Never Let Go

It's a love story between a 34 year old man named Zak Bagans who is in love with one of his best friends, Adrenia.

 

“Dude, just tell her how you feel.” Aaron said, as we were driving to Old Town Pizza in Portland, Oregon. Aaron was most familiar with these streets, so he drove.

“I don’t know, she’d never like me. She can get any guy she wants. Maybe I should just give up.” I said. I looked out and watched the rain fall on the window.

“NO!” Nick and Aaron both yelled simultaneously.

“You’re Zak fricken Bagans!” Nick proceeded to explain. “What is wrong with you?! She’s the girl of your dreams! I want you to march straight up to her and tell her how you really feel!”

“I don’t know. Adrenia hasn’t seen me in a month. She might’ve found someone else.” I tried the “might’ve found someone else” excuse. It didn’t work to well.

“I’m pretty sure she didn’t, and if she did, who cares! Finder’s keepers, right?” Aaron said with a big grin on his face. I couldn’t help but laugh. Aaron was the kind of guy you couldn’t not laugh at. I was glad they were my friends, but I was unhappy with the situation I was in. I had two choices, be brave and tell Adrenia my true feelings, or be a p***y and let her go meet some other d********g. What do I do? I wish these things would be easier.

I opened the door to Old Town Pizza, the pizza place we were meeting Adrenia at. I stepped inside to meet the sweet smell of pizza and dust. I couldn’t wait any longer to see her; if I waited a second longer I would explode! Then, I saw her. She was sitting in a booth, her long curly hair pinned up in a tight bun. She was wearing a purple v-neck with a black lacey shirt underneath. As soon as I saw her, I ran towards her. She rose and started to run towards me. She jumped in my arms and shrieked with joy. She felt so perfect in my arms. It was so unrealistic.

“I missed you so much! “ She said. Her face was lit up with a large smile. She was so beautiful, I don’t understand how anyone could hate her/.

“I missed you too! Europe was kind of boring without you.” I said.

“Well! I’m sorry if I have stuff to do! Jeez!” She said, laughing. I could tell she was really happy to see me. I was extremely happy to see her also. Nick and Aaron walked up and she hugged them. We sat down and started to talk. I’ve always love to listen to Adrenia, just something about her voice was soothing. Should I tell her? No, not in front of the guys. That’d be too weird. We were sharing a room tonight though. I could tell I was blankly staring at her.

“Earth to Zak?” She said, apparently she noticed too.

“Oh, sorry. I was spacing.” I said, she had a sad look on her face that looked like she thought I wasn’t listening to her at all “Oh s**t! I didn’t mean it like that! I’m sorry!” She started to laugh. Then Nick and Aaron started to laugh also. Soon, we were all laughing.

After dinner, I went with Adrenia to the hotel we were staying at called the Benson & Benson. Adrenia came straight from the airport to Old Town Pizza because she had a later flight from Vegas. Her bags were still in the back.

“Are you happy your home for a little while?” I was actually really curious. Out of all of the years we’ve been friends, I’ve never really asked about what it was like growing up for her.

“I don’t know. Sometimes I want to be home, but sometimes I want to be home, but sometimes I want to be as far away as possible.” She said. I nodded my head in agreement. We pulled up to the front of the hotel. It was a 9 story building that was painted white. It was very old fashioned, yet elegant. When we got up to the room, I realized it only had one bed.

“Being the kind, caring, gentleman I am. I shall sleep on the floor and let you sleep on the bed.” I said this in my Mr. Charming voice while I bowed.

“Oh, why thank you sir.” She said, doing a fake curtsy. She smiled, should I tell her? Should I keep this a secret? If I told her, and she rejected me would we still be friends? I tried to fake a smile, but she knew me to well.

“What’s wrong?” Adrenia asked. She sat me down on the bed.

“Nothing.” That was a lie. “Nothing’s wrong I’m just… Tired.” Also a lie. I knew she could right through me.

“No, something’s up. What is it? Girl trouble? Anything I can do?” She asked.

