I CANT STOP FALLING IN LOVE WITH YOU

25

Has it ever happened to you where you think there's someone in your bedroom, but there's actually no one there. And you think it's a monster, but then you realize that the monsters you are scared of are inside you.
It's all in your head, your fears are in your head.
I felt scared when I saw that silhouette because I thought was my imagination tricking me, but when it started to move I felt fear taking over me.
Mark turned the lights on, we saw a big amount of brown hair sticking out of the covers and the pillow.
"Mom?" I asked confused. I couldn't believe that in a million years she would come here. She sat up straight on the bed and gave me a small smile. Her face was pale and there were bags under her eyes.
"Oh, hey. What time is it?" She asked as if everything was okay.
"How did you get here? When did you came? Why haven't you been answering my calls? I've been worried sick for you, mom!" I yelled.
She put a finger on her lips and shushed me.
"Annabeth, you're just like your father, you know? Always worried sick, and then the sickness got to him." She said, that was very disrespectful of her to say that.
"I'm sorry."
"No, it's my fault, I'm a bad mother."
I felt bad about that comment, I sat down at the feet of the bed.
"What's going on? Tell me truth."
She took a deep breath and looked at Mark and Dani, who were sitting on the small couch, and smiled at them.
"I really love your hair, Dani" she said "and Mark, you're looking very handsome."
They both looked down at themselves and smiled.
"Can you guys give us a minute?"
"Yeah sure, we'll be at our room." Dani said.
"Nice seeing you guys!" Mom said right after they shut the door "God, we're gonna miss them."
"What?"
"I haven't been honest with you, since your dad died. I got fired and then I didn't know what else to do. So I went to your father's group of friends, one of them is an specialist on drug dealing in North and South America and he's very wealthy on this business, so I thought maybe we could be too and that's also the reason why we move all the time, there's always good business wherever we go, but not this time," she stopped to look at my expression, but I had the best poker face I could put on to hide the fear I felt of what she was going to say.
"I made a deal with the wrong guy; and now they are looking for me." She continued "For us."
I studied her face for a minute just to make sure this wasn't a lie. Her eyes were red and she was as pale as a ghost.
"Do you have a plan?" I asked coldly.
"Yes. No. I've really been thinking about it. We can move just like we always have, but this time will be different. It'll be somewhere we haven't been, and also the place where we don't have marketing." She said, there was a small comforting smile drawing on her face. She looked older, as if part of her had been taken away.
"Don't leave me in suspense, say it already!" I demanded.
"The UK." She said. My eyes widened, my jaw dropped and I felt like I wanted to cry (again.)
"What!?" I said, and I could make out Dani's voice say from out the door.
"You can't be serious, right?"
"I'm not kidding, it's the only choice we have." She said, her eyes turning even more red.
"But our lives are here, this is where we belong, why would we want to get out of the country?" I yelled.
"Because if we stay I'll end up in prison and you'll be staying at a foster home!" She yelled.
We were silent, there was just the sound of sirens and cars passing through the streets.
"Is this really happening?"
"Yes it damn is, and I'm sorry this isn't the perfect life you wanted or the one I should be giving you, but this is what it all adds to."
I stood up from the bed and walked around the room like a bird on a cage not knowing where the exit was, but of course there was no exit from this.
"When are we leaving?"
"I messed up a couple of days ago, so I made some calculations while I was traveling on a bus. About a week. I got us fake passports, because not only the people I was working with are looking for me, the CIA are probably looking for us too-"
"Us? Why are you saying us, you where the one who messed up."
"But we are a family and it may be broken, but it is still one and we must stay together. So, yes, they are looking for us."
"What about our stuff back in Norfolk?"
"We can go back for our valuable things, it has to be done soon. I'm sorry, this isn't how it was supposed to be." Mom said and covered her face with her hands. I couldn't see her like this so I hugged her for a while until her breath evened.
"Now, tell me how things are with Jeffrey?" She asked with a smile.
The memory of him and Karina kissing flashed before my eyes.
"I don't wanna talk about him."
"But things were going so well between you too, right?"
"I said I didn't want to talk about him."
Though I did want to talk about him.
"What now?" I asked.
"Now, you should pack and get some rest, because we are leaving. Can't take the risk of being in one place for too long; they could track us down."
"Like, tonight?" My heartbeat was increasing, my body felt hot.
"Yes."
Hell no. Tonight. Of all nights. It had to be tonight. Fuck.

I packed my things, but I didn't go to sleep right away. I had to talk to Danielle and Mark. So I went to their room. While walking down the alley I was anxious I would find Jeffrey; that would be just chaotic. Thankfully I didn't see him. Maybe I over reacted, or maybe that's the way I should have reacted.
I knocked on Dani's door.
She opened the door and pulled me into a hug.
"Don't go." She said, her blue hair getting on my mouth.
"Where you listening?" I asked. She nodded. "I don't want to leave either."
"Stay. You could live with me, I'll turn you into a completely different person, no one will know it's you." She cried out.
"You know I can't,"
Mark had sat down on a love chair on a corner next to a coffee table that was facing to the rest of the room.
We sat in silence on the floor. Our eyes felt as if they were burning from all the crying.
"Fuck this," I muttered.
"Yeah, fuck all of this." Dani muttered.
"I just wish we had time, just a little longer, just a couple of days and not hours," I said "I wish."
"Not everything lasts forever, you know?" Mark said, he hadn't move a muscle since I had gotten here, and now he was on the floor with us, just laying on his back looking at the hotel ceiling.
"Bullshit," Dani said.
"Well that bullshit just happens to be true,"
"What about that jerk?" Dani asked. I looked at her confused and then realized she was talking about Jeffrey.
"If I don't know what to do with myself, how am I gonna know what to do about him?" I exclaimed "I can't deal with him and I'd rather not see him. Like ever."
We didn't talk much after that. There was just exchanged looks and memories shared.
We could inly talk about the past and not think about the future.
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Oh. My. Fucking. Gaga. Holy sh*t, I am so fucking sorry guys like you don't even know. It's been really hard for me at school and I just haven't had the time to write anything. Wow. I feel like I let you down and there's probably people who just deleted my story from their reading list (not gonna lie). I'm so sorry, but, I meet a couple of people from a "New Talents" company and they asked me to write a book. A. Book. Can you believe that? So I've been working on that.