Secret

The hum of car tires on the highway echoed in the car. Mark’s hands trembled in his lap, thumbs rolling over each other in a rhythmic pattern.

            “Are you ever going to talk to me?” asked Sarah, cocking her head to the side. Her knuckles looked white, clenched on the steering wheel taught and rigid. “Mark, you haven’t said a word since I picked you up at the airport. Are you okay?”

            “I’m fine,” Mark said, shifting in his seat, “I’m just tired, jet-lag y’know?” Sadly he knew he couldn’t get away with a lie as pathetic as that one. Plus he could tell she already knew by the way she bit her bottom lip and dipped her eyebrows. He should have just stayed away from Jessica like she had told him.

            Sarah sighed and began to tell him that she knew about all of it. She told him that Jessica had called her last night after he had left for the airport, and she had told her all she needed to know. The rest of the car ride was entirely silent, except for the hum of the engine. She pulled up slowly next to Mark’s house, her eyes were sunk in, holding back her emotions.

            “Your stuff will be on your doorstep tomorrow morning. I would much rather you not call me, please just end it here.” She muttered as he closed the car door. The big willow tree in Mark’s yard groaned, leaves fluttering in the breeze as Sarah drove away. Mark had a feeling in his gut, as if it were filled with needles. His body seemed to refuse to move. He just stood there, the wind blowing tirelessly, and the night sky slowly climbing overhead.

            The next morning arrived. Sarah drove up slowly, jut as promised, and began to deliver things to his doorstep. She stepped over him, his almost puddle-like state almost disgusting her. The boxes began to pile high around his doorstep and reached it’s peak as she placed the last box of clothes on the doormat. The sound of her car door shutting caused him to roll over in his sleep, a sharp shiver running over his body. Sarah climbed out of the car and returned to the front door one last time, this time retrieving a blanket, which she draped over Mark.

            “Goodbye Mark.” She whispered with tears in her eyes. He groaned in his sleep as her engine roared to life. He woke a few hours later to find the boxes piled around his door, and a blanket draped over him.  He trembled in the early morning breeze. A layer of drool smeared across his cheeks, and he felt like he had been living in a gutter. He trudged slowly into his house, the door creaking closed slowly behind him without his assistance, and that was the end of it. Mark waited by the phone for hours on end, hoping Sarah would call, but she never did. He constantly felt like he needed to call her, but he knew she had told him not to contact her, so he didn’t.

Obviously this story was retold by a squirrel :D