Running Away From the World

Chapter 13: Moving In With the Enemy

I run my fingers over the crinkly wrapper of a Doritos bag. Nacho cheese, my favorite kind. I wait until the old man at the gas station counter turns away, then I quickly shove the Doritos in my bag. I make my way over to get a water bottle, and shove that into my bag too.

I smile at the old man and walk outside. Sitting down at a spot in the back of the gas station, I inhale my Doritos. It's been four days since I ran away. I haven't eaten at all. I feel guilty stealing food, mainly because the old man was very nice too me. A girls got to eat though.

I quickly devour my Doritos and water. My stomach is still growling, but I ignore it.

I haven't left town yet. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. Should I stay in town, maybe go back to Charice's? I could always go to my social worker and ask to be moved to a new foster home. I could always run away for good, too.

The weather was getting colder. It was about to be winter and I need to buy a coat. I have no source of income and I sure as hell won't ask strangers for money.

All of these worrying thoughts tire me, and make me drift off into a deep sleep.

"Dammit Conner, stop rolling down the windows! You're messing up my hair!" I laugh uncontrollably. We're in his new 2014 Camaro. Yet again, I don't understand why his parents won't let him have cell phone. He can have a brand new sports car, but god forbid, a cell phone will be the death of him.

"Hey, I hate messing up my hair but you don't hear me complaining, crybaby." Conner sticks out his tongue.

"Where are we even going?" I question him. We are on a very curvy road, and Conner doesn't feel the need to slow down around curves.

"What's wrong, babe? You don't like the scenery?" He takes both hands off the steering wheel and gesture's to the beautiful landscape.

"Well of course I do!"

"Then shut up little crybaby, and enjoy the ride." He rolls his eyes and turns up the radio.

I accept the fact that Conner isn't going to roll up the windows anytime soon. I stick my arm out the window and let the breeze flow across my skin.

At that moment, I'm interrupted from my dream. I look around to see who woke me up. To my astonishment, I find Eve looking down at me.

"Wow, I always knew you were a loser, but this takes it to a whole new level." Eve makes a disgusted face at me.

"Go away." I groan. "I've had a pretty tough time lately, if you haven't noticed. I don't need you to bother me." I stand up and gather my things.

"Fine. Sit down." Eve sits down first, and I see that she means it so I sit down too.

We sit in silence for a few minutes before Eve finally says something.

"I heard what happened." She whispers.

"And what was that exactly?" I snap back.

"Ethan beat the shit out of you and then you ran away."

"Wrong." I laugh.

"Then what happened?"

"My foster dad is what happened."

"That's horrible! You can't let him get away with this." She gasps.

"Why do you even care?"

"Because no one should ever have to go through that!"

"Well there's no use. I'm not going back."

"Not even if I offered to let you stay at my place for awhile?" Eve nudges my shoulder with her shoulder.

"Are you offering?"

"Yes. Would you like to come stay at my house for awhile?"

"I would. Thank you." I smile slightly.

She stands up and gestures for me to take her hand. I'm glad she helped me up, I'm feeling pretty weak since all I've had is Doritos.

"No offense, but you look like complete shit." Eve sighs. "Let's go."

After about twenty minutes in her car, we reach her house. It was a cute little house. It was brick with pretty flowers surrounding the pathway up to their red door. I was expecting Eve to live in a mansion.

"Well, let's go." Eve turns the car off and we make our way up to her house.

"I'm home!" Eve shouts once we make it inside her house.

"Honey, I hope you haven't eaten yet." A short lady says, probably Eve's mom. "Oh, who's this?" The lady asks while wiping her hands on her apron.

"Mom, this is Teagan." Eve introduces us rudely.

"This is Teagan? Why, I have heard so much about you! I'm Eve's mom. I want you to make yourself feel right at home, okay?" Eve's mom squeals.

"Okay." I giggle. Out of the corner of my eye I can see Eve blush.

"Whatever, let's just go to my room." Eve starts walking up the stairs, so I follow her.

I can see that her mom loves to decorate. Every inch of their house has some sort of decoration. I stop in the middle of the hallway when something catches my eye. It was a picture of Eve and her family. There was her mom; very short with a friendly smile. Her dad; tall and lean. Then there were two other guys who I didn't recognize. They were both very cute; tall with gorgeous blue eyes and muscles.

"What are you doing? Come one!" Eve shouts from her room.

I follow the sound of Eve's voice to a door with a bunch of magazine pictures taped up. I step inside and notice that her room is nothing like I thought it would be. Her walls were a light pink, and her furniture was all white. I sit down on her ruffled floral bed comforter. We were both silent.

I look up at her and can see that this is as awkward for her as it is for me. "So, um, who were those two boys in that picture?" I finally ask.

"What picture are you talking about ? We have like, forty pictures in our house." Eve rolls her eyes.

"The one I saw in the hallway. There was you, your mom, your dad, and then two mystery guys that looked the same."

"Oh, them." Eve turned around casually and started to put on lip gloss.

"So who..." I started to say but got cut off.

"My brothers. They are twins. They went off to college this year." Eve stated, obviously bothered by something.

I left it alone because it sounded like something was bothering her.

Eve's bedroom door opens and her mother walks in.

"Teagan, sweetie, tonight you will just need to sleep in the same bed as Eve. Tomorrow night I will ask Eve's father to get the extra bed down from the attic." Eve's mom smiled as she handed me an extra pillow.

"Thank you so much." I smile thankfully.

Eve's mom walks out of the room and I turn to Eve. "How did she know I was spending the night?"

"I texted her and asked her." Eve shrugged.

I think it's weird that Eve and her mom text to communicate with each other. But, that might just be their thing that they do. You know, like how some families tuck their children in. Or, how other families make their children rotate on dishes duty. I guess texting is Eve's families thing.

We get ready for bed. We lay down to sleep. A few tears fell down my cheeks as I prayed that tomorrow will hopefully be a good day, unlike the days I've been having.