[untitled]

“Okay, so when you picked us up back there, we didn’t tell you why we were there. I think that if I tell you now it would make everything much less confusing. So do you want to know our story?” I felt like I was rambling nonsense because both of the boys were just staring with big confused eyes.

4

 

In life you’ll find that some things are better to be tucked away and forgotten.

 

 

 

 

“yeah! I love stories” Austin said this with a big smile.

“it’s a long story..” Ashlynne sort of mumbled while looking down, and kicking her feet.

“we have time” Shane smiled and rapped his arm around her. This time she leaned into him, snuggling into his chest. He seemed to like it because he couldn’t have looked happier.

“okay, here goes nothing” I began the story, “In our old home, life was horrible. We lived with our mom, dad, and younger sister Liza. Our mom and Liza sort of just lived in there own little world completely oblivious to what was happening with Ashlynne, me, and our dad.”

“what was happening?” Austin asked quietly.

“Hold on I’m getting to that, okay so, our dad had a drinking problem, and it seemed that when he started it was just one glass after another.” Ashlynne shifted uncomfortably in her seat. She decided to tell some of our story.

“we loved him, well I loved him, I don’t even know why, how could I love someone like that? How?” tears filled her eyes, quickly pouring in thick streams down her face. Shane looked at her as if he did something wrong, he pulled her closer and just held her as she cried.

“well when he would drink.. He would hit us.. Hard..” Austin winced but still seemed interested.

“well our mom was never attune to what he was doing, and we couldn’t bear to tell her. So we lived for a long, long time like that. It wasn’t until Ashlynne almost died that I got the idea to run away, I told her, we packed our bags, and left. I have no intention on returning, ever. We’re trying to get to L.A to start a new life, and that’s why it means so much to us that you guys picked us up when you did. We don’t expect you to take us all the way to L.A but the farther you take us from where we were, the better.” I figured that I got enough of our story in for them to get a better understanding of us, so I stopped to ask any questions.

Shane began to ask a question.

“How’d you almost d-…” Ashlynne cringed, and he stopped. His cheeks flushed and he looked down, embarrassed. We all sat for a long time in silence. Ashlynne crying tucked under Shane’s arm. Austin, looking down, shredding a napkin. I just sat there waiting for someone to say something. Strangely I felt no pain in telling them what happened, although I didn’t get into details with everything I knew they understood, and it made me feel better. Like a weight had been lifted. Ashlynne used her sleeve to wiper her eyes and nose.

“Now I don’t want you guys to feel sorry for us, because it’s in the past, and I don’t know about you Domino but I live for the future, and now, so just pretend we didn’t tell you anything, Okay?”, Ashlynne sounded confident with every word, more confident than she ever had.

“Yeah okay,” the boys mumbled almost at the same time. that’s when a cop walked in.

“UhOh,” Ashlynne whispered; as she grabbed Shane’s hand and jumped out of the booth.

“What is it?”, I asked dumbstruck.

“Come on, I’ll tell you in the car!”, she ran out the door, and around the corner were we had the car parked.

I put two and two together as I looked back to see the cops holding up two papers. The world around me went quiet, and my heart skipped into fourth gear. I pulled Austin to the car as fast as possible. Shane already had the car started, with Ashlynne ducking in the back. Austin took the front and I joined Ashlynne in the back.

As we were driving out, I peeked through the back window I could see the boy behind the cash register pointing to the door.

“Oh man! Oh man! that was close…”,Ashlynne, cried starting to shake.

“What just happened?”, Shane asked, but we just ignored him, and kept talking.

“Ash, that could have been for someone else,” I stated.

“No. I’ve seen them before, a little while back. Is-is your cell on?”, Ashlynne sounded dead, almost robotic.

“Yeah but I don’t see wha-”, before I could finished she had it out of my pocket and was busy taking the battery out and snapping it in half. She threw it out the window.

“Hey! What’s wrong with you! What if we needed that?” she was freaking me out I didn’t get what she was getting at. She just ignored my question and began mutilating her own phone, and threw it out the window along with mine.

“Domino! God damnit! They can track us with those!”, She screamed; tears thrashing down her face. The boys were awkwardly silent, sunken in their seats. I grabbed Ashlynne’s face gently, and looked her in the eyes.

“Ash, Don’t you think your overreacting just a tad sweetie? Nobody back home cares enough to call the cops after us.”, As sad as it was, it was true.

“Mom, Mom would care enough! Maybe she came back to him and found out we ran. Or maybe dad thinks people would get suspicious if we just disappeared so even though he doesn’t care we’re gone, hell he’s probably happy, he doesn’t want to raise questions so he told everyone we ran away.”, Ashlynne was smarter than anyone ever gave her credit for. She was right though and the thought made my head spin and stopped my breathing. We couldn’t go back, not now, not after we’ve gotten so far.