A Thousand Ways To Run

Chapter 18

I was waiting for one of us to mention turning on the TV, or want to scoot away and be more comfortable, to complain about being hungry. But neither of us did. Warren and I spent an entire afternoon on that couch, squished into it like sardines.

At first, we were sitting side by side. Then Warren dragged me half onto his lap while we talked/ Then there was a period where no talking occurred, which resulted in both of us laying horizontal with his arms wrapped around me in attempt to keep us both on the same couch. So, essentially sardines. But I was a very content sardine.

It all started off very innocent after we got back from the welcome center. Like a boy, he kept teasing me with stolen kisses before I finally shut him up with a question that had been burning in the back of my mind, along with so many others.

“What happened to you after we got separated?”

Warren stopped his advances and seemed to harden a little bit. His jaw was tight and he tore his eyes away for a moment. Nothing good ever happened when we were forced apart and we both knew it.

“Agent Penelope took me down to the basement to meet my parents. Which is always so much fun.” He said it with so much sarcasm I almost didn’t ask what they talked about. I knew it was me.

There’s a famous idiom about an ‘elephant in the room’, something obvious and big that takes away the attention of everybody like a blood-sucking leech to an open vein. I had made myself be like one by getting closer to Warren; but bigger than an elephant – more like a whale. I was the Godzilla in the room, because not only did I demand attention, but I also seemed to have shaken things up in a way no one really likes. The only difference was that people there weren’t so much afraid of me, as they wanted me to get the hell out of their lives and away from their impressionable teenage sons. So, yeah, I asked. I think everybody has a right in life to know the full extent of how much those around despise them.

“What did you talk about?”

He sighed, but responded without complaint. There was a heaviness in his words because he didn’t want to tell me, but knew he had to. “You. Us. How they’re not happy. There was yelling and I said some stuff I probably shouldn’t of.”

“They hate me.”

“Of course they do; you’re everything they don’t want for me.”

I frowned deeply, feeling worse than before when I admitted what I expected. Some part of me kind of hoped that he would lie and say they don’t actually hate me, fake me. I’d see through the lie but it would have still been comforting. “That makes me feel wonderful.”

Warren started to laugh. He LAUGHED. “Don’t look so heartbroken. They’ll hate any girl that walks through the door not dressed in designer clothes with a famous last name and an ego to match. Everything they want for me isn’t what I want. I’m happy right here, with what I’ve managed to get.”

I probably should have shut up at that point and realized what he’d just said was incredibly sweet, but I fired right back with, “‘Managed?’”

“It’s been a long few weeks.” Warren sighed, sounding exasperated. “You weren’t the easiest fish in the sea to catch.”

That made me stop and smile. I’d never liked things easy in my life. I went to advanced placement schools and trained to be a CIA undercover agent by the time I turned eighteen – challenges were something I seeked out readily. And I liked the idea of being one.

“I already figured your parents didn’t like me. Which is alright, I mean, I’m over it. My dad will have a hay day whenever he finds out abo—”