Chapter Two: Runaway

    I rolled over and looked at my alarm clock. I sat up and pulled my blue jeans up over my sweat pants and grabbed my backpack off the corner of my bed. I slowly opened my bedroom door and peeped down the hallway towards my aunts room. It was completely silent. I tip-toed down the hallway to the livingroom which glowed because of my cousin fishtank. I smiled as I dropped my flip phone into the tank making little fish dart in every direction away from it. I walked away and went to the kitchen to get my shoes and jacket. In minutes I was slipping out the back door and running down the street. It was a clear cold morning. The black sky was dotted with millions of stars and a fat bright moon. Dogs barked in the darkness around me.  

    I didn't stop running until I was out of my tiny pathetic town. A population of two thousand old folks and stupid, punk druggie teens. I don't feel bad about leaving-escaping-my family. I don't even know why I call them that. Family. My single father kicked me out for getting arrested with my friend. My ex-friend now. She and I went to a party and got high. We got hungry and decided to go back to her house and on the way a cop stopped us. I had to eat the joint I had rolled before the cop found it. We both got arrested and spent the night in jail. My friend Charlotte left town that morning after her parents came to get her. My dad got me and brought me home. I stepped into the house and found my aunt, cousin and grandparents waiting for me with dirty looks. They questioned me like I had done something really bad. They learned that I wasn't the sweet little girl they thought I was. I was a sweet little girl when I was actually little. A day later I was living with my aunt and cousin. She took every little special item from me and left me with s****y baggy jeans and old tee shirts and a pair of over worn tennis shoes. My little cousin, Lena, took my ipod and killed it with a hammer and gave me the pieces of it. Lena was the kind of girl any thirteen year old would want to be. She was pretty and smart and perfect. Even when she was little, I was trapped inside her shadow.

   I could hear a car coming up behind me. I stood there in its headlights like dumb deer. The car slowed and stopped next to me. I watched the passenger side window roll down and a green eyes woman stare me down.

     "Where you headed?" She asked.

     "Far away." I replied looking down the road.

     "She smiled.

     "I can get you farther than you can get walking by yourself." She offered looking at the empty seat next to her.

     "Sorry but I don't take rides from strangers." I sighed.

     "Just get in the car. A cop is going to ride by and get nosy. It might even take you back home." She snapped.

     I opened the door and got in and she drove off in a hurry.

     "Do you have a name?" She asked breaking the silence.

     "Anna." I lied.

   I found the name written on a sticky note on my aunts desk one day.

     "You're a s****y liar. You had to stop and think about a name to call yourself. How old are you?" She replied shaking her head.

     "Why are you asking all of these questions? So what. I ran away from home. What are you going to do? Call the cops?" I snapped.

     "I wouldn't call the cops. I'm not a snitch. I did the same thing when I was your age. And your what? Fifteen? Sixteen?" She replied calmly.

   I took a minute to look at the stranger that I was in the car with. She was pretty. Long black hair with blonde highlights. Green eyes and tan skin. I couldn't take my eyes off her dragon tattoo that disappeared up her black leather jacket.

     "I'm sixteen years old. And my real name is Haylee." I confessed.

     "I ran away from home when I was your age. I hated my parents for many different reasons. I hit the streets and learned so much more about the real world. I got beat up and tossed around. I made new friends and enemies. I even got arrested and sent home. But I ran off again. I met a guy and fell in love. I fell in love with crazy drug dealer knowing that life wasn't going to be easy. It wasn't easy. We got shot at and cops were always watching us." She explained.

     "So, what happened?" I asked.

   She laughed.

     "Well, we got married and than he killed a guy. He killed his friend after he found out that the guy was an undercover cop. Of course, we found out that the guy snitched. We had one rule. Snitches get Stitches. Most got a bullet inplanted into their brain. My husband was sent to jail for ten years. I seperated myself from the drug business and I found out I was pregnant. I had the baby and gave her away. And I never told my husband. I couldn't face after that. I haven't seen him since that night he went away." She explained.

   I looked out the window.

     "Here's a blanket. You should get some sleep. I'll wake you up when I stop." She said softly handing me a blanket she pulled out from behind my seat.

   I laid my head against the cold window and fell sleep.

     

 

Author's Note

Let me know what you think.