Six weeks away

Chapter Three

Alexis was sitting up in bed that night. Since Aria had left she had barely been eating or sleeping . She scrolled through the messages on her phone. Alexis  was the only person who Aria had messaged in any way since she had left, and they needed to keep it that way. If Mr. Longs found out about them he would do to Alexis what what he did to Aria, or worse.

Suddenly there was a tapping noise from behind her. She turned around and felt her heart stop. Standing outside her window was Aria. She rushed over to the window and opened it.

"My god. What are you... You could've... I've missed you so much." Alexis  managed to stutter as  she helped Aria crawl through the window. 

Once Aria was through the window they simultaneously wrapped their arms around each other and refused to let each other go for a few minutes.

"I missed you too." Aria whispered into her ear, her soft  voice slightly muffled by the light sobs coming from the both of them. She lifted her head off of Alexis' shoulder and looked in to her eyes. They were bloodshot and tired just like she imagined her own eyes looked.

Alexis  broke off her gaze and pressed her lips against Aria's. When they came up for air,  Alexis pulled her over to her bed. They talked for the rest of the night. Aria told her about when she cut her hair . She told her about her uncle and how she was welcome to come with her if she wanted to. Alexis told her about the rumors going around town about her grandfather. Aria told her what she told her grandfather and why she had told her to stay away from him in her text messages, then about what she was going to do tomorrow. After they were done updating each other they talked about the night that they had met at a party and how they couldn't believe that it had led to all this. 

Aria left before it was time for Alexis to go to school, and before her parents woke, but they made plans to meet up again after school and go over to her grandfather's house.

As she was walking and looking for some place safe to spend the day she quickly messaged  Johanna, telling her to meet her after school at the same time and at the same place she told Alexis  to meet up with her at.

When Johanna woke up that morning she saw the message from Aria, and suddenly she felt like not all hope was lost.  She had been trying to message her back all morning but with little luck. She knew that she would have to wait until this afternoon to learn what was going on and why she had left. 

Finally at 2:57 Johanna was walking out of her school out to the back. From behind a dumpster she heard someone whisper her name.  She walked over to find Aria waiting there. Aria stood up and hugged her. Johanna was still in shock when they let go.

" I was worried about you. You could have responded to at least one message. Just to let me know what was going on, to let me know that you were okay. To let me know that you were alive."

Johanna was starting to cry now and Aria hugged her again. "You cut our hair. When did you do that? Why?"

Before Aria could answer from over her shoulder  she saw a girl sitting there who she faintly recognized from around town and school but could not put a name to her face. She pulled herself away from Aria. " Who's that?" She said pointing to the girl. "Whats going on here?"

Aria looked at the girl and then back at Johanna. " Alex, this is my best friend  Johanna." She said. "Johanna this is Alex, my girlfriend."

Johanna was in shock at the words that had just come out of  Aria's mouth. A thousand thoughts and questions suddenly rolled in to her brain all at once. "My best friend is a lesbian and she didn't tell me about it?" "When did this happen? " "Did I hear her right? " "When did she get a girlfriend? " " What is going on here? " "Is that why she ran away?"

Both Aria and Alex saw the shock in Johanna's eyes, and it was almost like they could read her mind and all of the questions running through it.

"Do you want us to explain?" Alex asked, her voice a bit quiet and shy.

" Yes."

"Do you want to sit down first."

" Yes." Johanna responded again. That was the only word she could muster. She slid herself down the fence that wrapped around the dumpster and sat on the concrete ground. The air around them smelled of garbage but she barely noticed as Aria and Alex started telling their story.