Displaced

Timber - Fifty

I didn't tell Chevelle about my emotional outpouring. She probably knew on her own anyway. It's not brain surgery. Give a person deep, sentimental materials, and they react to it. So long as Lara stayed clueless about it, that's all I cared about. I didn't want to her to worry about me. And I hate to say it, but I wasn't sure I trusted her to not tell Rumor about everything going on in the house. Not because Lara was sneaky. She was far from that. Rumor, however, was a manipulative snake. I wouldn't put it past her to get Lara to tell her everything. The theory went, if Lara didn't see or hear anything worth telling, then there would be nothing to tell. I hated keeping secrets, though.

My appetite was still non-existent. I had to force myself to keep eating. The headaches and sour attitude were reminders enough that it was necessary. Needless to say, I hated being so careless. A nice, solid workout was exactly what I needed to get myself back into better spirits.

"I'm gonna go for a run," I said, coming out of the bathroom, already in something I could jog in.

Chevelle gazed across the room at me. "Do what you need to."

"Can I come too?" Lara asked. "Please?"

The whole point was to get some alone time, but I couldn't say no to her large, pleading eyes. "If you think you can keep up, sure thing."

"You too," Lara urged, tugging on Chevelle's arm.

Chevelle laughed. "I don't run, but you two knock yourselves out."

"A walk then, please?" Lara was practically begging.

I sighed, trying to keep busy by stretching and warming up. "It's up to her if she wants to come or not, Lara. I'm not going to force her to do anything."

With some hesitation, Chevelle stood from the couch. "I'll bring my book. Compromise, we'll go to the park. You two can play, I'm going to read."

"Fair enough." There were trails by the park I could jog on, and then I could mess around on the equipment too. I went to the kitchen and packed a few snacks, filled a water bottle with orange juice, and two more with just water.

While I waited at the door, I ate a granola bar. The other great thing about working out was that I was also super hungry by the end. Everything would be back in my control again, which is exactly how I liked it.

"You two coming?" I pressed, smirking a little to make sure they knew I was only teasing.

Lara bounced over, wearing her sneakers and a set of T-shirt and shorts. Chevelle had a book light for her novel, and a notebook. She must have been working for her censorship project. We all stepped onto our personal elevator, and made our way down to the park. I hadn't been out with them at night before. The only time I had ventured in the dark had been my one run-in with Rumor. No wonder I was getting so depressed. After that, I tried to avoid going out by myself. Sure, I still went on jogs, but they were in the daytime with lots of people nearby. They also didn't happen anywhere near as often. I couldn't keep letting Rumor control me through fear.

Maybe, we could start a new system. If I had Chevelle with me as a bodyguard, getting out was always a lot more appealing. It's not like she had to do anything. She could read, I could do my thing, this could work out just fine.

Once at the park, I looked down at Lara and winked. "Race you."

She didn't even wait for me to say go! Lara bolted ahead of me with a lot more speed than I anticipated. I followed after, and once we caught up, we headed down one of the trails surrounding the playground.

"You like to run?" I asked, keeping my pace on the light side so she didn't get overwhelmed.

Lara's smile was so big, it melted my heart a little. Okay, a lot. I sort of started to understand the whole parenting thing and why people wanted to have kids when she gave me such proud, happy grins.