Fast Car | Escapes #1

Chapter 2

"There she is," Richard Milton said as I walked in the doors at seven that morning. "I was just looking for you." I walked towards the office where he was standing. "When are you graduating? This year?"

I nodded as I went past him into the small room. "I graduate in a few months. Why?"

"Where are you going to college? Have you gotten accepted anywhere?"

"I'm not going to college," I replied with a sigh. My backpack was heavy when I slung it over my shoulder. Why did I get assigned reading from three classes? Couldn't they swap out those types of assignments? Jeez.

Mr. Milton stared at me. "Why not? You're a smart girl! You should go somewhere good."

I turned to him with a smile. "If I go anywhere, I'm going to Denver. But I can't afford to go anywhere like that."

He sighed. "I've told you that I have savings that I would gladly give you to get started."

"If you do that, what about when you retire? Besides, don't you already have a kid in college?"

With a frown, he shook his head. "That boy doesn't go to college now. He graduated last year. Besides, I can give my money to whoever I want to. It's mine."

"Exactly. So you should keep it for you and your wife." I was getting tired of this conversation. We literally had it almost verbatim almost every other week. I knew I was poor, and I was already getting a handout from this man. I didn't need more. I didn't want more. I felt bad enough with what he was giving me. Not that I wasn't grateful for it - I really was - but there was only so much I felt like I could accept of this man's generosity without being a burden.

He sighed again. "One day you'll accept my offer. You should go to college. You're a smart girl. By that I don't just mean book smart. I mean you're smart in life. You don't let people run over you. You've been put in a bad situation, but you've been making more out of it than most people your age. It's something to be proud of. Don't stop now by talking yourself out of anything. You can make more of yourself than this. I know you can. In fact, if you go to college, I'll put you in charge of one of my stores."

All I could do was smile at him. I didn't have the heart to tell him that all I wanted to do was get away from grocery stores. Over the last two years, I'd had about all I could take of them. If I went to college, it would be to go into finance and get away from this place. But how do you tell that to someone who's done more for you in the time you've worked for them than most of the other people in your life, including your parents?

You can't.

Well, I can't, at least. I had no idea where I'd even start.

I readjusted my backpack straps and walked past him out the door. "Do you need me to do anything before I head out?" I asked, hoping for a no.

"Not this morning." He took a clipboard off the wall and showed it to me. "I will have some extra things for you this afternoon, though. It's Friday, so we have to do inventory."

I groaned inwardly. "Okay." 

Inventory days were the worst. They happened on the busiest day, and I doubted he would change that any time soon. He held that doing it on a Friday kept us from dealing with the worst customers and kept us from blocking up aisles with carts as we restocked. I mean, I could see the last one, but the other was kind of dumb. In the end, it meant more work for everyone.

Still, I headed to school. I actually liked it there. It was kind of an oasis for me. No one picked on me, no one talked to me, but I was still sociable. Like, kids didn't know how to approach me, but they still talked to me. On top of that, I enjoyed my classes and I did pretty well. Not valedictorian well since my grades weren't weighted due to me not doing any kind of extra stuff outside of class. Not that I could do anything. I worked as much as I possibly could and barely found time to do my homework.

My graduation was coming up in a few months as well. It was the same week as my birthday. I was more excited for my graduation than my birthday. Growing up, my parents never celebrated it or made a big deal over it, and no one around me made anything of it, either, if they even knew about it. Which I was fine with. I didn't need a day dedicated to me.

In any case, I was excited about it. I only wished that my parents would come to the ceremony. But I knew neither would. My mom hadn't made much effort to be in my life since she left a couple of years ago. The closest she'd come was sending me a wedding invitation a month or so ago, knowing full and well I couldn't come. Partially because of my dad, but also because I couldn't afford a road trip. Not when we didn't have a car and I couldn't drive. 

I knew my dad wouldn't come if I invited him. He didn't think I needed to attend high school to begin with. He actually pulled me out of school, told them that I was going to be useful instead, and got me a job at the grocery store I currently work in. As far as he knew, that's all I was doing - from sun up until sunset. He wouldn't approve of me going to school behind his back. In fact, I would likely attend the ceremony with two black eyes and some other bruises if I tried to invite him.

Call me shallow, but I wanted to attend the ceremony blemish-free. 

No matter how proud I was of myself for keeping a 3.9 GPA right up until the end, or for working my way through school, or for surviving basically on my own since I was 16, I felt like I couldn't truly celebrate any of my wins. Not with the people I wanted to. Not with the people I should be celebrating them with. 

I know how this sounds, but I felt cheated. Cheated out of so much. It really only hit me at certain times, like right in that moment, when I saw a mom dropping off a couple of freshmen at the school gate. There were so many times I wished that was me. 

Kids walked past me, bring me back to reality and making me realize I'd stopped walking in the middle of the busy sidewalk. I glanced around and realized almost no one had seen me stop there like a weirdo. I hurried to get inside so hopefully no one else would.

Inside, I went straight to my locker which, thankfully, was pretty close to the front door. While I put in the code, I saw someone heading my way.

"You'll never believe who Jas was kissing at the party last night," Lila said as she came up to me. She opened her locker, which was right next to mine, and flashed me a large smile.

We weren't friends, exactly. We never talked outside of school, but we got along well. She knew she could tell me anything and no one else would know about it. Who would I tell, anyway? The popular kids? Please.

"Who?" I asked as I finally unloaded my backpack into my locker. The bag was already feeling a lot lighter with just a single book out of it. Did I mention these books looked like they were about an inch thick? 

"Ryan!" She squealed. 

He was a catch according to all the girls at school. He was a linebacker on the football team, but built like he played basketball with a face that they said put the hottest Hollywood actor to shame. I couldn't see it, though. He just looked like a womanizer to me. Just this year, he'd worked his way through the cheer team and the dance team and had apparently moved on to the band geeks. The girl she was talking about, Jasmine, was the drum major. She had a hand in everything the band did.

"Oh, cool," I replied, feigning excitement. "So he's moved on to the band now, huh?"

Lila rolled her eyes. "Come on, you know he's cute. You're just jealous."

"As if." I closed my locker and we headed to our first class of the day, which was the furthest one from our lockers. I was salty about it. Why assign a class that's as far from the kid's assigned locker as they could get? it was nearly a five minute walk. 

We walked in and took our seats right as the bell rang. The teacher stood and face the class. "Good morning," she said, turning to write on the board. 

Lila leaned over. "Jas said she wants to have lunch together today. My guess is to gush about her new man."

I nodded, for once not looking forward to lunch.