Runaway ~ TUA (Book 3)

Chapter 3

Taya woke up in the now empty room her uncles slept in, she must've fallen asleep. She sighed and sat up before going downstairs for some breakfast, and she wasn't surprised to see her uncles arguing about what to do with the Sparrows. The teenager sighed and picked up a cup of Apple Juice before joining her uncles at the table. It turns out, Diego is a dad. 'Allegedly' according to Diego.

She didn't pay much attention to what they were saying because she already knew: Five just wanted to retire, Diego wanted revenge, Viktor wanted to be civil with them.

"You talk to your mom yet?," Diego asked and Taya slammed her cup onto the table, harsher than she intended as she looked at her uncle.

"Who told you what happened?," she asked, taking a deep breath in order to compose herself.

"Luther," Diego replied, "He went out for a run, you can talk to him about it when he gets back." Taya nodded before she hopped off of her chair to get some food. Viktor followed her to the serving area and tapped the teenager on the shoulder.

"Hey, Tay, would you mind bringing this to your mom?," he asked as he gave Taya a second plate that was already filled with food, "Allison hasn't eaten anything, and I'm worried about her." Taya looked at Viktor with a smile and nodded, gently taking the plate from him before she thanked him.

~~

Taya walked over to the door that entered the room she was sharing with Allison and Viktor, she knocked on the door.

"Go away," Allison's voice said, Taya took that as he cued to go in. She gently opened the door with a friendly smile, holding out the plate.

"I have an offering," Taya joked slightly, talking about the food. Allison was lying on her bed with her back facing the teenager. Taya sat at the edge of the bed and held onto her mom's hand, making her face her.

"I'm not hungry," Allison told the teen bluntly.

"Mom, please, you need to eat," Taya pleaded as she handed her mom the food. Allison sighed, knowing that her daughter wasn't going to take 'no' for an answer at this moment.

She took the plate of food with a smile.

"What would I do without you?," she complimented as she took a bite from her food and Taya smirked.

"You would die of starvation." Allison gasped jokingly before continuing to eat. Taya took a deep breath, choosing her next words carefully, hoping that this wouldn't end with her and her mom fighting.

"Mom... look, about Claire –"

"Don't," Allison warned, her demeanor had changed. Taya looked at her mom, she knew that this was hard. But she had to communicate with her otherwise they would both be incredibly emotionally separated.

"Mom, I just think –"

"Taya, I said stop!," Allison repeated as she got to her feet, raising her voice. Taya could feel her heart begin to race, starting to feel nervous for some reason. She never felt nervous around her mom, she made her feel safe. But now, now she felt afraid, she didn't know why but she was nervous.

Taya set her plate to the side and looked at her mom, "Are you serious? I just think that we need to talk about this." Taya's eyes were pleading, but seeing as she wasn't going to drop it, Allison only began to lose her temper even more.

"My daughter is dead, Taya. I don't want to talk about it, all right? And you being here right now is just making it even worse," Allison laughed mockingly as Taya sat there in silence, "Did you just come here to make me feel worse? I don't get how you seem to be okay with the fact she's gone, goddamnit! It's as if you didn't even love her in the first place!" And with that, Allison lifted her arm to exaggerate her point but Taya flinched, creating an 'X' diagonal across her face as her mind went into autodrive. She had never fought with Allison like this, she had never seen her mom this angry before.

Allison's face fell as she realized what had happened, she slowly dropped her arm to her side but before she could say anything Taya left the hotel room in a rush, tears threatening to spill from the teen's eyes.

~~~~~~~~~

Taya had gone to a local store to buy something to distract herself from what had happened and she ended up running into Diego and his alleged son, Stanley. Taya smiled a bit as she decided to stick with them, Diego gave her a look that read 'you good?' When he saw that she seemed to have been crying, she just nodded and told him that she was fine.

"Go wait outside, both of you," Diego suddenly said as he bent down, Taya looked in the direction he was looking in and she couldn't help but roll her eyes. It was Jayme and Alphonso.

"You're kidding me," the teen whispered and Stanley looked at her.

"What, did your crush walk in or something?," Stan asked in a sarcastic tone and Taya slapped him upside the head, giving him a glare and he returned it.

"I'm about to kick this fool's ass," DIego stated and Taya looked at him.

"Now that I gotta see."

"Zip it, Gingy."

"Hey!"

Diego walked away, towards Alphonso, leaving Stanley and Taya alone.

"How much are you willing to bet your dad is gonna lose?," Taya whispered to her cousin, an amused look on her face as she folded her arms while chuckling. Stanley mimicked her actions as the two of them watched the scene that was about to go down.

Within seconds, Alphonso had thrown Diego into a shelf and Taya cringed, that ought to hurt. Alphonso then kicked Diego into the nearby milk fridge, Diego crashed through it and milk spilled out everywhere.

After a few banters Alphonso threw Diego into a pile of cans by Stanley and Taya, Stan impulsive ran over and grabbed one of Diego's knives, throwing it at Alphonso and it cut both his leg and Alphonso's. Stanley fell to the ground, groaning and writhing in pain and Taya rushed over, checking it over.

"It's okay, it's not deep but I can make an improvised bandage," she explained, grabbing some gauze and wrapping it around Stanley's leg. While Taya tended to Stanley, Diego dealt with Alphonso. Once he had finished with Alphonso he ran over and checked on Stanley, too distracted to know Jayme was behind him. Taya saw her and thought quickly, shielding both herself, Diego and Stanley from the venom she spat using a frying pan.

She spat more and Diego shoved her and Stan out of the way.

"I can handle my own shit!," Stanley complained.

"Yeah, sure," Diego replied dismissively.

Taya was the first to begin throwing random objects at Jayme and Alphonso, missing Jayme and she just looked at the teen and chuckled, "I like you." Soon enough, Stan and Diego joined in and all three of them were throwing things.

"Fuck yeah!," Stanley cheered.

"Hey, watch your mouth!," scolded Diego.

Once they had run out of objects to throw, the trio took their chance and booked it, running out of the store, after Taya had stolen one of the candie's Jayme had with her.