“Well, I really like this girl. Let’s call her…’Sara’. I really like her, but I don’t know if I should tell her. We’re really good friends, and I don’t want her to reject me.”

“Just tell ‘Sara’ how you really feel” She said wisely. “You’re Zak Bagans. She has to like you.” I put my head in my hands. She rubbed my back like a friend would do if someone was stressed. This all felt so natural. I wanted to tell her so bad, I could almost taste it. Her hand suddenly stopped and pulled away from my back, I heard quiet sobs coming from her direction. My head snapped up. I could see tears were running down her rosy cheeks. Oh God! Did I do something?! I thought to myself.

“What’s wrong?! Did I say something? I’m sorry! I feel like a dick now! What did I do?!” I quickly pulled her into my arms and rocked her gently back and forth, back and forth. Again, she felt so perfect in my arms, it was to unrealistic to be true. Still, she kept crying. I kissed her head gently. I didn’t know what else to do, so I started to hum. At first it was just random sounds. It soon started to turn into the song “Benny and the Jets” by Elton John. I knew it would cheer her up; it’s one of her favorite songs.

“B-B-B-B-Benny! Benny! Benny and the Jets!” I sang in my best high pitched Elton John voice I could. She looked up into my eyes and smiled.

“Why were you crying?” I asked, I really had no idea why.

Would anyone care if I died?” She asked. Her smile faded to a completely serious face.

“What are you talking about?”

“Would anyone care if I killed myself?”

“Everybody would care! Why would you ask something like that?” By this time she was out of my arms and standing at the window.

“I just feel so alone, like no one truly understands me. I feel like everything is my fault.” She said. I stood up, walked behind her and put my hands around her waist. I snuggled my chin on to her shoulder.

“Sweetheart.” I said, kissing her neck. “Your not alone, you have me. I understand how you feel.” Adrenia spun around and put her hands on my chest. She was crying again, so I hugged her tight. She wiggled out of my grip and walked to sit on the edge of the bed. I immediately followed.

“What do you mean?” She asked. Uh-oh, here it goes. Now I have to tell her.

“You know how I told you about ‘Sara’?”

“Yeah?” Her face looked kind of upset.

Well,” I looked straight in her eyes like Nick told me “I was talking about you.” She looked surprised. She didn’t react at first, but then she started crying, AGAIN. Jesus, what was wrong with this girl? I asked myself. Nothing at all, she’s perfect.

“I have the same feelings for you.” She finally said. I didn’t know what to say. I was in shock. I never really expected she’d have the same feelings. If I did, I would’ve prepared! I scooted closer to her and stared into her eyes. I leaned in to kiss her, and she whispered something. I couldn’t quite make out what it was, but it sounded like “I love you”

“I love you too” I said, as I leaned in closer to fill the space between us. I kissed her with all of the passion and love I had. After about 10 seconds, she pulled away. She pushed me on the bed and forced me under the blankets. She snuggled up to me, and I heard a man’s voice say “never…..let…..go”. (We were in one of the haunted rooms) I grabbed her and pulled her close.

“I’ll never let go, I promise.” I whispered. I kissed her forehead. We fell asleep like this, fully clothed, under blankets, never letting go.

When I woke up the next morning, I heard the shower going, and Adrenia singing. That was Adrenia, always singing her heart out. First things first, I gotta tell Nick and Aaron about last night. It was only about 9:30, so they should be awake. I got my phone and dialed Nick’s number. It only rang on time and Nick picked up

“Hey! What’s up?”

“Oh nothing, just calling to see what’s up.” That was a lie

“What happened?” He asked, jeez do I really not hide my emotions very well? “Did you tell her?” He sounded like he already knew the answer, but he really didn’t.

“ACTUALLY,” I said in my cocky voice. “I did tell her.”

“Whoa! No way dude! What’d she say?” I proceeded to tell Nick about the night before.

“I’m proud of you, man.” He said, I could tell he was excited. “You really kissed her?”

