit of grime will take our minds off it for a while,” she said, scrolling through her grime playlist.

While they drove, they jammed to grime artists like Skepta, JME, Stormy, etc. Singing at the top of their voices till their stomachs hurt made them feel good and less sad.

They didn’t have any particular place in mind to go to. So they made random stops. They went to get some chicken nuggets, burgers, and fries. They ate while they drove, and along the way, they pulled down the glass and wasted the fries on the road because it made them happy. At least, that was what they thought. After that, they went to an ice cream shop to get ice cream. They licked a lot of it until they got a brain freeze.

Laughing it off, they walked off the ice cream shop and hit the road again. Looking at the time, it was still one in the afternoon, so they had plenty of time before 9 p.m., which was Jolene’s curfew.

“We should go to the cinema to see a movie,” Tristan said.

“But we can’t be loud in the cinema. I want loud and fun,” Jolene said.

“Then I’d rent out the whole cinema room,” Tristan said.

On a good day, Jolene would have kicked against it, but today was different. Plus, Tristan’s father gave him a lot of money that he didn’t know what to do with it sometimes. Lending some to Jolene’s parents would be nice, but it couldn’t help their situation at the moment. They had a very huge debt to pay. The mortgage bill was large, and to crown it all, they could no longer pay their rent. The best option was to move to a cheaper city, where the cost of living was lesser, and pay off their debts.

On getting to the movie theater close to Powell Street station, they found out the place was empty. Of course, it was summer, and most people would rather spend their time at the beach than come to the theater for a movie in the afternoon. Only a couple on the verge of separation would do something like that.

Tristan went ahead to rent out the place so they could scream at the top of their voices when the movie came on. They got some snacks and walked straight to the movie room. For the record, they had a lot of junk for their day, but they cared less how many calories they were consuming. There were other days to count calories; as for today, they were counting how many hours they had left. None of them knew when the moving away would take place, but they needed to have fun either way. Today could be the last day Jolene’s parents would allow her to leave the house because, by now, they should have found out she was missing. There was no way to know because she took out her sim as soon as their adventure began.

The movie they paid for was Suicide Squad. It was released about three days ago. They were supposed to see it a day before summer break ended together with Patricia, but unfortunately, they had to see it without her.

“I feel bad for Patricia,” Jolene said halfway through the movie while dipping her hand into the bucket of popcorn.

“But I feel bad for myself more. At least she has you, and….”

“Jolene,” Tristan called out, cutting her short. “We can talk about our miserable lives later. I think we should just watch the movie.”

Jolene nodded to what he said and then focused on the movie on the large screen, which was about 75 feet tall.

Sighing halfway into the movie, she paused to look at Tristan. The movie wasn’t working as expected. She needed to get out of there, but then he had just rented a whole theater for a movie. So, she sank back into her seat and waited for the movie to end.

The movie took two hours and twelve minutes to come to an end. When it finally did, Jolene heaved a sigh of relief.

“I need to see that movie again on a good day when I’m not sad,” Tristan said, sipping from his drink, which was almost empty.

Then he turned to Jolene, who had been dying in her own misery.

“The movie was great,” she said, rolling her eyes before he could ask.

“Well then, I think we should see another one,” he suggested.

“Really?” She asked, raising her voice a bit.

“What? You said you wanted to see another movie,” he said with a shrug.

“Didn’t you notice the eye-rolling and sarcasm in my voice?” She asked with furrowed brows.

“Of course I did. I was just pulling your legs,” he said. Then he kissed her left cheek.

“We still have some time left, it’s quarter to 4. Call it,” he said.

“Maybe I should just go home,” Jolene said, standing up.

She walked out of the row they sat in and began walking to the door through the flight of stairs. Tristan walked after her and pulled her arm, making her stop for a moment.

“Nonsense, we still have about 5 hours before your curfew. Today should be the best day of our lives. Just name anything, and I’ll do it,” he said to her.

“Anything?” She asked, raising a brow.

“Yes, you know I’d do anything for you,” he said.

“Okay, make my parents allow me to stay here with you,” she said.

Tristan was silent for a moment when she said that. When he wouldn’t say a thing, she walked off again.

“You can’t do anything after all,” she muttered.

“C’mon, Jols, I meant anything within my power,” he said, pulling her hand again to make her stop.

She stopped for a moment, and then she turned to him and said, “Take me to the place where you first told me you loved me.”

