Runaway?
“Juliet Green!”
I  hear my teacher scream out as I have my nose in a book. I sit my book down and look at him in annoyance.
“Yes?”  In the sweetest voice I can muster.
“I don’t see you working, class time is work time.”
“Not when you’re already done working.” I glare at Mr. Andrews, his nostrils flare and he turns a shade of pink.
“Yeah sure, I’ll check it out to see if you have anything wrong.”
I watch as he comes over and snatches my paper off my desk. I roll my eyes and lean back in my chair and look around the small classroom. Why is the color on the wall so plain and why is it bage? Why can’t it be another color like red or blue? Oh my Gosh, and the floors, why would anyone ever get brown carpet? This is one ugly classroom.
I slowly come out of my mind to realize that the whole class is staring at me and so is Mr. Andrews.
“What?” I ask, all confused.
“I was saying that you got all but one right, but I guess you were too busy daydreaming to hear that. Let’s not let this happen again in my class. Understood?”
I just nod my head slowly and think yeah, like I can control that, if he only knew.

***
The rest of class went by in a blur, I was honestly so bored and didn’t understand why I had to even take History, it’s not like my career choice involves me knowing about all the wars and economic activities the U.S has, just give me a newspaper, and the important wars we went through and I’ll be on my way.
When the bell rings I feel joy come through me that I get to go to English and that I get to leave this dreadful class. We pile into the hallway, and make our way to our lockers, or tried to at least. All we hear is a bang, glass shattering, and screams that fill the air.
Over the intercom, “NOT A DRILL, I REPEAT NOT A DRILL! CODE RED!”
What does code red mean?
“He has a gun!” Someone screamed.
We all take off and run into the nearest classroom, we can still hear screams and footsteps running down the hallway as me and about 30 other students run into Mr. Andrews classroom. He slams the door shut, locks it, turns off the lights and has two emergency lights that click on.
“Alright everyone, I know this is scary, but someone in the school has a gun. We will stay silent and not panic. Everyone go to the back corner furthest away from the door. I am going to pile the desks in front of the door, Jason and Nick come help me.”
I watch as they start to pile the desks in front of the door, I walk over to the corner of the room. I look around and see Noah, he’s shaking and has tears in his eyes. I walk over to him and I grab his hand. He jerks his hand away from mine, and raises his face to me, he’s bleeding and has glass in his arm.
“Oh my God, Noah are you okay?” I whisper.
“I’m sorry.” He whispers back as he reaches into his jacket and raises the gun and points it straight at my head.
***
Everything in the room is silent, not even sounds of breathing, I don’t think I’m breathing.  I can’t look away from Noah, I just.. I can’t.
“Noah, put the gun down.” Mr Andrews says quietly. I guess he moved towards us because Noah went rigid and put his finger on the trigger.
“Don’t come any closer, or I will shoot her!” Noah said.
“Noah, I don’t know what’s wrong but I can help you, everything will be okay. Just put the gun down.” Mr. Andrews said.
“I SAID DON’T COME ANY CLOSER!” Noah shouted, I felt the bullet slide into the chamber. I knew this gun, it’s his dad’s gun. My dad and his dad used to take us shooting with it. It’s a beautiful gun, a .45 caliber, standard with a 8- round magazine with an engraved barrel with ivory grips. But with it pointed it at my head, it didn’t seem so beautiful.

***
8 years ago.
“Noah!” I screamed all excited as I come from behind my mom’s legs.
“Hey Juliet! You wanna go to the park with me and mama?”
“Oh mama can I? Can I please go to the park with Noah?” I jump up and down to my mom.
“ Of course you can sweetie! Go get  your shoes and change into your playing clothes.”
“Okay!” I say to my mom as I bounce up the stairs. I turn around on the last step and look down at Noah.
“Don’t leave without me Noey! I’ll be right back!” I scream at him and giggle as I run to my room.
***
“I told you I wasn’t playing stay back.” Noah said.
I just look Noah in the eyes, his crystal blue eyes, as clear as the sea. I see that his eyes are watery and that he has saddest in them, but behind that I see  that they’re filled with anger.
“Noah I am going to walk towards you. Okay? Just don’t shoot Juliet.” Mr. Andrews sounded concerned, as I hear shuffling.
Everything happened in the blink of an eye, I hear a gunshot go off. I wasn’t sure if I was dead or alive, I think I’m dead. I feel a hard, cool surface under me. I slowly open my eyes and look around, Mr. Andrews is on the ground and bleeding, I taste bile in my mouth as I jump up and run over to him.