“Yeah, I did” Remembering how amazing it felt to be with her. I heard the shower turn off. “Oh. I gotta go! I’ll see ya later!” I hung up the phone. There was no need to tell Aaron because Nick would definitely tell him. I felt my phone vibrate; it was a text from Aaron saying “Dude! No way!?” I laughed when I read it. Out of peripheral vision, I saw something move, it was the bathroom door. Adrenia stepped out in only a towel. She daintily bounced to her suit case, grabbed an outfit, bounced back to the bathroom and shut the door. I walked over to the bathroom and knocked on the door.

“Adrenia?” I asked

“Yeah?”

“What do you want to do today? I don’t really know anything about Portland or Oregon for that matter except for that it rains a lot and there are a lot of weirdoes.” I said, I really didn’t know anything about Oregon.

“I was thinking we could go down to Oregon City. I told my mom I would come visit, and she wants to meet you.” She said. The only thing I really knew about Oregon City is that it’s where Adrenia grew up.

“Are we going to bring Nick, and Aaron?”

“If they wanna come and meet my insane parents. Then, sure!” I couldn’t help but laugh. She opened the door and stepped out, fully dressed this time. She was wearing a pastel yellow sundress since it was sunny out side today. Her hair was pinned up half way, but she left the rest run down her shoulders like a waterfall.

“You look beautiful.” Is all I could manage to say. She looked down shyly

“Thanks.” She said. I lifted her chin with my fist. I stared lovingly into her eyes. They were brown with tints of hazel and green. I kissed her with all of the passion that I had the night before.

“I’m glad I have you” She said, after she pulled away.

“I’ve never felt like this towards anyone, but you.” I said, still looking into her eyes. “Well I have to get ready to meet your crazy parents!” I jumped into the bathroom. I turned the water on and started to undress. I couldn’t stop thinking about Adrenia. I kept wondering if this was all a dream and I would wake up on the floor of the hotel room, cold and alone. But no, it wasn’t a dream, it was real. When I got out of the shower, I grabbed a towel and realized that I didn’t bring any of my clothes in. Oh s**t. I thought to myself. What do I do now? I guess I’ll have to go out there in a towel…has she ever seen me shirtless? I slowly turned the doorknob and stepped out. Adrenia was sitting on the bed watching TV. When she saw me, she smiled. I’m not sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing.

“I, uhm, have to, uh, get some clothes.” I said. I awkwardly walked to my suit case, unzipped it, and grabbed a shirt and some pants. I awkwardly stumbled back into the bathroom. Well, that wasn’t TOO bad. I thought to myself. It could’ve been worse. I could’ve dropped the towel or something. The more I thought about what could’ve happened, the more embarrassing it was.

By the time we were both ready, it was about 10:30 am. We were walking to Nick and Aaron’s room to see if they want to come with us to Adrenia’s parent’s house. I grabbed her hand and squeezed it. As I knocked on the door, I looked at Adrenia. I smiled. I couldn’t believe that this wasn’t a dream; she actually had the same feelings for me. Nick swung the door open.

“Oh, Hey!” He said.

“I was wondering if you wanted to come to my parent’s house for lunch.” Adrenia said. We were still holding hands. Nick acknowledged this, but he ignored it.

“Hmm. No thanks. Ha-ha, but thanks for the offer.” Nick said.

“Okay, Text me if you need anything!” I said, and Nick shut the door. We walked to the elevator and she pressed the button. Almost immediately an elevator box showed up to show us down to the lobby. I was excited, yet I was nervous to meet her parents. We got down to the lobby and one of the parking valets got her car.

“You want me to drive?” She asked.

“If you want to. I think you know the way better, so you should.” I replied.

We got in the car and started to drive.

It was only about a half an hour drive to Oregon City.

“Oregon City was the very first established city in Oregon. I mean they did have little towns along the way, but it was the very first with a town hall and stuff like that.”

I smiled at her. She truly loved this place; I bet it was hard for her to leave.

“Do you regret leaving Oregon?” I thought out loud. S**t.

