Woodstin Parish

Chapter 6

Over the next two weeks I went on a lot of dates with Theo (if you can consider emotionlessly picking at my low-calorie food and listening to him talk about himself a date). He didn't listen when I said no, my parents didn't listen when I said no, and I still had no car and no job. I was completely at his mercy. On our last date he kissed me in the car before I got out at my house. I didn't even react when he did. I don't even think I closed my eyes. I just opened the door after it was done and went inside.

I missed John every day, but even if what Sarah said wasn't true, I felt like I had no way to be with him. Theo would just keep interrupting and controlling me, and my parents would just keep letting him. Even if I was standing at the altar with John, he'd be in the audience ready to object.

Everything felt different after he kissed me though. I felt like I had clarity for the first time since lunch with Sarah. I started packing a bag with clothes and toiletries almost as soon as I got home. I counted my cash. I was a pretty good saver, birthdays, Christmases; I had a little over two hundred dollars. I called my old friend Shannon's grandma. We hadn't spoken in a while, Shannon and I. Like, a long while. So, I knew my parents probably didn't even remember her or her grandmother.

From her grandma I got her new phone number and address. Shannon and her mother moved around a lot, usually from boyfriend's house to boyfriend's house. It was why we had stopped talking, she moved to another school district in the 8th grade. We had been really close before that, though. So, I prayed she would let me come stay with her.

We caught up on the phone for a while, she was living with her mom and her mom's boyfriend over an hour away in a town called Milbank, clear over the border into Mississippi. I didn't give all the details, but I asked if I could come stay with her for a while. She said yes!

Next, I looked up the Woodstin Cab Company in the phonebook and ordered one to my front door. I scribbled a note and threw it on my bed. All I could think to write was, "I don't want to be with him." I called out to my parents that I was going to Sadie's on my way out the door.

~

Shannon's was a difficult place. The boyfriend used needles every day for something and left them all around the house. He said he was a diabetic, but I wasn't stupid. Shannon was sleeping on a bare mattress shoved into a walk-in closet. We shared it at night. We also shared it during the day, unless we were outside. Those were the two safest places to be because her mom's boyfriend often picked these screaming fights with anyone who was around.

After I was there for 3 days he had demanded that I pay him $50 a week in rent, so I did. I did it because even sleeping on a crowded, dirty mattress and living off of boxed mac and cheese for weeks was better than going home to continue on with Theo. By the end of the first week I was feeling so much freer and more like myself than at my best around him. I was sure he had somehow convinced Sarah to lie to me, and I felt horrible for breaking John's heart. I had to call him. Only, the phone was in the kitchen within earshot of the living room sofas, so it was hard to call anybody privately. It wasn't until 11PM at the end of my second week there that I got a chance.

I knew it was late to be calling, but I had to hear his voice and apologize.

"Hello?"

"Hi, John..."

"Eve?" He perked up.

"I–"

"Eve, where are you? The police are looking for you. Your dad came to my house with a fucking gun and searched every room!" Oh. My stomach flipped.

"I...can't say where I am, John, I'm sorry. Not if you're going to tell them."

"Did you hear what I just said? The cops are out looking for you. You can't just disappear like that. Tell me where you are and I'll come get you." His offer was tempting, but I knew it was a road that led straight back to Theo.