"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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The long journey was once again behind us. Feeling the wind through my hair as the crisp ocean air tickles my nose. This was what home felt like. The van was parked in a parking lot on the beach, while Staton and I were curled up on the hood of it, watching the waves kiss the sand. These were the moments that I wished I could hold on to forever. I wanted to capture an image of this from the outside looking in. What would a stranger see about us? They wouldn't know half of the things Staton and I had been through.
Maybe they would think we were just two rich college students on a vacation? Like this was some kind of spring break fling and in two months we would never talk again. Would they notice the ring that I was fiddling with on my left hand? The one that had busted us with all of our friends when we walked back into the house. I was kind of disappointed we weren't able to keep that secret much longer than the couple of hours we did. But that was still the most perfect day I could have ever asked for.
The world seemed to move around us, without a worry about where we were going and that brought me some comfort. I loved being able to just melt into my place with Staton by my side. We could do anything together and while I thought I knew that before we had run away, I definitely know it now. There was no question that we could survive the worst of the worst storms. He was my person and I would do anything to make him happy.
I hadn't checked my phone in a while to see if I had gotten a reply from the girls. It'd been a few hours since I texted them at the state line. Now all we had left was to figure out what to do with the rest of the evening.
"Do you want to go to that seafood place right there?" I pointed towards the restaurant that was on stilts, sitting at the end of the pier. Wherever we had ended up must have been a pretty touristy town. Unfortunately we were too late in the season to really understand the vibe that was going on around here. Shops were starting to close down for the year. I wasn't sure how we had found this place. Staton just drove until the road ended and we found somewhere that would allow us to sleep.
"Yeah, that seems like it would be a pretty good place to eat. We can go try that. We better get going if we are going to make it before they close for the night." I nodded my head jumping off the hood of the van. The oversized jacket I was wearing scratched my legs, sending shivers down my spine wherever the zipper would hit my skin.
"Great, let me just grab my things and then you can lock up the van." I smiled, giving Staton a quick kiss before heading inside to grab my purse, phone, and sunglasses. The sun was just above the tree line but soon it would be setting. So I wasn't sure why I grabbed my glasses, but they felt like they could be useful.
Glancing down at my phone I noticed there were a few text messages. I opened the group chat between Julia and Aria first.
I'm so glad you finally came to your senses. I've been missing you like crazy Maple. Don't worry about it, you've always been an amazing friend and thank you so much for looking out for me. You kept me safe when I couldn't even keep myself safe so I thank you for that. I just didn't feel like I could open up to you truly about how I was struggling. Things are better now that we are back home, but I miss Tony like crazy. If you are still in California, tell him Hi for me. We text all the time but It's not the same as actually seeing him. - Julia
