[31 Hours Before Ryker left for Exodus]
“C’mon... Just a quick one,” Ryker pleaded.
The orange-hair girl sitting next to him tilted her head, her eyes rolling over to look at him. She shook her head. “No, Rye. It’s making me too sad...” She plucked the cigarette from between his fingers to take a long drag from it.
He sighed before taking a swig of his beer. He pouted. “Pweeese? I have pictures of us, sure... but I want just a little video to look at when I start to miss you, Teal.”
She exhaled the smoke a bit forcefully. “You shouldn’t be missing me while you’re up there doin’ whatever...” She glanced over at him before looking down at her feet.
“Yeah? And why is that?” Ryker asked with a cocked brow as he looked over the girl who wouldn’t make eye contact with him.
“You’re movin’ on... You’re leavin’ me... We should move on.” Her voice was low.
He frowned, letting out a sigh. He shook his head. “It doesn’t have to be that way. I can’t just forget you, Teal. I love you.” He placed his hand on hers, his fingers curling to hold it.
“Ryker, you’re asking for the ultimate long-distance relationship. I get why you’re leavin’. It’s to help Zane and I totally get it. I love Zane and I want what’s best for him to get better. It just don’t make you leavin’ any easier. I can’t sit here on this dying rock, looking up at the sky knowing you ain’t comin’ back. I’m going to try... I really am... But we both know it’s better to just move on...” She turned her hand so that she could lace their fingers together. She handed the cigarette back to him.
Ryker didn’t say anything for a minute, listening to the sounds of cars, yelling neighbors, police sirens, and that damn power line buzzing (accompanied with the faint sound of gun shots somewhere far in the distance) fill in what would have been silence between them as they sat in lawn chairs in front of his house. His eyes looked over at her, trying to remember every inch of her face so he could recreate it whenever he wanted.
Teal looked over at him, a bit of shock on her face for a moment, then rolling her eyes once she realized what he asked. “No. We’ve been over this...”
“Dammit Teal,” Ryker groaned, a bit exhausted at her fighting it. “If you marry me today, right now... You might be able to go with me up there.”
“I don’t want to go up there.”
“And why not? You’ll have me and Zane. It’s fancy up there. It’s not here!”
“Up there ain’t home!” Teal let out an annoyed huff. “This place sucks. It’s violent, crummy, dingy, and corrupt, but I know how to deal with down here. Up there... it... it ain’t right. You and I took a pledge. Earth is our grave! We ain’t perfect together, I know that. I can be difficult and you ain’t a peach either... But Earth is our resting place.” She reached over and a swig of his beer, looking off into the street. “Plus, we ain’t made for marriage. You saw what happens when people get married. It goes wrong. What we have ain’t perfect, but it ain’t wrong,” she added.
She wasn’t wrong. Ryker didn’t want to spend his last day on Earth fighting with Teal. He took a drag from his cigarette, finishing it and flicking it onto the driveway. He exhaled, squeezed her hand and then stood up to stand in front of her. “Let’s go to the mountains. I think the crazy bootleggers were driven out of there...Let’s have a good last night. There’s that little cabin up there. We’ll go, wake up early, drive back and be back in time for me to fly out of your life forever. Sound good?”
Teal thought about it, a small smiling creeping onto her lips the more she thought about it. Her eyes lit up with excitement and jumped up into his arms. “Let’s do it!”
He spun her around and kissed her. He set her back down and took a step away from her, pulling out his phone and holding it up. “Now do something nice for the video now that you’re happy for like... 20 seconds,” he told her with a small smile.
Knowing damn good and well she should be making the best out of his final hours, she grabbed his phone from him. She hit record, smiled, and blew him a kiss. She tossed his phone back to him.
“There! Now ya have it! It’s me forever blowing you a kiss while also kissing you goodbye.”
