On the Run: The Texas Files ✔

Chapter 21: The Lies We Tell

This chapter is written from Parker's point of view!

~~~

When I heard those words, everything stood still. Time was frozen. It felt like nothing from this point on would matter. For the first time since Liz died, I felt absolutely numb.

I slammed Jackie's front door shut, and I walked down to Christine with my body shaking from anger.  When I unlocked the car, got in, and sat down, I couldn't think about anything else except for when I let Jackie drive my car.  We were so happy then. That was less than a week ago, but it could have been another lifetime. 

I sat there in my car for a few minutes. My hands were shaking so much that I couldn't put the key in the ignition. I think there was a small part of me that was hoping she would come down the stairs after me and tell me that she didn't care about the odds of us not working and that she wanted to give us a try. She never came.

Finally, I got my hands to stay still for just long enough to get Christine started. They started shaking immediately after I hear her engine roar. Goddammit. I should go back in there. I need to tell her that I don't care about those damn odds. One week with her would be everything to me. No, I needed to clear my head. I needed to wrap my head around this information.

She's on the run from the government? Why would she be so daring as to keep trying to living a normal life over and over again? Friendship must have extremely difficult for her.

Almost mindlessly, I shifted gears and left the parking lot. Christine's engine revved. My body tensed as I heard it... Jackie heard that. I hoped her heart broke as mine did.

My instincts told me to go to my secret spot on the hill overlooking Austin. That's where I do my best thinking and where I like to be alone.

I made the decision to go home. I needed to finish some homework, and what better distraction was there than astrophysics? I tried to put it out of my mind and focused on my drive home. I didn't do a very good job of it, though because my mind just kept coming back to her. We've been on so many adventures. I have learned so much from her, just in a few weeks. I haven't felt alive in years, and then this weird girl waltzed into this shitty city and showed me some fun and adventure.

I wondered how that happened.  One day, you wake up, and your life completely changes in a blink of an eye. You have no idea it's going to happen, but then it does, and you can't imagine your life as anything different. Meeting Jackie was that for me. 

It's not like she's a walking miracle or anything. She didn't save my life after my sister died. I saved myself from that. I got myself by, but she's like some drug that got made me forget about the lingering pain for a while. I wanted to say she was a distraction, but she was more than that. She's not someone you can just forget about after you meet her.

She made me feel alive again.

I pulled into my driveway, and my heart rate increased. My parents were at home. This wasn't going to be good, and I was right.

~~~

I walked into my house with my heart pounding. My father was sitting at the kitchen table, and my mother was preparing dinner. I haven't seen my mom make dinner except for holidays since before Liz died. This has to be some kind of special occasion.

"Hey, guys," I said cautiously.

"Hey, honey!" my mom said. "We're having steak and potatoes."

Steak meant a special occasion... Why though?

My dad said, "Hey, kiddo. So we're going to celebrate a little something tonight. Your mom and I took the liberty of mailing away for some college brochures for you."