“Oh my God Noah! Did you kill him?” I yell as I collapse onto my knees and kneel next to Mr.Andrews. Everyone in the room is in pure chaos.
“Shut up or I’ll shoot someone again!” Noah yells.
I check Mr.Andrews pulse, Oh thank God. I feel relief wash over me as the faint thud of his heart beats, the bullet wound looks too high for it to have hit his heart, and I watch as he takes quick shallow breaths.
“Noah, what did you do?” I whisper under my breath.
I get up and walk over to him.
“Noah everything's going to be okay.” I whisper softly.
“You don’t know that, you don’t know anything.”He says back, as he paces back and forth with his hands on his head and the gun raised. “You don’t understand anything.” He looks back at me with a tear streaked face, walks towards me, and then raises the gun and puts it between my eyes.
“You left me at the worst time Juliet.”
***
2 years ago.
“You think we’ll be friends forever?” I say as I sit on the old rusted swingset  in the park.
“I don’t know, we’re starting high school in a week and they say high school ruins friendships. I want to say yes, that we’ll be friends forever, but I don’t know.” Noah said.
“Well, I think since we’ve been friends for what? 9, 10 years now? That we will  still be us, you and I against the world, you know? I can’t imagine my life without you. Plus we can still come to our spot, I mean we practically grew up in this park.” I say and look over at Noah, but see he’s already looking at me with this weird expression on  his face. “What?”
“It’s been 10 years, we’ve been friends for 10 years. I’ll never forget how cute you were.” He laughs quietly. “I never understood how beautiful you were until I turned 12. When you came in and saw Stacy, that girl you used to hate, try to hug me because it was my birthday and you came up and slapped her.”
“That was not funny. I got grounded for 2 weeks and I didn’t get to see you that much I thought that Stacey was going to sink her evil claws into you and that she would make you think I was the bad guy and that I wasn’t pretty enough to be your friend. But every time I called you or walked to your house you were always there.”
“No one could ever make me believe you are the bad guy or that you’re not beautiful.” He says.
“Whatever Noey. I understand if you don’t think I am, I know I’m not.” I whisper
Noah grabbed my face.“Juliet don’t ever say that!” He leans forward, “I have to tell you something, and I’ve known it for a while but I have these feeli-” He gets cut off by the sound of my phone ringing. He pulls back and let’s go.
“Hello?” I answer my phone. “Yeah, of course I’ll be home in a just a bit.”
“Hey Noey I got to go, you wanna walk me home?” I say as I hang up the phone and get up.
“No, I’m going to stay here for a while.” He says while kicking rocks and looking down.
“Okay? Text me later?” I say as I start to walk away.
“Yeah, sure.” He says.
***
1 year ago
As I walk past Noah in the hallway, we glance at each other but don’t say anything,  ever since our fight, we haven’t talked but I really miss him. I just can’t believe he reacted the way he did when I said I  was going on a date with Will, he flipped his switch on me, it was like he was a completely different person. I didn’t know rather to smile at Noah or to just look away, I decided to look away and look at my feet blankly as I walk away from him. It’s hard to see him everyday and not talk to him anymore, everything is different now, we said we would be friends forever but look at what happened.
***
I don’t know what I’m feeling, I think I’m feeling everything right now, I feel scared, and anxious but the other part of me is calm.
“You left me at the worst time.” He repeats. “My parents got a divorce, and I was going through depression, and all my mom would do was cry and you know what I thought I could do? I thought I could go to the one person who has been there for me for the past 10 years, but you go and tell me that you’re going on a date with Will. WILL? You know what I was going to tell you that night at the park? I was going to tell you how I loved you and when I say loved I don’t mean as a best friend kind of way I mean the way where you only see that one person in the whole universe and you go to bed thinking about that person and you wake up thinking about that person and that person for me was you and then you go and tell me you’re going on a date with Will and I was already in a bad state because of my parents, and I just lost my s*** on you.” He says as his hand tighten on the gun.
“You did this. You left me at the worst time in my life and you didn’t even seem sad or anything as if our friendship meant nothing to you.” He puts his finger on the trigger.
“Really Noah, why didn’t you tell me all about this that night or made a move on me at the park instead of letting me walk away? And you thought I didn’t care that I lost you? I use to cry myself to sleep every night because of how much I missed you, and it took everything out of me to not run to you in the hallway and tell you how much you mean to me and how good or bad my day has gone, my parents made me go to therapy and I used to stare off into space as she talked so she put me on pills. I don’t know how you could have ever thought that I didn’t care, and you loved me? Why me? I wasn’t and I still am not the prettiest girl, or the smartest girl, I’m just me.” I say as I start to feel the tears stream down my face.
