3 am; joji miller

2.3

Silence fell over the rooftop. Neither of us said anything. Tears were still coming out of my eyes. He just looked at me, as if he were frozen.

Did I say that too soon? I don't even know why I said it. It felt right. And, honestly, I think I do. You know, love him.

"Rose, I..." George began. But, of course, those assholes had to show up again.

The door behind me slammed open, and out walked at least six goons, with Scar leading them. George grabbed my wrist and pulled me towards him.

"Tsk, tsk. Rose Rose Rose, I thought we had an agreement?" Scar said, smiling evilly. I tried to talk, but I couldn't. I was stricken with fear.

"It wasn't her fault! I found the messages. She didn't tell me!" George called out, stepping in front of me.

"Was I talking to you, Joji? I was talking to your little girlfriend. But, Joji, I do want to ask you something. Something that's been...picking at my brain since this whole situation surfaced. Why in the world, would you bring someone else into this situation? Please, explain," Scar said, him and his goons taking a step towards us.

Joji didn't say anything back to him. He looked down at his feet, obviously upset. I was scared, but anger began to build up inside of me.

"Who the hell are you to talk to him like that?! Who the hell are you to do this to him?! To me?! To anyone?!" I yelled. Scar chuckled, and they all took another step towards us, becoming uncomfortably close. Joji took my hand and pulled me back with him a little bit more. We were nearing the edge of the roof.

"I've been so so nice to you, Rose. You're going to be rude to me, after all that I've done for you? You're alive, so is George. Even your father, but if you talk to me like that again, well then...I'm afraid that that's going to have to change. You can either say bye bye to daddy, or to George."

"You can't do this! It's not fair!" I screamed, tears continuing in their normal path down my face. George pulled me into his arms, surrounding me with care, trying his best to calm me down, but that wasn't working.

"Sweetie, honey, Rose...perhaps, we can make this easier for you. We can take the choice out of the picture. You can go home, daddy'll be okay, and your life will go back to normal," Scar said. I rose my head out of Joji's arms, looking into Scar's dead, cold eyes.

"What're you talking about?" I asked.

"Rose, don't listen to him," Joji said, but I pulled away from him completely.

"Right here, right now, we'll take Joji, and pay for a plane ticket for you to go home. We won't harm you or your father. If you ask me, that's a pretty generous offer, seeing as you've put us through all this trouble. Am I right boys?" Scar said, looking around at the other men surrounding us. They all nodded and mumbled in agreement with their "leader."

I took a few steps. Bold steps. I was inches away from this human monster. One more step, and I was face to face with him.

"So, babygirl, we got a deal?" He asked, putting his hand around my waist, pulling me even closer to him. I looked up into his eyes, and smiled softly.

"You know, Scar, I think you got up here a little too late," I said, practically whispering.

"And why do you say that?" He asked, tightening his grip.

"Because...you missed an important piece of the puzzle."

"And what's that?"

"The part where I told Joji I loved him. Joji, run!" I called out. I kneed Scar where no guy ever wants to get hit then turned around, to see Joji punching the two guys that were on either side of him. After they were out of the way, I ran up to him and looked over the edge of the building.

"Grab them!" Scar yelled, making his way up from the ground. We looked over our shoulders, then at each other.

Joji grabbed my face, and very quickly spoke.

"Rose, I love you too."

He took my hand, and we jumped.

-

      I opened my eyes, Joji shaking me aggressively. "Rose, c'mon, we gotta go!" He yelled.

      I didn't have time to respond before he picked me up, balanced me on my feet, took my hand, and yanked me towards the door of the roof that we had landed on. Luckily for us, Joji was thinking, and was aware of his surroundings. It's almost like he's a pro at this.

We rushed down the stairs in the neighboring building and got to the bottom floor. We ran out the front door and continued sprinting to the right.

"There they are!" We heard Scar's men yell from behind us. Joji and I made our way through crowds of people on the street. We slid past them and looked around for an escape. Joji spotted a car parked on the side of the road. "Rose, come on. We have to be quick!" He yelled.

He went to the driver's side, me at the passenger's. Luckily, the driver's side door was unlocked. He hopped in and unlocked my door. I jumped in and he quickly reached under the dash, pulling out a few wires.

"Come on George, they're catching up!" I said frantically, looking through the back glass. They weren't far behind, but they were too late. Joji got the car started.

"Got it!" He yelled. It was stick shift. He hadn't realized that before.

"Move over!" I yelled, realizing that he wasn't good with stick. I moved over into his lap and then he made his way to the passengers seat. I shifted into first gear and sped off the curb.

"Aw hell yeah," George said, looking behind us, the men shrinking as we got further and further away from them.

"We gotta get out of here," I said, finally letting out a breath.

"You think?" He said, finally turning around in his seat, facing forwards.

"Well, how are we gonna get our stuff?" I asked.

"Well, we have your..." George began before I shut him up.

"Shh..." I said, holding up a finger to my lips.

"What..."

"Shh!"

I pointed to my phone. He held it up and gave me a questioning look. I grabbed it from him and chucked it out the window, smashing it.

"What the hell did you do that for?!" George said, raising out of his seat, looking to see the pieces of the phone himself.

"My phone still had that tracking device on it. There wasn't a way for me to get rid of it. That was the only thing we could've done," I said.

"Well what are we gonna do now?" George asked, sighing and slumping back into his seat.

"Look, we'll get somewhere far away, find a phone and call Ian and tell him what's going on. We'll look up the hotel and you can call and tell them are room number and ask them to mail everything back home. But, I have no clue how we're gonna get home."

George reached over and put his hand on mine. "We'll figure it out, I promise," He said.

"God I hope so."