Flesh and Blood

Traveling

I never wanted this to end. I was so happy and felt so relieved.  I found the answers I was looking for after all of this time. He pulled me back and smiled at me and kissed my cheek. He was still looking at me like he couldn't believe I was there. 

"Do I really have to go back?"

"Yes, sweetie you do. I'm so sorry. You can call me or text me any time you want to. I'm always here for you Cassie. I'll always make time for you, but they're legally your parents."

I nodded and looked down. I knew exactly what it was going to be like when I got home. I was going to be in more trouble than I knew what to do with. Especially since my parents called the cops. It just means my dad is going to be meaner than ever. I have to find a way to get $200 to pay Travis back. He got up and walked away from me and started smoking a cigarette. Ew he smokes? Gross. I looked up at him and raised my eyebrow

"What?"

"I didn't know you smoked"

He looked down at the cigarette and smirked at me "Been trying to quit"

"Ah. Uh huh."

"You don't believe me do you?"

I giggled "No.  I heard this some where once 'Someone is either a smoker or a nonsmoker. There's no in-between. The trick is to find out which one you are, and be that. If you're a nonsmoker, you'll know.'"

Colby: "Hey we should get on the road. We're going to have to stay at a hotel now. What's going on?"

"We're done. I just wanted to have a cigarette before we left. Then I started getting psychological smoking advice from a 16 year old."

"Whatever. I was just trying to help you keep those extra 20 years to your life that you're currently losing by sucking on that thing. But hey if you don't want to live longer then by all means...keep smoking."

He took one last drag off of the cigarette and stomped it out

"Happy now?"

"It's a start"

I got up from the bench and walked to the car. They soon followed and we were off again. I wasn't really looking forward to going home. If I could find a way to stall or drag this out I would, but I knew that no matter what I was going to end up at home. Maybe my dad will talk to my adopted dad and he won't be so pissed

"Dad?"

"Yeah?" 

"Do you think that maybe you could talk to my other dad so he won't be so mad at me?? I know I shouldn't have run away and stolen the money, but I was just desperate."

"We'll see what happens when we get back OK?"

"K"

I put in my ear buds and started listening to music as I held my bear and stared out the window. We reached a hotel and got a room. I sat down on the edge of one of the beds and waited to find out what happened next. I was kind of hungry but was afraid to ask for food. I didn't want them to feel like they had to feed me or something...they were already taking 2 days to drive me from Boston to Indiana. I looked around the room a bit and saw a bunch of candy and junk by this little fridge. I got up and walked over and looked at it

"Are you hungry?"

"What? No. I was just looking"

"When was the last time you ate something?"

I thought about it for a minute and shrugged "I don't know...like...2 days ago. I'm really not that hungry"

"Cassie! 2 days ago? Lets go. Come on...we're going to go to dinner. I can't let you sit here and starve."