inside because for the first time since we’ve been together, I feel strangely uncomfortable. The man sitting next to me might as well have been a stranger. My mind is racing and my thoughts are so loud I feel like he can hear the questions I’m asking him in my head “What’s going on? Where is your damn car? and why am I getting out of my bed at almost 2am? and worse yet why do you smell like a brewery?” He looks at me like I just caught him in bed with my sister or best friend. The look on his face is so sullen like it hurts for us to make eye contact. Finally, I realize I’m going to have to be the one who starts breaking down this wall between us one brick at a time “Mark are you ok?” I asked. He just nodded his head yes, then turned and looked out the window. I am about to boil over because now I know he’s not hurt or anything so what the fuck? “Where’s your car Mark, what’s going on?” I ask although I’m really afraid of his answer. Keeping his face turned away from me he states “I was in an accident and my car is back on 7th Avenue.” Now I’m really going crazy wondering why are we leaving, why didn’t I pick him up at the scene of this accident? Then he starts mumbling as if to himself and all I hear is he can’t go to jail again for this. “Screeeeechhhhhhhhh” I slammed on my brakes and just stopped my car in the middle of the road. Something is seriously wrong here and Mark didn’t even turn his head despite my quick stop. “Mark what the hell is going on and what are you talking about jail?” He just looks at me, totally ignoring my question and asks if I will drop him to his house. I am completely livid by this point, Mark didn’t even attempt to answer my question. Now Mark lives about 30 minutes away from me with his parents and based on how things were going it was going to seem like 3 hours trying to get there. Before finishing this story which is starting to seem like the end I have to first discuss how we got to this point. When Mark and I first started dating he had recently finished a tour in the Gulf with the U.S. Marines and was newly divorced which is why he moved in with his parents. Now the thing is we had known each other most of our lives having gone to both middle school and high school together. We lost touch while he was in the marines, during that time he managed to get both married and divorced. They say that happens to a lot of men when they join the military because they miss home and try to create a new one. Mark had only been back a few weeks when we ran into each other in a store. As soon as I saw him I felt twelve years old again, the day I first met him. I had just walked into my geography class and there was the finest boy I’d ever seen. The only desk available was right next to him so I just sat down. I felt very self-conscious because I wasn’t a nerdy kid but I wasn’t exactly part of the popular click either. I just knew this guy had to be part of the popular group because he was just gorgeous, he dressed nice, and he appeared very self-confident. I would soon learn why he was so confident, because every girl in this middle school seemed to be after him. The thing about Mark though was that although he knew he was drop dead gorgeous, he never acted like he knew. When Mark talked to you it was like you were the only person in the world. He had this way of giving you his full attention and you felt very special in that moment. Now I could see why all the girls wanted him beyond his good looks. To make matters worse I was new to a school where the other kids had gone to elementary school together and had been at the middle school for a year before I moved there from New York. Certainly, everyone in this little South Carolina town knew everyone else and they didn’t know me and didn’t seem too interested in getting to know me. That is, everyone but Mark, he beamed right in on me knowing I was the new girl. Mark started talking to me and kind