Chapter Text
As the weak afternoon warmth faded away, Cora’s pace quickened while she walked through the coastal trails. She always forgot how quickly the sun could set in the winter - the day never lasted long enough. And today, she’d have to be back home before dark or her punishment might be more severe. Her mom would already take her car keys, and her phone, and would probably take cheap shots at her tomorrow over breakfast. But if she minded herself, she might be off the hook in a couple of days.
She had hoped the clear salty air and the secluded woods would take her mind off of things. It did help. She slipped out of her shoes, picking her way along the trail with her high tops in hand instead, forcing herself to feel every speck of dust, every sandy pebble as her feet tested out every step. If she tried hard enough, she could pretend she lived out here, in the mixture of twisted pine trees and mossy logs. On a more care-free day she would have looked for some large three-leaf clovers to nibble. They tasted like green apple.
But she couldn’t block her thoughts out entirely. Her usual thoughts - that the whole argument had been bullshit. That she shouldn’t be punished, and that she was being punished for her mother’s bad behavior, not her own. Today, she had been bolder than usual. And there would be hell to pay when she returned, she knew. She didn't feel afraid...actually, she didn't think she felt anything at all.
She definitely didn't regret it, either. Her mom had been screaming, throwing books down the hall towards her dad, who was in the bedroom and yelling back. And what were they even fighting about? What were they ever fighting about? Her mom was so occupied with her own fit that, as Cora had come upstairs, a hardcover had nearly clipped the side of her head.
That was it for her. “I’m leaving”. It had given her a powerful rush, to say that. She wasn't even sure where the impulse had come from. She had never done it before - it had never occurred to her that she could just go, remove herself from harm’s way, remove herself from the petty insults and childish behavior. “I’m leaving”. Maybe it was because she was 18 now, and could make her own decisions. Maybe this was the year she would finally go.
“If you walk out that door, I will take your phone.”
Cora smiled to herself a little. Her phone was at home, on her desk. Maybe her mom had found it by now. Maybe she had already taken it. Who really cared? Cora hadn’t asked for the phone - it was a “gift”. A gift that her mom had bought for her so that they could be in constant contact. Cora would call when she would be late from school. Mom would call if she thought Cora had been out of the house for too long. It was ironic to take it away from her - Cora knew that the phone was the way her mom guaranteed that she was safe, and where she claimed she was. Taking it away for Cora leaving the house was…well, nothing short of ironic.
And it really showed that her mom had nothing on her anymore.
She sighed. She was thinking about it again. This was supposed to be her time. She stopped and puffed her own breath into the air, to see how big of a cloud it made. It hung in front of her, an isolated pocket of quiet. She still had to go home. The alternative was sleeping in the car, and who knows what would happen…her mom would probably panic. She would probably call the police. Cora would end up looking like an angsty runaway teen who couldn’t appreciate her own loving mother. It would be a fucking disaster.
As she rounded a bend in the trail, she caught a glimpse of the sun glimmering off the water. In the movies, sun sets were always so vibrant - saccharine shades of red, tropical hues, places that looked like the sky was on fire. No one ever filmed the sun sets in the Pacific Northwest because they weren’t the same. The colors up north are thinner, washed out in the chill. She looked out on an icy sliver of orange - like a sorbet, almost, and a few struggling wisps of purple. It was still beautiful, she thought, but more subtle. It wouldn’t show up on camera either. But there was something special about a cold sunset, about viewing it alone with nothing but her breath, her heartbeat, and her coast. An earbud fell out of her ear, and she didn’t bother to put it back in. The breeze pushed its way past her temples, and made her cheeks sting. She just wanted, for a moment, to be here, instead of somewhere else.
And that was when she noticed him, standing on the edge of the Plunge.