Flee

Chapter 2: All My Favorite Conversations Are Made In The A.M

When the bus arrives both Jace and I get on it. Both of us have no clue where we are going. I pay the bus driver all the money I have and tell her to take me as far away as possible. She nods and once we have a seat she begins driving the empty bus. 

 My phone begins buzzing in my pocket and when I pull it out I see twenty-five missed calls from Tim. I gasp and put my phone back in my bag. Jace looks over at me. 

He frowns. "You look like you've seen Santa Claus in a bikini." 

I manage to let out a fake laugh. "Yeah that's what I saw." 

My phone vibrates again and I pull it out to decline the call. Jace sees the caller ID and looks at me weirdly. 

"Oooooh Arden. You have a boyfriend," Jace says. 

My eyes widen in horror and I shake my head. Jace obviously sees my expression and begins to look concerned.  "No." 

"He's my stepdad." I tell him. 

"Oh okay. Is he nice?" he asks.

"Yes. He is a sweetheart. " I lie. I am used to lying about my family issues. In 9th grade there was this big parents day at school and everyone's parents were there except for mine. I had to spend the whole day dodging questions. And throughout freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior year there are things you need your mom for. It doesn't matter how old you are. You will always need your mom. Throughout elementary and middle school I didn't have one friend to talk to, so that made school even harder for me. Even though my mom was present at the time she wasn't really there. She couldn't even find the time to make my lunch or drive me to school. I've always made my own lunch and walked to school. I always envied the other kids. None of them realized how much they have. Some people have a lot less. 

 Until one day in my sophomore year a popular girl named Gwen came up to me and started talking to me. Gwen is a pretty popular girl so even to this day I don't know why she is friends with me. Even though I barely even knew Gwen she was always there to talk to. She bought me ice cream and sat with me while I cried for hours. She listened to my rants about how much I hated Tim and my mom for leaving me. One time when I was really upset Gwen let me sleepover at her house for a week. We have been friends since. 

I really want to text Gwen, but my phone is on the verge of death. I frown at it.  

"I swear you frown so much your eyebrows are going to get stuck like that," Jace says. 

I roll my eyes at him. "Yeah yeah sure. Can I borrow your phone for just one second it's important?" I ask. 

"What no. She's my baby." 

"Well she can still be your baby while I use her." I say. 

"Fine." he sighs.

He hands me his phone. I text Gwen. I of course have her number memorized. 

I tell Gwen everything. I don't care if Jace reads what I wrote because I kind of want him to know. I just don't want to tell him. I pass his phone back to him. 

"Can you tell me if she responds?" I ask. He nods. 

I gaze out the window. The scenery flies by before I even get a chance to look at it. I flinch when I feel a finger on my arm. I look over at Jace and his finger drops immediately. I frown at him. 

"Please, don't touch me." I say on the verge of tears. 

"Sorry. I'm really sorry, but can I just ask you one question?" he asks softly. 

I nod, terrified of what the question may be. 

"What are all these marks on your arms? You didn't do this to yourself did you?"

"No. I didn't." I say. 

"Someone did, Arden. Who was it?" 

The before I could stop, I told him everything. I told him about my mom leaving, my dad dying, Tim, my life at school, and he listened to every word of it. 

"I don't know what to say."

"Don't say anything." I say. "I don't like when people feel sorry for me. I feel weak and I can't afford to be weak when Tim is-" I say.

"Just because someone feels sorry for you or cares about you does not make you weaker." Jace interrupts me. 

I don't say anything else. I gaze out the window and hope that Jace doesn't say anything else." 

He doesn't. 

I wake up the next morning. I am still on the bus and Jace is still beside me, but he is sleeping.

I momentarily thought about escaping and leaving Jace here, but for some reason I didn't. 

I think even though he seems happy he really isn't. There is something about him I just don't know what it is yet.