Running Scared.

Chapter Seven

I woke up to see Jeremy still sleeping. I yawned and threw a pillow at him. He groaned and said, “What I’m tired.” I grabbed his clock and said, “It ten-thirty in the morning. Wake up.” It took me a while to find the bathroom, but I got it. I took a hot shower and brushed my teeth. Since I didn’t bring any clothes with me. I walked back to his room in a towel. I walked in on him taking off his pants. “Oh my god!! I’m so sorry.” I quickly turned around. “I was getting some clothes.” I heard him zip his pants, so I turned around. “Don’t worry,” he said, “I’ll leave you to get ready.” He walked passed me nervously and closed the door behind him. I put on a tie dye shirt, black jeans, and black converse. I walked out holding my bag and said, “I’m ready let’s go find him.” Jeremy was wearing teal shirt, black jeans, and a beanie. He jumped up and said, “Let’s roll.” We decided to grab some breakfast first before we did the whole scavenger hunt thing. We went to a nearby café and got some doughnuts with milk to go. As we were eating our doughnuts, people kept staring. “Question,” I said taking a bite out of my doughnut, “Why are they staring at me?” He swallowed his milk and said, “Because you’re new. Once they see you often, they stop staring. I come here all the time, so they already know me.” We finished our breakfast and started looking for my dad.

    While we were looking, Jeremy yanked me into photo booth. “Come on,” he begged, “Might as well make some memories.” We took some silly pictures. “They’re cool,” he said, “Here you keep em’ maybe next time we can take some more.” I reached into my pocket and fished out my dad’s address. “I hope he still lives there,” I said while putting his address into my phone. We walked most of the way and took a subway to get there.

    We stopped in front of large brick house. It was pretty cool. There were red and yellow flowers all around the front. We walked up to the door knocked a couple times. Someone peeked through the window and opened the door. It was dad, thank god. He looks the same, just a little older.  “Hi dad,” I said. He ran his hand through his hair and said, “Hey Lola what are you doing here?” I showed him my bag and he let me and Jeremy inside. We sat on the couch in awkward silence. “Hey Mr. Peterson,” Jeremy said holding out his hand, “I’m Jeremy, Lola’s best friend.” I laughed a little when he said ‘best friend’. After a while Jeremy got up and said, “Well this was nice… I have to get back home. I know I’m grounded for sure. See ya when I’m ungrounded Lola.” He walked out the door and left my dad and I sitting in complete silence. “Lola what are you doing here?” “Something bad happened and I had to leave.” He sat next to me and said, “Okay, what made you leave?” I faced him and said, “Mom remarried a guy named, Derrick Adams. We never clicked so we hated each other. He beat me up a couple of times, until I caught him cheating on mom. After he made me promised not tell mom, he kissed me and we made out. Then mom left to go on a business trip. One night, I stopped him when were making out in my room because he was pulling up my shirt. He held me until the door rang and never came back up. I heard a glass break so I walked out my room and saw the girl he was kissing, running from moms’ room. He smashed a vase against her head and started strangling her. He killed that girl,” I started to cry, “When he was gone, I looked in the basement and found her. After he caught me, I started asking him about her. He got mad and slammed me against the fridge. I told him I was done with whatever we had and he got mad. And then… he… raped me. That’s when I decided to run away.” I started crying harder and harder. I was a whore. I made out with my moms’ husband. I was going to hell for this. Dad pulled me close and held me as I cried. I felt horrible for what I did. After I stopped crying my dad said, “It’s okay Lola, its okay. Listen, I have an extra bedroom, you can stay here for as long as you want. Don’t worry. Everything’s going to be okay.” He told me that it was empty, so he would have to by some stuff for it. He let me lie down and take a nap on the couch. When he came back, he was in a chef’s uniform. I figured he was a chef. He kneeled beside me and said, “Lola, I have to go to work. I’ll be back kinda late, take it easy okay.” He kissed my forehead and left.