Timber Creek-Part 3

Matt’s nightmares hadn’t returned so, for the first time in days, he was able to sleep. He fell asleep when he had came home from the search and didn’t wake up until eleven fifty in the evening the following day. His mother surprisingly hadn’t disturbed him all day until shortly after he woke up himself and she wouldn’t have probably but Tara had been calling all day asking for him. By the tenth time she had called the Bryant household, Matt’s mother was growing tired of Tara’s abusing her telephone rights by calling their house so many times. While she was leaning against her son’s door to see if she could hear anything that resembled sounds of life, she finally heard typing at the computer. She knocked on the door lightly.

“Yeah?” she heard Matt say from the other side of the large wooden door. She walked through the door and handed her son the phone and rolled her eyes. She liked Tara but she had almost had her over load of her after all the phone calls.

“It’s Tara, take it please. She has been calling all day.” She said as she turned and left. Matt took the phone, waited for his mother to leave and turned back to face his computer once she was out the room. He pulled back up his chat box and typed something as he began to talk.

“Hey Tara.”

“Hey I’ve been calling all day. I was worried.” Tara said.

“Uh yeah I passed out, sorry.” Matt said as he pushed his fingers into his eyes in an attempt to get the sleep out of them.

“Okay, uh well we didn’t find out anything so were going back out tomorrow morning. You in?’ Tara asked. Matt didn’t say anything because he was more into the conversation that he was having online.’ Matt?” she said again.

“I’ll text you okay?” he said as he hung up without hearing her say her good byes to him. He threw the phone on his bed and continued to type.

‘So you finally slept…that’s progress man, good for you.’ Someone typed.

‘Yeah I slept finally but I still woke up to a nightmare, again. All I see is her face dude. I gotta tell someone, I just have to get this weight off of my shoulders.’ Matt typed.

‘NO, NO, NO! You don’t tell anyone anything. If you tell anyone you’re not the one who goes down, I do too.’
‘I wouldn’t tell anyone about you, I swear.’ He typed again.

‘We both know that you’re not the best liar Mattie. Just keep your damn mouth shut! I mean it!’

The person Matt was talking too logged off, leaving Matt looking at the screen, longing to talk more. He had so much on his mind he couldn’t think straight. He sat for a minute with his fist clinched together so hard that his knuckles had turned white but calmed himself down enough to where he wouldn’t throw his computer monitor off the desk and fell onto his bed. He still had the phone in his hand but threw it to the floor and grabbed his cell phone that was on his nightstand, on silent for a reason. When lit up he saw how many calls he had really missed from Tara. Far too many to count and he didn’t want to attempt it.

He ran through his texts quickly to see how upset Tara was at him but he only found out that she was worried about him, not mad. She really was his best friend unlike some people. He dialed her number and began to cry as it started to ring. By the time she picked up on her end he was sobbing like a baby.

“Hello?” she said.

“Tara …” Matt said threw tears as they fell from his cheeks.

“Matt? Matt what’s wrong?”

“I need to see you; I need to talk to you. Please”

“Of course, I’ll come pick you up.” Tara said before she hung up the phone. Matt looked around him for a pair of jeans and his hoodie. The jeans he found stunk so he poked around his closet and felt overjoyed to see a clean pair hanging up thanks, to his mother. He pulled his hoodie over his hands and pulled up the hood covering his brown hair. It wasn’t as dirty as it had been but it was on the brink of becoming greasy again.

He ran outside, sneaking out his window so that he wouldn’t have to give an answer to his parents, they would have asked him where he was running off to in the middle of the night. He pulled out his cell phone and looked at the time. It was two forty-five in the morning. He neck muscles were tight, he could feel them. A cool rain started within the few moments before he saw Tara’s car drive around the corner and stop just short of his yard. He let out a deep breath and ran to the car.

“Thanks for coming and thanks for not pulling up.” Matt said as he closed the door behind him.

