On The Run: Part Two

Chapter Twenty-One - "The Oblivion Of Innocence"

Sarah

 

We sat in the car, driving around the city, wondering where to go.

“Italian?” I asked.

She shrugged, but her face said no. That was one thing I was starting to learn about her; she never wanted to actually say no, she’d just shrug or give me a small doubtful smile.

I sighed, “Mexican?”

She narrowed her eyes, as she thought for a second, “I think you should choose. I’m good with anything.”

I nodded as I had a brainwave. Two birds, one stone.

“Okay,” I replied, sliding down the partition, “Ryan, we’re going to the Hamptons.”

She leaned her head against the window and stared out. When I was little, I’d sit in between my parents as we drove home, they’d stare out of the windows and I’d crane my neck reaching across them to see the city lights. They’d whiz by so fast that I’d start to feel a little dizzy, and they would put me to sleep within minutes. So, whenever I couldn’t sleep, my dad would pop me in the backseat of his beloved Aston Martin, tucked beneath a large comforter, and I’d fall asleep within minutes.

“What’s on your mind?” I asked Chloe, as I closed the partition.

She looked up, “Tomorrow,” she murmured.

“What about tomorrow?”

She hesitated, but turned to me and sighed, “I mean, I’ve had a great couple of lazy days, but I couldn’t possibly do this every day. What do people do?” she asked in exasperation.

I smiled, “Shop. Plan parties. Go to school. Party. Go to work. Shop. Party. Travel.”

She frowned in thought, “I could get a job. I think. Maybe. I don’t know. I’m rambling; I don’t ramble.”

“You want to get a job?”

She shrugged, “I just . . . I feel a little guilty. I keep taking and taking, and I’m not really giving anything back.”

I understood how she might be feeling, and maybe I should have held back on the splurging and spoiling, but I really couldn’t help it.

“You could go to school.”

She stared blankly at me for a second, “School?”

“You’re seventeen, so that’d be right into senior year; you could start in September. That way, you have something to work towards. You could intern or something, until then.”

“School,” she repeated.

“I can’t tell if you’re processing or in disbelief,” I said.

She shook her head, “Sorry. I just don’t know why the thought never crossed my mind. I actually liked school; it was my getaway.”

I was so afraid to ask, ‘From?’ There was so much I wanted to ask, but a greater part of me didn’t want to know. Which is why I was leaving it to Jake – I had asked him to look into Chloe’s entire past; every nook and cranny. The only thing is, every time he called to fill me in, I made up an excuse; I was so scared of what he’d found.

“What would you like to do? In the future? What do you want to be?”

She winced.

“Touchy subject?”

“No. I just didn’t think I’d ever get the chance to think about this stuff.”

I gave her a sad smile.