Excerpt from “American Dreams”

“I hate this part,” she sighed, putting her dad’s SUV into drive and backing out of the parking spot in the hotel parking lot. She looked over at Nick in the passenger’s seat through the tears forming in her eyes, then focused back onto the road. Crying was a constant for Lucy in their relationship. Happy tears when they were reunited, sad tears when they were ripped apart. Each and every time. It never got easier.

She was driving 15 in a 30, but the town was essentially Mayberry, so it's not like anyone on the road would mind. For a college town, Salem sure was quiet and seemed to be dead at 11 pm, unlike anything she had ever seen before. 

The lack of noise filling the car was keeping her sane. If one of them spoke, she knew she’d break down into tears again and she needed to be able to find the driveway. Although she wished she wouldn’t. Perhaps then Nick and her could stay in this moment forever, even if it wasn’t the happiest or her favorite place. But alas, she kept driving until the all too familiar maroon sign became visible in the distance.

She pulled up the hill, stopping not in a parking spot, but at the fire zone by the dining hall, since it was the closest she could get to the door of his dorm. She’d just been in there hours ago, bundled under blankets with him. She’d been with Nick and now everything was being ripped away like it was every month and it wasn’t fair. Girls back home got to spend forever with their cheating, lying scum of a human and she got just a few hours every month with the boy she’d mentally declared the love of her life.

“Don’t get out of the car” she wanted to say, but she knew she couldn’t. Nick had to go back to the life he lived 29 days a month, as a college student with a hometown high school girlfriend. It shocked her that despite getting older and growing up, he kept her around, although that could be her past subconsciously haunting her.

“See you soon” he whispered as he got out of the car and she nodded as he shut the door. For a moment, she sat there and let her mind transport her back to the conversation they had in the hotel parking lot just minutes before, the thing that was keeping her going despite everything telling her that she should let go.

The street lights had shone into the car and illuminated the interior. They both sat, keys sitting in the cup holder and seat belts off, hoping the car would never move and time would forever stop. “I just want to stop driving you home” she cried out, collapsing into her shoulder in a puddle of her own vulnerability.

“One day, home will be with me,”. How he could say something so simple, yet so impactful had baffled her, yet that was probably why he was an English major at a liberal arts school. “I promise this is the complicated period of time. I just want a job, a dog, and a house.”

She had looked up at him, arms still around him, and chuckled just enough “and a picket fence,”.

“And a picket fence,” The two had shared a quick kiss, still being respectful to the others in the parking lot. Lucy still had tears pooling at the bottom of her eyes, but she had been reassured enough to drive the mile down the road to drop him off for the eighth to last time. The two were going to one day share the American Dream.

Brought back to the present, she looked down at her phone. One new message.

All I want is a life, a job, some common sense

Some kids, a dog, maybe a picket fence

A love that lasts, a love that cares.

The promise that you’ll always be there.

So won’t you, honey please, come share this life with me.

Let’s live the American dream.