glow [s. rogers]

3

oliver knew something was askew even before delilah's broken, tear soaked body entered the wildly messy apartment. they were his best friend senses and he sensed something was wrong.

he stood up as soon as he saw the doorknob turn and her throw her body through the small space she had made.

"pack everything, we have to go to my dad's house, we have to hide."

the words were shocking, not at all what oliver was expecting.

"hold on-" he put his hand up to stop his frazzled best friend as she was furiously grabbing clothes and her various toiletries and shoving them into a duffel bag, "you just went to buy ice cream, you came back with no ice cream, and now you're going to flee to new jersey. sis, this doesn't not add up."

"can you please just get your emergency bag, oliver?" she pleaded with him, her pink duffel already hung from her shoulder and her small, shaking hand didn't move from the doorknob, "i'll tell you and my dad when we get there, it'll be easier to only explain it once."

ollie was smart when he wanted to be, more or less smart when he needed to be; so he ran into his room, grabbed his emergency bag, and followed delilah out the door.

the two didn't end up running to the parking garage where the old volkswagen jetta was parked like the blonde girl wanted them to. her friend had instructed her to walk because if they were both sprinting with packed bags it would end up being very suspicious.

"delilah, let me drive."

she stopped jiggling the handle to the car door long enough to look confused at oliver, who had refused to unlock the doors until she agreed he was driving.

"your hands are still shaking, you haven't stopped crying, please let me drive. i don't even want to go to new jersey, let alone die on my way to new jersey, please let me drive."

if delilah wasn't in such a rush to flee the state she probably would've argued, but to her it was simply not the time to argue, it was the time to run.

luckily the ride was a little less than two hours, but it was different than the other car rides the pair of best friends usually would share. their usual care rides included them and their crackhead antics, screaming to old taylor swift and one direction.

"do you wanna play i spy?" oliver asked, his eyes veering from the road to delilah, who was holding her head in her hands like she was afraid it was going to fall off her neck. he was trying to get her to smile for once, but it seemed to be a failed attempt.

"it's pitch black, ollie." she mumbled, sitting forward in the car seat.

"so," he began and trailed off for a bit, "i spy with my little eye, something black!"

"my soul."

oliver just rolled his eyes at her as they pulled into the long gravel drive way of her father's farmhouse outside of newark.

the two grabbed their luggage and scurried into the house to escape the bitter cold of the night that looked over the old house where they had spent many of their childhood days.

"delilah sol," her father spoke from where he sat on the same recliner he had kept through many years, sipping a mug of tea, "you didn't tell me you'd be visiting."

she tried to smile but the guilt and heaviness of her heart simply would not allow it, "i wasn't really planning on it, but something happened."

derrick everly could see through the hurt expression she was trying so hard to hide from him, he knew delilah too well.