Tristan nodded to her request, and then they left the theater room. On getting to the car, they set out for Hawk Hill, which was located north of Golden Gate Bridge and about 23 minutes’ drive from the cinema.

A sly smile loomed on her lips as they climbed the hill, choosing rather to climb the way up through its natural holes and wedges instead of using the stairs that had been etched into it. Her breath came out in pants and wheezes, but she didn’t mind, enjoying the hard pump of blood through her body. She felt alive for the first time since she had woken up and gotten her day wrecked by her parents.

She glanced at Tristan and chuckled to himself as he panted heavily, mopping sweats off his face. He groaned. “This is hell, Jolene,” he gasped.

She pretended to mock him. “Oh, my poor boy,” she teased, and he chuckled, shaking his head at her. He was certain his bones would have a story to tell when she was gone, not only his heart. His heart clenched in pain at the thought, and he focused on the task of climbing the hill ahead of him instead of thinking of his lady love, who was about to leave him.

He cleared his throat and engaged her in a conversation though he felt like not talking as he sounded horrible doing the talking and hill climbing together, but he needed to distract himself from the hurt in his heart.

His thoughts came to a halt at the sound of his voice, droning over his ears at nothing in particular. He breathed in a draft of the cold air, glad that she had suggested coming here. It felt to him like the two of them were alone in the world, and he loved it. That was the memory he wanted to hold on to. Actually, a lot of memories were what he held on to.

He cleared his throat in a subtle manner as he spoke, not wanting her to hear the catch of emotions in his voice.

“Don’t you think you have to call your parents and let them know you are fine? They might be worried when they notice your absence, and you told me that you sneaked out to meet me.”

She shrugged, snorting in derision. “Them? They wouldn’t have noticed my absence. They are too caught in the act of moving and their guilt that they won’t have noticed.”

“What if they noticed?” he insisted.

She shrugged in indifference. “They deserve the worry, I guess. I won’t call them, Tristan, so don’t bother to convince me. Let them stew in their guilt for a while till I get back home.” Her lips quivered, and her eyes shone with sadness as she glanced at him. “How could they decide to move and tell me just now?”

He stopped and pulled her to him, wrapping his hands around her waist, and looked into her eyes. “They might have been trying to avoid the move. I know you are angry because you will have no time to do a proper farewell to all those you love here, but think of how hard it is for your parents too. They also have bonds they do not want to part with here, and I am sure it breaks their hearts knowing they are causing you grief.”

She melted, her anger oozing out of her, and smiled at him. “You have a good way with words, Tristan.” A tear slid down her cheek. “Oh, I am going to miss you.”

He lowered his head and kissed her. She leaned up and wrapped her hands around his neck, bringing his head down and closer. Her tears mixed with their lips, the salty taste mixing with the taste of his lips and breaking her heart the more as her longing for him got fueled.

She broke the kiss and embraced him, her head resting on his chest. “I will miss you dearly, Tristan.”

He ran his hand through her hair, patting her on the back. “It’s okay, Jolene. I will miss you too, baby.”

She snorted. “I don’t want to miss you at all.”

He chuckled, his deep laugh rocking his shoulders and rumbling in his chest. “You don’t have to. We will call each other every day, and we can always go to the same college. We will meet there and continue with our romance.” He smiled at her. “What do you think?”

She smiled back. “Sounds like a good idea. What college are you going to?”

He frowned. “I am not sure yet. You know how my dad is. He has a list of colleges he would like me to attend, and they are all good, so it has been hard to make a choice yet.”

She smiled. “No problem. We still have over a year before college, so we have time to decide.”

“Don’t worry, Jolene. We will talk on the phone every day and night, it will be like we are not apart at all.” He vowed to her.

She smiled. “Hopefully,” she muttered. “Most long-distance relationships don’t work, and that is why I am scared and also mad at my parents. We have barely started this before they want to tear us apart.”

He smiled at her, tipping her head up with a finger for a brief kiss. “Believe me, Jolene. You are only moving to a new city, not getting torn apart from me. I believe we are soulmates, and nothing can tear us apart.”

She breathed in, smiling. “I love this.”

“What is that?”

“The same place you told me that you are in love with me is the same place you are pledging forever to me.”

He smiled. “Because we are to be, baby. The symbolism of the events is just a sign.”

She hugged him. “Thank you, Tristan. I feel much better.”

“You are welcome. Always.”

“Let’s go back now.”

He groaned. “Thank God, I thought you would never say that.”

She chuckled as she slipped her hand into his, and they walked down the hill to where his car was parked.