Traffic

Part 10

--THOMAS'S POINT OF VIEW--

Pacing back and forth and running my hands through my matted blonde hair, I waited and waited just for the slightest bit of news. My shirt was still soiled with blood and the glances I got from people were as if they mistaken me for some type of serial killer. There was a clock on the wall, and I had to look at it every second. 10 o'clock to eleven. And then it was three. Four. and now five.

"Is there someone here for a Miss Guidry?'

"Yes! Yes. Is she okay?" I rattled off. "Where is she? Can I see her?"

The doctor smiled at me as I just kept waiting for his answers to my multiple questions. "Room 278. Down the hall to the left wing."

I must have sprinted because it only took me a second to get there as I looked through the glass window on the door to see her standing there in her bra and jeans as the attendant handed her a loose fitting t-shirt and her brown leather jacket. Her thumb tucked her medium brown hair behind her ear as she grew dizzy losing her balance and clawing at the bed post to catch herself. And then, as she faced the door, I saw the long line of stitches that went down the side of her forehead. 15 at the least.

"May I let him in, Miss Guidry?"

Kelsey nods her head as the door opens in front of me and I walk in. "He's a friend." she explains.

A friend? Is that it? My face feels like sinking, but I try not to let it as she pulls her hair up into a braid and then grabs the files from the bedside. "You're okay." I say with relief as she smiles in the faintest way, but I notice it in a heart beat. "I'm glad."

"I want to go home."

Forcing myself to nod, she begins to slowly walk towards me. Each step scared of what will happen. She turns and thanks the nurse before continuing down the hallway with out any intention of waiting for me. Its as if she had forgotten everything.

"Kelsey, I got a room at a hotel down the street. Kelsey?"

She turns to me but keeps walking backwards. "Thanks for saving me. But I still remember everything, including how I got to that hell hole. I said I was going home, home to New York." She turned back around, hailed a taxi.

"My dad won't let that happen--"

"I don't give a fuck about your father and what ever the hell he plans on doing to me!" Her voice grew hoarse the more she screamed. "I am going to go home, finish school, and get a job outside of that shitty trap of a bar."

"He will hunt you down. God bless he will make me hunt you down."

Her steel eyes just looked into mine as if cutting through me as if stabbing me. As if she hated me. "I'll shoot you, and I won't even feel a shred remorse."

The cab came; she stepped in. And she left.

--KELSEY'S POINT OF VIEW--

"Where to, Miss?" I looked at the driver who wore sunglasses even though it was about seven or eight in the evening. "I can drive all night."

"The nearest bus station."

He starts the car and begins to drive. "Can I ask what happened to your forehead, Miss?"

I should have answered with a strict no but I heard myself say something else. "I fell for the wrong guy." I laughed at my own words as I conjured them up in my head. "Explains why I'm going to the bus station as well."

"Thomas has always been an outcast."

The first word kept me short of breath and the rest had me gasping for the air that was right in front of me.

"But he's the old mans son, so we all have to deal with him, including you."

I tried the door shoving myself against it before realizing it was locked and unlatched the lock on top before trying again flinging myself on the side of the road. I hit the concrete hearing a crack in my shoulder as I screamed and then felt the stitches strain in my forehead as a women ran to my side and tried to help me up as I went into speechless shock and imagined myself back in the crate. I ran in every direction at least 5 times feeling the cold metal. Meg. She wasn't there. Neither were the two bodies or food. Just me.

"Someone call an ambulance--"

With out even a thought, I shoved the women back and started sprinting down the street until I was far enough down that I felt a little safer. Puffs came from my mouth as my breaths came out strong and heavy. It caused me to realize how exhausted I actually was. My back was up against a wall as I slowly began to catch my breath. I knew I couldn't trust anyone. Where I jumped out of the hijacked cab wasn't far enough away so I wondered in a random direction through the streets of Cincinnati not knowing where I was going and flinching at every person I saw wondering who they were and If they somehow knew me. 

I had 30 dollars to my name. I walked into a pub and hid the stitched side of my face until I got into the bathroom to wipe away the stream of blood coming from the broken stitches and then took off my jacket to see my shoulder completely laced in purple and black bruises. The braid in my disheveled mess off a hair had almost completely demolished so I went ahead and fixed my hair so it looked decent before splashing water over my face and heading back out.

"Can I get you anything?" I looked at the bar tender as I sat down and grabbed a menu from the stand next to me. "The special today is a Bacon cheddar burger."

"Can I get a mushroom Swiss with a Heineken. Sweet potato fries also?"

"I'm paying for her, I'll have that bacon cheddar you mentioned earlier. Bud light though." I didn't want to look up. "And regular fries."

Thomas came and took the empty seat to my right but I didn't want to look at him. He had to know who the driver of the cab was. He had to have seen his face. He had to. A beer was placed in front of me as I went ahead and took a sip letting the sour taste burn the back of my throat. I needed it.

"I told you, you can't run." Thomas spoke in a deep tone so the people around us wouldn't over hear. "My dad has a lot of employees, a lot of eyes."

"Did you follow me?" He smiled showing a pair of deep dimples and strong laugh lines that added onto the chiseled jaw with the scruff of him not shaving for a day or two. "Or was it a spy that said I happened to be here?"

"I followed you. You really didn't hide well." He put his beer on the bar and just looked at the frost tracing the glass. "So, we will eat and then head to the hotel. You need some rest."

"I'm not going to a hotel with you--"

"You don't know who to trust but I do--"

"And I'm suppose to trust you?"

"I'm all you have."