Stranded

Chapter 1

"I'm sick of this, Kenna! We've been stranded here for over an hour!" Cole yells at me like this is all my fault. I manage to give him a death stare through my tear-filled and puffy eyes. 

"It's not like I wanted any of this!" I scream back. This absolutely sucks. It's 4:00 am now and not getting any easier. Cole and I are sitting on the hood of my car, frantically waving our arms back in forth to hopefully catch the attention of some helicopter or car that might pass by. My car ran out of gas and my phone died. Cole was stupid enough to leave his phone at the bar. There is no way for us to drive back and get it. I don't have much hope anymore. 

"Ken, it's freezing out here. This is hopeless. Let's just start walking." Cole suggests, sounding much calmer now. He hops off of the hood and starts towards the woods up ahead before stumbling and falling on his side. 

"Are you serious?!? Dude, you are still drunk and we have no clue which direction to go in. If you hadn't left your phone at the bar, we could've at least called for help!"

"This is MY fault now?!? Last time I checked you're phone is dead. Sounds like you're not the smartest person on the planet after all, so don't even start." Cole is standing up now and walking over in my direction. 

"Yeah, you're right, Cole. I'm actually really stupid for ever believing that driving you to this midnight party on a school  night was ever a good idea. That I thought I had to do this thing that you wanted to do just so I could hang out with you and get some approval from the boy I'm dating. So clearly I am stupid but don't sell yourself short of that title because your not any better." It feels so incredibly great to get all of that out there. I'm sick of being the "bad guy" and the one who's responsible for all of the unfortunate things that keep happening to Cole and I. 

Once Cole hears my response he looks shocked. I've never been outgoing or bold or even social for that matter. So telling him off, was something that anyone, including me, would find surprising. 

After staring at me, eyes wide, for a good 12 seconds, Cole starts to walk over toward me. "Kenna, I-" 

"Don't!" I shout before he can finish. "I don't need you to say anything to me right now. I'm trying to figure everything out and since you're no help whatsoever..." I ramble until I see the look of sincere pain on his drunk face. I feel bad now. Kenna stop! You know what  he does. He manipulates you and makes you feel sorry for him. Don't fall for it like you do every time. Just walk away. So that's exactly what I do. I walk away before I can allow myself to feel like a monster for standing up for myself. 

"Kennedy! Please." Cole cries out as I cross the abandoned dirt road. 

Kenna, you're better than this. Don't turn around. He deserves nothing from you!  But a part of me wants to turn around and give into his game. To him. No matter how hard I try to fight my guilty heart. The heart that seeks approval from everybody else. The heart that fell for a jerk who couldn't care any less about me. 

Before I even know it's happening, I'm crying again. But I'm not even sad. To be honest, I have no idea how I'm feeling. It's like I can't escape my own head. 

Things are escalating very quickly. I feel like a stranger in my own body. I don't know what is going on. "JUST LEAVE COLE! LEAVE ME ALONE OR I WILL MAKE YOU!" I scream, running fast and hard back toward my car. I'm sobbing and angry, but I don't feel like I'm in control of myself. "Don't make me say it again!" I demand, teeth clenched. 

"Whoa, Ken. Calm down, seriously. I'm sorry, okay? I don't know what else you want from me!" 

I am hysterical by this point. I'm not even angry anymore. I've snapped out of whoever I just was. I'm not the demon that took over me 5 seconds ago. But that was still me telling him to leave. Maybe the anger behind it didn't sound much like myself, but I can assure you, I meant it. 

"Just leave, Cole," I plead. "Just go, I'm begging you. It's what's best for both of us," I tell him, sounding more like myself. 

"Great, so now I can just fend for myself in the wilderness while you have a car." Cole looks mad. "And how are you supposed to manage when you can't even keep yourself in check when your talking to me. How will you do things on your own?" He's pacing back and forth now, clearly upset with me. 

I can feel myself getting angry again, but I take deep breaths before that other side of me can emerge once more. "This is my car, Cole. We're done here. I don't want anything to do with you so there is no way that I am going to help you when this is your doing in the first place. 

"Fine, I'll leave. But it's not like you'll be able to get anywhere without gas or a phone anyway. You're choice." Cole says, walking toward the direction of the woods once again. 

"I made my choice. Go!" I demand. I watch as he walks toward the woods, carrying nothing but his wallet in his hands. It's not long before he is completely out of my sight. 

It occurs to me now that I am all alone in the middle of nowhere, barely over the age of 18. Not to mention how exhausted I am from all the events that took place at the bar. Cole almost got in trouble for carrying a fake I.D. but like I said, he's manipulative. Later on in the night he got in a fist fight with his best friend, Jackson, accusing him of hitting on me. They both got kicked out, and since I'm the one who drove Cole there, I had to leave as well. So much more happened that night but it all seems like such a blur. 

After a few minutes of trying to recall all of the events and regrets from earlier on, I decide to rest, so I can be in a better state tomorrow and come up with better ideas for how to get out of this mess. So I hop into my car, roll down the passenger window ever so slightly so that I can breathe with the car off, and try to sleep. But even though my doors are locked, and the window is only rolled down a centimeter, I feel anything but safe.