Runaway Love

The Escape

For another month after this Jasmine led her double life. At school she was the perfect model student. At night she became a prisoner in her own home, sold like a slave to make booze money for Mick. She was tired of the life she led; she was tired of her stepfather profiting off her, selling her like a slave.

I'm leaving, she thought to herself, I’m leaving and he can't stop me. But where am I going to go?

 Jasmine did what she was told to do. She even changed the way she acted, she tried to be more open and accepting and hopefully more excited, with any luck to make more money. The boys didn’t notice the change. Why should they care how she acts? They’re getting what they want. Mick had always allowed Jasmine to keep some of the money, so after a month she counted her savings and came up with five hundred dollars. That wasn’t a lot but it would have to do.

Jasmine had finally decided where she'd go. She had a pen pal in Texas; Seph Clearwater was his name. She had met him online when she was thirteen, soon after the abuse started and they’d been sending letters back and forth since then. She never told him what Mick did to her. She knew little of Seph. She knew he was a triplet and the middle of five kids. His brothers, Nathanial, Zak, and Tyler didn’t approve of him sending letters to a girl he’d never met, neither did his sister, Lauren. Jasmine didn’t care; she only cared about escaping her life of hell.

The morning after she had all her money Jasmine and one of her most trusted friends snuck out when Mick was asleep and went to the airport. Her friend, Becca, was posing as a divorced single mother who was sending her daughter to visit her father. Even though Becca was only eighteen, with her make up done right she looked like a woman in her early thirties, and she had a fake I.D. to go with it.

“Ok, everything seems to be in order. Will her father be there to pick her up at the La Porte airport?” the stewardess, Elaine her nametag read, asked.

“Of course. Do you think I’d let my little angel go to a strange place with no adult supervision?” Becca demanded impatiently.

“Well it’s happened before,” Elaine said.

“Ok, Jazzy, you be a good girl, you hear? Don’t give your father any problems and call me as soon as you get there,” Becca instructed Jasmine. What she really was saying was ‘Stay out of trouble, be safe and call me so I know you’re not dead some where.’

“I will, don’t worry. I'll see you later,” Jasmine said before she disappeared onto the plane.

On the plane, with only a small carry on bag full of clothes, Jasmine sat anxiously through the whole flight. Starring out the window, she hoped that Seph would be her salvation.  The man she was sitting with tried to talk to her. She blocked him out catching only bits and pieces of what he was saying. He said something about a kid, a pet, a wife and mother.

“I know you’re trying to be polite and make conversation, but I’m tired and I want to sleep,” Jasmine said to the elderly gentleman trying to stay calm and polite, “So would you please shut the fuck up!?” she lost her control. Jasmine turned away from him. She pulled her midnight hair that fell halfway down her back into a tight bun and put her ear buds in and turned Hollywood Undead up all the way. Her heavy rock music could be heard through her buds and every one near her heard J-Dog singing about some one watching him drown but not helping. Soon she was asleep, and stayed that way the whole flight.

When the plane landed in La Porte, and she got off the plane, Jasmine pulled off the stupid tag that declared her an unattended minor and slipped off to a pay phone to call a taxi that would take her to Seph’s house. When the cab arrived she gave the driver the address. Soon she was riding through a cute little neighborhood. The butterflies began to grow in her stomach as the taxicab came closer to Seph’s house. All the houses in this particular neighborhood seemed to be somewhat identical. The color was different or maybe there were toys in the front yard, but overall the houses were the same. Kids played in the yards and skated in the streets and rode bikes on the sidewalks. There seemed to be a lot of older kids, teenagers that ranged from Jasmines’ age to possibly nineteen. It seemed like a safe place to raise a family. Just when Jasmine thought that everything seemed perfect she saw a group of teens in an alley. The boys seemed to be watching her and they looked like the street thugs she always saw in the movies; a reminder of how Seph and his brothers actually lived; as street fighters in a gang. Finally, the cabbie stopped in front of a beautiful, two story southern plantation style red brick house. Tall, white columns were holding up the roof over the frosted glass door.