“We’ve been doing this for too long; I know not to pull up at your house this late at night. Your mom would think that were running away again like we tried when we were eleven remember?” Tara said with a smile.

“Yeah I remember we tried to leave because we both were going out of town to different places and didn’t wanna be apart.”

“Yeah we were damn near inseparable then unlike now.” She said. Matt looked down shamefully. She was right, they hadn’t been that close in a long time.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I made some different friends and I left you behind. I shouldn’t have done that. You have always been my best friend but I meet some new people and I leave you. You’ve never left me and you have always been there for me when I needed you even though I haven’t always been there for you.”

“It’s alright Matt, I understand. We just grew in different directions.”

“No it wasn’t that. We really didn’t, we didn’t grow into different directions. We should have been on the same path this whole time but I strayed from that path and I’m sorry that I did. If I hadn’t then I wouldn’t be in the situation that I’m in now.” Matt said as he rushed his words.

“Matt what are you talking about?’ he grabbed a hold of her hands and held them tightly. She pulled back slightly out of pure fear.’ you’re really starting to freak me out. What is it?”

He fell over, releasing his grip around her hands and placed his head on her shoulder. She ran her fingers threw his slightly damp, shaggy hair as she heard him cry. She hadn’t heard him cry in a long time, not since they were younger. Moments after sobbing she finally pulled his face up and looked into his tear filled eyes. Something was wrong, really wrong.

“Tell me what to do…so that I can help you Matt, please tell me.” Tara begged him. He nodded as he sat up from her shoulder. He wiped his nose as best as he could and adjusted his hood.

“Go to Timber Creek, I’ll tell you there.”

Tara started the engine to her car, put it in drive and drove off towards the creek. Timber Creek was two miles east of Timber Park, hence the name. The creek was long, deep and deadly while surrounded by thick trees and bushes. It was easy to get lost and many people did but luckily they had all been found as far as anyone knew that is.

They sat in the car for a while after they had arrived but Matt finally opened his door and got out. The rain was still falling from the sky just as the tears continued to fall from his eyes. Tara followed him and sat next to him on the hood of her car. Her arms were crossed as she looked down to the moist ground below their feet.

“Before I tell you what I need to tell you, I wanna tell you something that I want to tell you. I know your view of me is gonna change so I wanna do this first.” Matt said as he looked up and into Tara’s eyes.

“You know I’m really sorry for leaving you behind when I should have stayed with you, right by your side right?’ he asked her. She nodded. It wasn’t just because I got new friends that I left you. You had started to see that guy…whats his name?”

“Darren?” Tara said, giving him the answer.

“Yeah. I couldn’t stand seeing you with him because I liked you, still do and I think that I always have. You were my first crush and I wanted you to be my first everything but that didn’t happen because I was stupid and left you.”

“Matt stop, why…why didn’t you tell me?” she asked him. She looked hurt by his words but she wouldn’t say it.

“You were happy.”

“You blind son of a bitch…I was happy with you.’ Matt looked at her, trying to figure out what she was trying to say.’ You’re not the only one that was keeping something from the other one. I wasn’t happy with Darren. He was the first and only guy who ever showed an interest in me at the time. I settled and he hit me. Over and over again he hit me. All I wanted was you but I didn’t think that I could have you anymore.”

Matt took Tara into his arms and held her. She was right that they both had been keeping secrets from one another. They hadn’t been very good friends to each other. He questioned telling her his secret because he didn’t want this feeling to leave, he had been waiting for it for so long and now it was his. He knew that he had to tell her or he would be hurting her more as every day passed.

“I wanna do this before I tell you what I need to tell you.” He lent over and kissed Tara gently on her lips. He wrapped his hands around her face; fingers threw her strands of wet hair. Their foreheads met with a gentle touch as the rain fell around them.

“Now what do you need to tell me?” Tara asked quietly as she kept looking into his eyes. He moved his head back and licked his lips lightly. He pulled her towards him and started to walk down the side of the creek with her hand still within his.