Tired of the Bruises

Chapter 2

I drive for about 10 more hours and seeing that I left Georgia at only 12 in the afternoon. I have no idea what state I am in or what direction I am headed. I pull into a Wal-Mart and park my car in one of the farthest parking spots. This is where I will sleep for tonight. For the duration of this trip, I will most likely have to sleep in the backseat of my car. I open my bag and look inside it. I realize that I grabbed fruit snacks, pretzels, and 3 bags of SmartFood popcorn in addition to the Nature Valley granola bars. I grab a handful of pretzels and a Mott's fruit snack for "dinner" and call it a night.

I wake up bright and early the next morning to the sound of birds chirping. How peaceful this sounds in my current world that is well, not so peaceful. I turn my car on to the radio playing my favorite song.

You're all that matters to me,

Yeah, yeah,

What's a king bed without a queen?

Justin Bieber's angelic voice belts out of my speakers. Turning the radio up a couple notches, I decide that it is time to get going. The roads are deserted and that I am grateful for. Traffic has not always been my favorite thing in the world. I feel like a whole new person. I've never ran away from home before. I have thought about it more than enough times and I am finally taking charge of my own life. I pass a couple fast food restaurants and realize that I am actually very hungry. I pull into a McDonald's for breakfast. My absolute favorite is the pancakes with an orange juice and a hash brown. After I order my meal, I sit down at a table in the back of the restaurant until my order is called and I leave with my food. As soon as I get in my Camry, I hear my cell phone ring. My heart skips a beat. I pray to the Lord above that it is not my father. I take a peek at the caller ID and see that it is my mother.

"H-hello?" I say timidly.

"Mira! Where are you?" my mother says into the phone.

"I am getting us a better life. Do not say a word of this to dad. Tell him I didn't pick up if he was the one who told you to call," I tell her, my voice getting stronger.

"Mira, please don't hurt yourself. I love you," I can tell that she is crying now.

"I promise I won't. I love you too," and I hang up.

I toss my phone back into the passenger seat, and it lands on my duffel bag. That was most likely the most stressful phone call of my life. All of the sudden, I hear another chime. Lucky for me, it is just my car telling me that I need to fill up my gas tank. I sigh and luckily, there is a gas station coming up on my right. I pull into the Quik Trip and make a beeline for the only open gas pump. Hooking up my car the pump, I block my father's number on my phone so he can't call me. I should block my mother's too, and that is exactly what I do and as soon as I am done with that, I hear the gas pump stop pumping telling me that it is finished filling up my car's gas tank. Quickly, I jump back in the car, itching to get to California soon. I stick my arm out my car window and feel the warm summer breeze and get chill bumps up and down my arms. This doesn't bother me though. All that matters is that I am away from everything else.

My phone rings not even thirty seconds after I stick my arm back into the safety of my car. Looking at the caller ID, I realize that it is my best friend, Ashley. It is going to break my heart having to answer this phone call. Ashley and I have been best friends since she moved her in sixth grade.

"Hello?" My voice sounds surprisingly strong.

"Hey Mira! Want to hang out today to celebrate summer?" she asks excitedly, knowing that I normally say yes to these types of things.

"Um, I can't, Ashley. I'm really sorry. I actually won't be home for a while. I'm, uh, out of town," I mutter.

"Oh," she sounds sadder than she did earlier, "well text me later, okay?"

"Yeah, of course!' I pipe, "I have to go now, so I will text you later. Love ya."

"Okay! Love you too, bye," she replies and hangs up.

I am really starting to hate that phone of mine. Getting all of these phone calls remind me that I am leaving all of these people that I love and care about without anything such as a good bye. I almost have the heart to turn around. Almost. It's going to take a lot more than that to get me to go back to my house of horrors. I turn up the radio to drown out my thoughts. I see all of these happy families out my window and realize that I never really had a happy family. My mom and dad were always either fighting or not even speaking to each other in general. But no, these families have caring, loving, mothers and fathers. Not just one parent who loves you and the other using you as a punching bag. I sometimes wish that I had a picture perfect family, but then I think no, God has a plan for everyone, a plan for my mother and me, and maybe, just maybe, that plan will involve and better life and family for the both of us.

I see a sign on my right saying that I have arrived in Mississippi. This is where I am going to stop for now. I pull into the rest stop right off of the exit and park my car. Settling into the backseat, I grab a bag of SmartFood popcorn and eat until half of the bag is finished. Saving it for later, I put it back in my duffel. I quickly doze off in the backseat of my Toyota Camry.

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