Brakes squealed as he pulled off into the gravel patch at the end of the street and yanked the old Ford into park. He jumped out and slammed the door behind him, hurrying across the field and, in his haste, half stumbled down the embankment to the little patch of beach. The wind was strong, coming off the choppy water of Lake Marion and chilling the air on the unusually cool end-of-summer day. He dropped down onto the sand and pulled his knees toward his chest, wrapping his arms loosely around his legs. His Levi’s were faded and stained from time spent fixing up cars in his garage. His eyes focused on some distant point across the water that was mostly obscured by the fog that had settled in low the night before.
“It’s your dad again, isn’t it?”
He could always find her here, Livvie. It was their spot, marked so by memories from a life-long friendship that had turned into something more at the start of high-school. “Yeah. I don’t know how much more I can put up with him. This one was bad. God, Livvie, he makes me so mad.”
“You’ll be out soon, Ty.”
“How? Tomorrow I’m supposed to leave for Alabama, that’s his old school. He’s still a big name there. Did everything he could so I could follow in his footsteps and be just like he was: “Best running back the state has ever seen.” I’m his damn puppet he’s controlled since the day I learned how to throw a football.”
“Ty you’re so much more than that. It’s his loss he doesn’t see it- doesn’t see what I see.”
That was Livvie, always building him up when his dad tore him down. She was his rock, always had been-- the only thing that kept him from running away. Just feeling her there with him on that beach where no one else could see them or find them, hearing her voice, catching that faint whiff of vanilla shampoo every time the wind blew was enough to make him forget the anger.
He felt her hand touch his arm, the one that was tense from his hand clenched tight into a fist. He felt a tear threatening to escape and moved his gaze down to his shoes. They were worn out Converse, all scuffed up from working in the garage so much. That floor was dirty from years of car fixing-up in it. His dad always told him, “There isn’t any school out there that’s gonna give ya a scholarship for being able to replace an exhaust valve. But a running back with the most rushing yards this side of the Mississippi? Hell, they’ll be clearing a spot for ya faster than you could kick a field-goal.”

It always came back to football. Sometimes it seemed like the only part of his life his dad even cared about. When he was a kid, Tyler had loved having his dad coach his teams; his dad always made practices so much fun. But once Tyler made starting varsity his freshman year, his dad turned into more of a manager than a parent.

He tried focusing on his shoes but the tears made them blurry. “He said-- he said you don’t matter. That I should just forget you.” His voice caught in his throat. “I don’t want to forget you. I love you, Livvie.”
“I know.” He could hear the smile on her face.
“I don’t want to leave you. I don’t even want football anymore. He’s always gonna find a way to control it, and he’ll control my life that way. It’s my life.”

In sixth grade, his teacher had everyone do a ten-year forward project to show what they’d be doing in ten years. Tyler had drawn a picture of an auto shop, with his name across the front of the building. His dad took it off the fridge when his mom hung it up there, he barely even looked twice at it. His grandpa took it and hung it up in the garage, told Tyler that he should follow his dreams. It was still there, tacked up above the workbench cluttered with tools and car part magazines and manuals.

“It is your life, Ty. Live it for you. I’ll be with you no matter where you go.”

In the fall, when they were in the middle of filling out college applications, the only schools Livvie had wanted were in California. “Ooh, look at this one! We could live out near the beach--a real beach with an ocean and miles of sand, instead of just this,” gesturing to their little patch of beach by the lake. “You could open up a car shop, I’ll help out around my classes.”
“How would we get all your stuff out there? It’d cost a fortune, and we both know my dad would cut me off if I went and did that.”
She smacked his arm playfully. “I do not have that much stuff! And besides, we would drive it out there ourselves.”
“Drive all the way across the country?”
“There’s a lot to see on the way. A couple weeks, you, me, a few thousand miles of road. We just head west. We could go anywhere.”
It sounded perfect to him, he’d finally be out of his dad’s reach. “If that’s what you wanna do, we’ll do it.” 
She jumped up and kissed him. He gently grabbed the pendant on her necklace and turned it over, running his thumb over the inscription on the back of the silver heart. “I love you, Livvie.”
She smiled up at him, her perfectly blue eyes twinkling. “I know.” And he pulled her back in for another kiss.

They had had the perfect plan. Then he got the offer for football and that was it. His dad wouldn’t have let him go anywhere else. He didn’t have a choice. A strong wind blew across the water and he pulled his knees closer to his chest.
“Maybe there is a choice.” He stood up and took a deep breath of the cool air. He opened his hand up from his fist and looked down at the necklace in it. The little silver heart sparkled even in the overcast light. He turned it over and read the inscription: You’re my forever. -T. He turned around and knelt down. He kissed his hand and placed it on the top of the shiny marble tombstone.
“You’ll always be my forever, Livvie.” He tucked the necklace back into his pocket and climbed up the embankment. He’d done this thousands of times before, and at the top he unconsciously turned around to offer a hand for Livvie. He still wasn’t used to her being gone. He headed back for his truck and revved up the engine. He got to the main road and turned left, headed for Interstate-20. He had a few thousand miles of road ahead of him. He could go anywhere.