It was the summer of 2013, and Ashley found herself on the precipice of a wave of phenomenal, uninvited changes. She had just turned 16 and was still settling into a body she detested, living in a town she deplored. Her parents had dragged her there just a couple of years prior from another sleepy town, not especially dissimilar from Franklinville, as they had done on a near-constant rotation every two or three years for her entire life. This learned detachment, a necessary defense against the loneliness from being a perpetual novelty, had also begun to instill in Ashley a sense of wanderlust. She could not envision her life at 18, but she could say with full confidence that it would not be in Franklinville, Indiana.
Ashley walked the cracked pavement of Montgomery Street, her Vans kicking up small puffs of dust with each step. The sun’s ever-present gaze bore down, causing her to squint and wipe the back of her hand across her forehead. The town was as silent as ever, the only sounds being the distant cry of a lawnmower and the occasional song of birds in the trees lining the street. She passed by the familiar storefronts, the same ones she had seen in nearly every town she had lived in so far: the diner with its neon sign flickering half-heartedly, the abandoned movie theater displaying a crumbling poster from 2006, and the antique shop where old Mrs. Henderson always seemed to be rearranging the same tired trinkets.
She headed towards the park, her sanctuary from the decay. It wasn’t much—a few swings, a slide, and a half-hearted attempt at a basketball court—but it was where she could be alone with her thoughts. It was just as silent as the rest of the town, but it was silent in just the right way. She reached her favorite spot, an old oak tree at the far end of the park, its branches sprawling wide and offering a patch of cool shade. Sitting down, she leaned against the rough bark, lit up, and pulled out her sketchbook. Drawing had always been her escape, a way to process the world around her and create the one she wished she inhabited. She closed her eyes as the smoke hovered around her face.
“Thank fuck for nature,” she thought to herself. She began to draw.
Today, her pencil moved almost of its own accord, sketching out a scene far removed from Franklinville. A pulsating cityscape began to take shape on the page—towering skyscrapers, vibrating streets filled with people, lights and colors that made her heart race with excitement. She imagined herself there, an anonymous figure in the crowd, completely engulfed in the deafening noises of life. She craved the deafening silence of activity, of people living.
Her reverie was interrupted by the sound of footsteps approaching. She looked up to see Jules, a girl from her school, ambling towards her with a lazy grin on her face. They had never spoken much, but she was hard to miss—tall and lanky, with a shock of unruly brown hair and an easygoing demeanor that seemed out of place in a town full of cynics. She was wearing a tank top with “Franklinville HS Track and Field” prominently displayed across the front and a pair of shorts. She was drenched in sweat. Ashley thought it looked like she was glowing.
“Hey,” she called out, stopping a few feet away. “Mind if I join you?”
She shrugged, unsure why she was here but not particularly inclined to send her away. “Sure, why not.”
Ashley extended her hand, showing the barely lit joint, gesturing it towards Jules. “Want any?”
Jules flopped down beside her, leaning back on her elbows and staring up at the sky. “Oh, no thanks. Lungs. So, what are you drawing?”
Embarrassed, Ashley tucked the joint behind her ear and placed her pencil between her fingers to fiddle with in it’s place.
“Just… stuff,” Ashley replied, flipping the sketchbook closed protectively. Instinctively, mindlessly Ashley put the dull end of her pencil towards the end of her lips. Jules stared for a moment and smiled warmly.
“Cool,” Jules said, shifting slightly on the ground. They sat in silence for a while, the sounds of the park filling the gaps between them. Eventually, Jules spoke again, her voice quieter this time. “You ever think about leaving this place?”
The question caught Ashley off guard, and she turned to look at her, searching her face for any sign of mockery. But she seemed sincere, her gaze now fixed on the sky.
“I mean…I just moved here,” she said, still studying every inch of Jules’ glowing face.
Jules simply looked towards her with large, bright eyes.
“All the time,” she admitted, her voice barely more than a whisper.
Jules nodded, an infectious smile playing on her lips. Ashley couldn’t look away. “Me too. Sometimes I feel like I’m the only one who does. It’s crazy. Everyone on the team talks about going away for college and then moving right back. I’m telling you dude, once I’m gone, I’m fucking gone.”
Ashley chuckled. She slid her sketchbook over towards Jules as she took another drag from her joint. “This is where I want to go someday,” she said, her eyes not leaving Jules’ face, observing every twitch and movement to understand her reactions.
“Holy shit! This is really good. Where is this supposed to be?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Doesn’t really matter, I don’t think. I just want to be anywhere that isn’t a bumfuck little town, you know? All I’ve ever lived in are bumfuck little towns.”
Jules put her hand on Ashley’s shoulder and expelled a laugh deep from her gut. “Bumfuck! I like that. Yeah, I’ve only lived in this bumfuck town but I totally get it.”
Ashley felt a warm shiver run down her spine at Jules’ touch. She glanced at Jules’ hand, noting how it lingered on her shoulder a moment longer than necessary.
Suddenly, from the distance, a rhythmic stamping could be heard. Then it got closer. And closer. And closer. Before either Ashley or Jules knew it, a wall of four girls towered over them, blocking the sun’s gentle touch.
“Jules. What the heck do you think you’re doing? We’re supposed to be at practice,” the de facto leader hissed.
“Well, you guys were so far behind, I had some time to kill,” Jules said casually, with a grin.
“Oh my gosh, Katie, is she doing drugs? Jules, are you doing drugs?” one of the henchmen chimed in.
“Jules, you really shouldn’t associate with criminals. I heard her parents had to move here as a condition of her parole or something,” Katie, the mayor of assholes quipped.
“Moving away doesn’t even make sense for parole,” Ashley muttered under her breath while staring at the girls’ sneakers.
“Of course the convict would know that! Now can we please go, Jules. I don’t want to risk getting caught in a shootout or anything.”
Jules checked her GPS watch and frowned. “Ah shit… shoot. I really should get back. Hey, it was really nice sitting here for a minute,” she said, springing up onto her feet in a way that completely mystified Ashley. She locked eyes with her in a way that made Ashley feel like the entire town had just melted away. “I’ll see you around!”
Then, as quickly as they had appeared, the soft rumbling of the stampede faded off into the distance and Ashley sat alone under the tree once again. She put the joint back in her mouth, closed her eyes, and lit it once again. She watched the smoke dance into the world around her as she opened her eyes.
She turned her sketchbook to a new page and started drawing, slower this time and with much more care. Every line and curve and shade was executed with deliberate focus. She closed her eyes again to not miss any detail; she wanted to do this right. She sat under that tree for forty-five more minutes and finished half of her joint before she was done, but when she was, she knew it was damn near perfect.
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