Elude [H.S.]

FIFTY-FOUR

Sitting in the passenger seat of Harry's car, I fiddle with my fingers in my lap as we head down the interstate. We were about seven hours into our almost eight hour drive, and I was starting to feel more and more anxious as our duration time lessened. Harry and I had contemplated flying the night that he had told me about the trip, but overtime, we decided that it was probably best if we drove. I don't expect things to go south with my family by any means, but in case things didn't go as planned, at least we knew we could leave whenever we wanted if we had a car.

"Can I ask you a question?" Harry's voice brings me out of my thoughts, and I look over to him with a nod.

"Yeah, of course."

"It's about when you left your parents," he said, glancing over to me for a minute before looking back at the road. "Nothing negative, I promise."

I just nod in response - silently encouraging him to ask his question.

"Did your bus ride take the same amount of time? Or did it take you longer because you had stops?" He asks. "I just...I couldn't imagine going on this long of a ride by myself - especially with what you were going through at the time."

"It was about the same time, actually," I tell him after thinking back on it. "I got a ticket that was just straight there. I didn't have any stops."

It goes silent for a minute, and I feel Harry's fingertips brush over my thigh before his hand engulfs one of mine - locking our fingers together. His thumb lightly massages circles onto the back of my hand as he keeps his other hand on top of the steering wheel.

"You've been quiet for the past hour, baby," he says. "How about we talk about something else to distract you, hm?"

I look down at his hand, and I begin to aimlessly run the tip of my index finger over the veins on the back of it before tracing over his rings. "Yeah, that might help me."

I'm not sure if I really want to talk about anything dealing with back home or my parents right now, and I know I really don't want to talk about what my first encounter with Mason is going to be like.

The phone call that I had with my mom and dad the night Harry revealed what he planned had gone well. There were a lot of tears, and there were a lot of things each of us wanted to say, but it was hard to get our thoughts together after not speaking for so long. I've talked to my mom again here and there since then, but I'm still so nervous about seeing both her and my dad in person again.

When I had asked if I could speak to Mason during one of our last phone calls, my mom said that she wasn't sure if that was the best idea. She thought that it would be best for us to talk in person for the first time instead of talking over the phone, and the more I thought about it, the more I ended up agreeing with her. I wouldn't blame Mason if he was still incredibly angry with me. I would be too if the situation had been reversed, and if he had left me all alone after we lost Mallory.