Trust Me

I'm too Dangerous

Thunder and lightning were still having a loud battle outside of the beach box when Jake had just gone to sleep. He had just stopped tossing and turning for what had seemed like hours. I waited for a few minutes and crept over to his bed. Jake’s mobile phone was wrapped in his fist; I needed to get it out.

Plying the phone out of Jake’s hand was hard work but I was determined to know everything. When I had the phone in my hand, I wasn’t sure if it was the right thing to do. I fought back the feeling and opened up it. His text messages were mostly from his mum and from Ryan. There wasn’t anything full of secrets or anything even moderately suspicious.

When I checked his pictures on his phone, there were many pictures of a little girl. She looked so happy and smiley in the pictures. Who was she and what was she doing on Jake’s phone?

All of a sudden, Jake grunted and turned over. I had to return the phone to him before he woke up. His distraught face showed that he was obviously having a nightmare.

Nightmares were a problem for me as well. With so many terrible memories, it made it easy for any nightmare to crawl into my mind. Most nights I woke up with a cold sweat. Some of the nightmares were so realistic that I woke up screaming out names. Sleeping had become harder since I had run away, now visions of policemen filled my head when I went to sleep. They were always chasing me, grabbing me and taking me back, there.

 “No! Paige!” Jake was mumbling while he slept. His body was thrashing from side to side and his eyes filled with tears. Never had I seen a boy cry before, it was so pure and innocent.

Crying had become sort of an act for me, a party trick, another of my lies. When I was stuck in a situation, I’d cry and everyone would help me or leave me alone. But when Jake was really pestering me about my past, it brought back my worst memory, one that I wanted to forget but couldn’t.

I wiped his tears away and started talking to his sleeping body.  For hours I stayed up until his nightmare went away and he could sleep peacefully.

“Mum, I’m staying over at Ryan’s house for a while. I know that you need to sort some things out and I don’t want to be in the middle of it. Okay. Bye,” Jake was talking on his mobile. His loud voice had woken me up. I had been enjoying such a peaceful sleep, one without nightmares or fear.

I stared at Jake accusingly. He turned around and smiled at me calmly.

“Sorry about the loud phone call. Hope I didn’t wake you,” I blinked sleepily at him.

“Well, you did wake me up,” I answered grumpily.

“Oh, sorry and sorry for the way I behaved yesterday. I was stressed and now I’m even more stressed because my Mum is worried about me. Parents, they always manage to call at bad times,” he said cheerfully. But I knew that his parents weren’t the cause of his sudden anger yesterday, it was something else.

“Do you want to play cards?” I suggested. “Promise I’ll beat you,” Jake smiled at my first friendly suggestion.

“Sure thing, but don’t be so sure of yourself. I’m the champion of snap,” We sat down and played together. I was determined to find out Jake’s secret and make him trust me. Maybe if he trusted me, then he would leave me alone in the beach box. Then I would plan where to go and how to be safe, forever.

“So Juliette, do you get sick of your parents?” Jake asked me, curiously. I winced, he must have been thinking of the same idea, going along with the card game to figure me out.

“I don’t want to talk my family,” I answered coldly.

“Fine, what about yourself? What are your hobbies?”

“I don’t have any hobbies and there isn’t anything interesting about me,”

“You know that’s not true. A mysterious girl, running away from something, hidden in a beach box, now that’s interesting.”

“Just stop it, Jake. I’m not falling for any of your tricks, I’m not revealing anything. Nothing at all,”

“Well I guess I can’t have you staying in my beach box,” Jake exclaimed.

“No, please. I have nowhere to go. You have to help me,” I pleaded. I was so scared of being found. Never was I going back to that place.

“Juliette, you can’t keep on pretending that this is normal. How could I possibly trust you?”

“Please, you just have to. Please, I’ll do anything,”

“You don’t have to do anything; I’ll let you stay, only because you have nowhere else to go and you haven’t stolen anything or attacked me, yet,”

“Thank you so much, Jake. You have no idea how much this means to me,” I exclaimed, happily. I raced towards him and hugged him.

He leaned forward and kissed me on the lips. His lips were soft and salty. I felt myself almost falling into his arms but then I steadied myself. I pulled away from him. He stared at me in confusion.

“I can’t be with you, Jake. I’m too dangerous,”