“Ehh, not really. I mean I absolutely love it here, but I like having the experience of leaving home and living somewhere else for a while. When I’m old I’ll probably come back and live here till I die.”

I didn’t really know what to say next. So I stayed silent.

“Are your parents really that crazy?” I asked.

“Well, they are related to me.” She said with a smile on her face. This was true, she was really weird, but in a good way of course “Hopefully she won’t breakout the baby pictures like last time.” I gave her a quizzical look. She started to laugh. She has one of those laughs that you have to laugh about. We started to laugh together. I love her so much.

“How far away are we?” I asked. We were on a really old bridge that was not very wide. I was afraid that we would drive off the edge. I held on to the arm rest with a strong grip. One of her hands landed on mine.

“Hey. Its okay, we’re not going to die. I’ve driven on this bridge a million and one times.” She said in her soothing voice. “We’re almost there, only about 5 or 10 minutes. “ I was still scared as hell, but her voice calmed me down till we reached Oregon City.

Adrenia’s parents didn’t look anything like her. When I walked inside, Adrenia’s mom greeted me with a bear hug and a plate of cookies. I noticed all of the pictures on the wall. I assumed they were Adrenia’s siblings. I walked over to look at them and Adrenia followed. She told me about each and every one of them. Her brother, John, went into the Air force. It was a life long dream of his, when he came back he went to college to become a doctor. He goes to Montana Tech right now. Her sister, Kristyn grew up to be a secretary at some big corporation. I did DJ at her wedding too, but she got divorced back in 2007. They looked so happy when they got married though, I couldn’t believe it. She proceeded to tell me about the rest of her family until her mother called for us and told us lunch was ready. The lunch we had was Mac n’ cheese with green beans and grilled cheese sandwiches.

“When Adrenia was a girl, this was her favorite meal!” Her mom said. I couldn’t help but laugh. I could tell Adrenia was a little embarrassed. Her cheeks turned red. It was so adorable. Adrenia’s mom was short, and she had short white hair to match. She had large cat eye glasses. She was the cliché cute little old lady with the sweaters and velvet pants.

“Where is dad?” Adrenia asked looking around.

“Oh, he’s out golfing with Uncle Bill.”

“Testing out the new golf clubs?” She asked.

“I guess so. Are you guys doing a Lockdown tonight?” Maryann asked. I didn’t realize that Adrenia kept up with her parents that much.

“Yeah, in the old Shanghai tunnels. I remember for my 14 birthday my dad took me there for a ‘ghost hunt’, all it turned out to be was walking around in Portland with EMF detectors looking stupid.” Adrenia said “I was really disappointed.” I felt bad; that her first real ghost hunt made her look like a retard. I promise myself that I would make this one better.

Time goes by fast when you meet new people, but we had to leave to go to our Lockdown. We said bye to her mother and left. When I hugged Maryann, she told me to “take care of her daughter”; I’m not really sure what that meant. We got in the car and started to drive back to Portland.

“Your mom doesn’t seem that crazy.” I told her as soon as we were on the freeway.

“She was trying to act normal around you. I’m not sure why.” Adrenia replied. We drove in silence till we got back to the hotel. We rushed upstairs to our room to get dressed for the Lockdown. Adrenia was wearing jeans and a Vegas sweatshirt. I chose my normal all black attire and we rushed down to Old Town Pizza, where we were meeting Nick and Aaron. When we got there, everyone was waiting for us.

“Sorry we’re late! My mom doesn’t stop talking!” Adrenia said with a big smile on her face. I forgot that we had to do a beginning shot of us getting locked down. I picked up two cases and pretended I was busy. Adrenia was inside doing the same with Nick.

“Tonight,” I said in my TV show host voice “We’re getting locked in the most haunted place in Oregon. The Shanghai tunnels.” I knuckle touch Gary, the guy that was locking us down. I walked inside and set the cases down. Aaron followed me in. We set up night vision and I started to introduce Adrenia to the camera.

