never be alone || s.m

3

It was finally the end of my first day at Pine Ridge.

"Wait, Maya. Before you go" Abby began, I turned to face her and she was scrambling in her pockets trying to find something. Eventually, she pulled out her phone. "Do you want to exchange numbers?"

Someone, was asking me for my number?

"Uh- yeah of course!" I shouted a little too loud, I was just so ecstatic.

She passed me her phone and I entered my number into her contacts, and named myself 'maya:)'.

"Cool. I'll text you later" she added, before walking down the hall and out of the main entrance.

Did I just, make a friend? No. It can't be that easy.

I slowly made my way out of the main entrance and waited in the car park for my mom. About ten minutes later, she still wasn't there, so I decided to text her.

maya
mom, are you on your way?

mom
sorry honey! i totally forgot!

maya
it's okay, i'll walk

My mom is always forgetting things, I can't say I blame her. She's got a lot on her plate.

You see, I lied about why I moved here to Shawn.

It wasn't because my Dad got a promotion, it was because we were running away from my Dad.

He used to abuse my mom all the time, physically and mentally. It was after a big fight that we decided to leave town when he was at work. My mom, my brother and I all got in her car and just.... left.

We have moved in with my Aunt. She's lived here in Canada since she met her Husband, around twenty years ago. And she invited us to come here when she heard about the abuse.

My Dad has not tried to contact us at all. And that worries me. It's like, he's planning something.

My deep thoughts were then interrupted by a loud beep from behind me. I quickly turned my head around to see a large jeep parked up next to me.

"You want a ride?" the voice asked. I then realised who it was, Shawn.

"No thank you, I'm fine" I politely responded, before turning and continuing to walk away.

"Maya" he snapped. "I insist"

I turned around once again to meet his welcoming brown eyes. "Just get in the car" he smiled.

I didn't know him. I couldn't trust him. But something inside my brain was just telling me to accept the offer.

"Okay" I surrendered, jumping up into the passenger seat of the car and closing the door behind me.

"Damn, You're hard to persuade" he chuckled, shaking his head.

"Well, I don't usually get into cars with strangers" I explained, laughing too. After I put my seatbelt on he began to drive.

"So, where to?" he asked.

"10 maple way please" I answered.

"....So you're the one who moved in to the house on the corner" he sighed.

"Excuse me?" I asked.

"That sounded rude- I'm sorry. No, I just meant that I saw a moving truck there a couple of days ago and I was wondering who the new family was" he apologised.

"So... you live near me?" I cringed. I mean, I wasn't going to be happy about it. Not after what Abby told me.

"Don't sound too thrilled" he joked. "Yeah, I live across the street"

"Cool" I lied.

We pulled up outside his house and both jumped out of the car.

"Thank you for the ride" I smiled, as I walked towards my front door.

"Anytime Maya" he waved, closing his door behind him.