Hold On You - M. S. Brannon Page 0,2

is like a slow motion train wreck, and I have a first class seat to the hell it is about to embark for, a hell I am not ready to face just yet.

In a last ditch effort, I twist to the side and lean back. The lights are zigzagging across my back. If it is someone from the community, I will have some explaining to do. The buzz around this small Rhode Island town has been only of me: my philandering, my current mental state, my arrest for assault. Basically, my entire life over the last ten years has been the main source of Crestbrook’s gossip. If it were to get out that I was up here, trying to jump off, I would surely lose all my business completely.

As I lean back, I put all my strength into my other leg and push my body back. I fall to the ground, my midsection colliding with the rocky edge of the cliff while my feet dangle off the side. Completely happenstance, I was able to keep my body attached to this earth a little while longer.

The sound of the car is getting closer, and the headlights are fully pointing in my direction. I reach my hands up and pull my body off the ledge, getting to my knees then my feet. Keeping my body low, I move over to the side and take cover in some overgrown grass and bushes just as the BMW pulls up to the ledge.

Guitar riffs are loudly sounding from inside the car, but when the driver’s door flies open, the sound is deafening. I don’t recognize the car and am extremely happy I won’t have to explain my presence to someone I know from my home town.

I lie flat in the grass like a solider on a mission, keeping my eyes fixed on the person getting ready to climb out of the car. The song is playing in a loop, and I smile for the first time in months when I hear “Bohemian Rhapsody” echoing through the quiet night. Of all the songs to hear on the night I was about to end everything… Another memory from my past comes crashing into me, this one happier than the others.

The song instantly brings me back to my senior year when we discovered the classic by Queen. We spent all summer watching Wayne’s World and mimicking what they did in the movie. It wasn’t a new movie, but we were stuck in the 90s with almost every movie we watched and song we listened to. The version playing is not the original, but it helps me reminisce, nonetheless.

I keep my eyes on the car as the music quiets, getting ready to repeat. I hear a woman shout incoherently from the car before she fumbles to her feet and lifts a champagne bottle to her lips. Her chestnut hair catches in the wind and surrounds her face. I have no idea who this woman is, but she is obviously very, very intoxicated, and for once, I am not.

I roll my eyes, realizing I could be lying in cool grass for hours if she doesn’t leave or pass out. All I want to do is go home. I want to try and forget this night even happened, if that is possible.

The woman walks to the front of the car, her button-up blouse partially falling from the waistband of her skirt. She is completely disheveled and struggling to maintain her balance. Her legs wobble with every inch she steps forward, and as she attempts to walk, her arms shoot out to the side as she tries to maintain some kind of balance.

“Is this what you wanted from me, Daniel?” she shouts up toward the sky and falls into the side of the car. The woman catches herself by holding the hood of the car. “Dammit! You always wanted this, Daniel. You always hated when I was outshining you, when I was the best one. You ASSHOLE!”

The woman turns her body so she is facing me. I don’t think she sees me lying ten feet away, but I have suddenly become fascinated and need to know who this person is. It seems as though I am in the midst of something life changing for this person and have a front row seat to her tragic, one-woman show.

When I get a better look at her, I notice she is average height with a nice rack and looks to have an equally nice body.