“Listen Noah, I understand you’re hurt but I’m hurt too, I always have been, and you used to be my go to person and then you just stopped, It was horrible.” I say.
For a split second I feel this weight come off my shoulders that I finally got to tell him how I’ve been feeling for the past year.
No one in the room is talking and it feels like it’s just me and Noah. He looks away and I see his cheeks glistening with tears.
“Noey, if it will take away your pain and it will make you be the Noah I used to know, you can shoot me. I understand it, if you do. I’m not afraid to die and I would do it for you.” I whisper. “Just do it okay, I’ll count to three and you can do it. Just know this will not be the way I remember you, I’ll remember all the sleepovers and all the park visits and all the laughs, inside jokes and all the happiness I felt when I was with you. I will forgive you for shooting me and I will be here with you always, no matter what happens.” I finish off,  he looks me in the eyes.
“One….” I breathe deeply, “Two….” I whisper gently, his hand starts to shake, I shut my eyes. “Three…”
***
7 years later.
“Hey Stacy, how is he doing today?” I say as I give her my I.D under the small glass opening over the counter.
“He’s doing pretty well, he’s been waiting for you to come back. He’s excited to tell you about his month.” She smiles at me as she hands me back my I.D.
“That’s wonderful!” I say.
“Yeah, it is. I suppose I don’t have to tell you where to go? Do I?”
“No, I know where to go.” I say.
“Okay, when the buzzer noise goes off, the door will unlock and then you can go to the glass number 11 and he’ll be out to see you shortly afterward.” She says as I walk towards the black, steel doors.
The buzzer goes off and I walk into the room and pass all the family or friends talking to their loved ones in orange through the glass and having their hands pressed against the windows, I walk to number 11 and sit and wait patiently for Noah, to come. I see him walk into the other room and watch as the officers take off his handcuffs. He walks over and I pick up the phone.
“Hey Noey.” I say and smile as he smiles back.
“Hey Juliet, How’s it been?” He says.
“Pretty well. Guess what?” I say as I hide my left hand.
“What?”
“It finally happened, Will proposed and we’re getting married in the fall!” I half shout as I show him the ring.
“Shhhh.” Everyone says.
“I’m sorry.” I say back as this big, bright grin spreads across my face.
“And that’s not all,” I pause, “I’m pregnant! It’s going to be a boy, I can tell!”
“Awh, Juliet I’ so happy for you! Congratulations! ” And I can tell that he is genuinely happy for me.
“Thank you Noah! I’m so excited, I have all the details figured out for the wedding, it’s going to be a rustic wedding!”
“That’s great, you’ll have to show me pictures after the wedding, where are you going for the honeymoon?” He asks.
“I honestly don’t know, William won’t tell me. He said ‘it’s a surprise but you’ll love it I swear.’ I hate it that I don’t know what we’re doing.” I say.
“Well, tell me everything.” He says. “I need every detail.”
“Okay… So…” I continue on, and have a great conversation with him.
***
As I leave the jail, I can’t help but think about what happened, and that I lived through it, I thought I was going to die and yet I didn’t. I come to a stop and open my car door. I slide into my seat and start it. I can remember as if it were yesterday when I told him he could shoot me and me waiting for the gun to go off but it never did, I remember the way I felt the gun move off my head and how Noah told me to walk him outside and how he took the remaining bullets out of the gun and let them fall to the floor. I remember the way the police charged us and threw us on the ground and how they checked me and let me go and how Noah was crying as they handcuffed him and put him in the back of the squad car. I remember Will running towards me and how he lifted me off the ground and told me how much he loved me and how everything was going to be okay, and how my parents came running towards me.  I remember it all.
It’s just hard to realize that that actually happened and that I live a wonderful life now, I still see Noah every month and how Will and I are getting married in a few months and how I’m having a child. I can’t believe it. I graduated from Crystal State University with my masters and how I’m opening my own animal clinic in a month, and how Will is graduating from law school. It’s just amazing. I made it. We made it. I finally come out of my mind and buckle up as I put the car in drive and look in my rear-view mirror and see the past being left behind me. I look straight ahead as I turn on the radio and sing as loud as I can to the song playing. I drive along the highway as I am enveloped into the brightness of the sun, and the brightness of my future.
****