“Tonight, we have a Portland local, besides Aaron joining us on our investigation. Adrenia, she’s a good friend of mine and she’s been on lockdowns before, so I’m glad to have her back. “I described out X’s layout. When I was finished we geared up and went down to the tunnels.

“Nina? Are you here sweetie?” I asked. We heard nothing. “Hey, Nick get me an Evp recorder.” Nick got one out for me and I gave it to Adrenia. ”You wanna say something?”

“Nina? I’m sorry about what happened to you, but could you help us? I need you to tap on my shoulder or my hand” Adrenia said as she held out her arm. “ Zak, hold out your arm” she whispered. I did what she said “My friend Zak here is a really nice guy, he just wants to talk, same with those other two men. We just want to talk with you. Can you tap on one of us?” I heard a small whisper in my ear that said “love……her”

“What?” I said. “ What did you say?” I heard the voice again”you….love….her” it was a small sweet voice. “Yeah I do” I told the voice. “Hey guys? Can I get a moment in here?” I asked them. Adrenia, Nick, and Aaron reluctantly left. They gave me a camera, EVP recorder and an EMF reader.

“How do you know I love her?” I asked the voice. I heard a faint “How…..you…..look….at….her” I had so many questions but only one popped out “What should I do?” I asked I didn’t get a reply instantly but the voice finally said “marry……her” What was this spirit talking about? I only confessed my feelings for her last night; I’m not going to ask her to marry me! I called the gang on the walkie talkie and said it was cool for them to come down and that we should move on to a different room. We investigated for well over 4 hours and we didn’t get much, until we came to some tunnels underneath a different hotel.

“What’s your name?” I yelled. I always yelled so that the spirits could hear me. I heard a deep voice say” Andrew”. As soon as I heard that voice I saw Adrenia’s pony tail start to rise up. She suddenly started to cough and cough until I realized someone was choking her. I grabbed her and raced her out of the room. I sat her down on the ground and she was crying. I hugged her and I kissed her forehead

“Can you tell me what happened?” I asked.

“My pony tail, it was rising and I turned around and something started choking me, it grabbed my throat and was squeezing and I couldn’t breath!” I could tell she was really shaken up. We went back to Old Town Pizza to investigate inside the building. I had Nick and Aaron go down to the basement and Adrenia and I in the upstairs bar where they here nonstop noise. Although when we were up there it seems it was strangely silent.

“Do you want to say something to us?” I asked there was only about an hour left of the investigation. We were using the spirit box that rapidly scans through frequencies and is said to pick up ghost voices. Maybe the whole marry Adrenia thing wasn’t crazy. Maybe I should marry her.

“We’re here to talk to you.” Adrenia said. I heard a voice on the spirit box say “Marry her while you have the chance.”

“Whoa! Did you here that?” I said. I was excited because that was one of the best pieces of evidence we’ve gotten using the spirit box.

We were packing up our gear when,

“Hey Zak!” Adrenia asked “what did the spirit box say when we were in the upper bar?”

“It said ‘marry her while you have the chance’” I replied, not even thinking about it. I then realized, it was telling me to marry Adrenia. I walked up to Adrenia, held both of her hands, looked straight into her eyes, and got down on one knee.

“Adrenia Elizabeth Decker, will you marry me?”

Author's Note

I just want critque on writings skills. Maybe some grammar and puncuation, if it's that bad.

Reviews

[KahYee.Chiang]

I think it shouldn't be:
“Dude, just tell her how you feel.” Aaron said
And should be:
"Dude, just tell her how you feel,' Aaron said.

Also, proof-read your work, so you don't end up with sentences like:
She was so beautiful, I don’t understand how anyone could hate her/.
Another thing I noticed, couldn't sounds better than don't, I think it's tenses? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it should be like:
She was so beautiful, I couldn't understand how anyone could hate her.

And isn't it:
I could tell I was staring blankly at her.
Instead of:
I could tell I was blankly staring at her.

And you forgot the open inverted comma :)
Would anyone care if I died?” She asked.
"Would anyone care if I died?" She asked.

It's a really sweet story :) is there a sequel to it? I would love to read it! :D