"How are we going to get out of this town?" Sleep filled Maple's voice. Her head lay in Staton's lap; slowly his fingers laced every red strand cascading down his thigh. A shallow sigh and a couple breaths later she sat up sitting on his lap leaning...
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Things went really well on the date. Well enough that a few days later, when we were all hanging out on the back patio grilling up some dinner, Tony had joined us.
It was a perfect summer's night. The fire was lit; the grill was going, and all the boys were having a beer while playing some corn hole. While the flames warmed our legs, the girls were gossiping on the couch, enjoying each other's company. I couldn't believe it had been a few months now since we ran away from home. It seemed like just yesterday I'd be hiding from my mother's scowl. Things were starting to look up for us though, and even if our trip started out in the wrong place at the wrong time, I felt like we were starting to find our footing. I'm glad Staton and I weren't doing this on our own, though. Even if the rest of the group had caused us nothing but problems, we would have never been able to make it all by ourselves.
"Tony, is that really the best throw you have?" Staton teased, slapping him on the shoulder. They looked like two friends that have known each other for years. Tony seemed to slip right into our group in the most comfortable way. Lucky for us, he wasn't living here though, so we didn't have to feed him.
I looked at the chicken breast that was on the flames of the grill. That was the last of our meat for the week, and we would soon have to fend for ourselves again. One of us would need to go grocery shopping. It'd gotten so expensive in the last month or so, and the budget was getting thinner and thinner with each passing week. Breygan and Aria would need to get jobs to help us supplement our costs, or we would have to move to a cheaper place. Even though we had paid for this upfront, we were coming to an end on what they would allow us to use it for. Soon we would need a new place.
"Sorry, I'm used to being in the kitchen, not so much with being on the field." Tony nods towards Staton, making remarks from our conversation on his and Julia's first date. He had really listened and remembered everything we had told him. Unless Julia was secretly filling him in over the last couple of days. It didn't feel that way, though.
"He is so cute, isn't he?" Julia beams, watching what had quickly become a big thing in her life. She was smitten with Tony.
"Yeah, you did a pretty good job," Aria added.
"He seems so sweet. Has that changed at all since the first date?" I questioned.
"No, if anything, he's only gotten better and better. Last night we went to eat at his family's restaurant and when I tell you it was the best food I've ever had in my entire life, I mean it. We could never afford to go to a place like that, but damn, should we try to?"
"You're telling me your boyfriend couldn't just get us in without having to pay?" Aria suggested.
"Yes, I am telling you that. For starters, I would never ask him to do that, and second, we aren't even boyfriend and girlfriend yet. That seems more like a first-anniversary question, doesn't it?"
"As long as you mean first week's anniversary. We've gotta eat." Aria rolled her eyes, taking a sip of her drink.
"Yeah, speaking of our need to eat, we need to get a list together of all the groceries we need. We've gotta hold off on the more expensive items until you and Breygan can get a job and help us out." I couldn't help myself. I didn't want to bring it up so early into the night, but the more I sat here listening to them, the more the stress of not having enough money took over my body.
