Murder?

May 14th

Song shakes her head. "I don't think so. I mean, it could have, but I'm not sure. Was she breathing when you left?"

I sigh shakily. "Well, I didn't think to check for a pulse." I'm a dumbshit when I'm panicking, but I'm not about to give up my bold spirit and tell Song that. Song sighs, long and hard. 

I pull out Vanessa's wallet and flip through it. How long am I going to last? I have a total of $350 because Vanessa carries around her full bills to break them up. It seems like a lot of money to a teenager, but I know this won't last me long unless I ration food and make the right choices in my purchases. Every penny will count towards my survival. I'm thankful logic is taking my side in this. 

"I think I can get us a ride to a store." Song announces. "I have Uber and  my own credit card." She sounds weirdly proud until I remember that she's probably a high school student too. She has so much authority that she seems older than she looks.

"Wait, are you guys going to stay with me?" I ask, looking back and forth between Song and Simon.

"Well, unlike you, we're not runaways who may have murdered someone, so we still have to go to school for another month." She says. Right. It's a Thursday afternoon. Speaking of which, the sun sets at a quarter to nine tonight. I check every morning to identify my curfew time, sunset. Vanessa set that curfew for me; she wasn't all bad. Before, I wasn't allowed to go out on my own. How giving she was, however, didn't really matter when she abused me. She told me things like, 'You should be thankful I'm here!' and, 'look at all I've given you! It wouldn't hurt to repay me by doing what I fucking say!' She wanted me to do terrible things in exchange for more rights and freedom. Sexual things, painful things, and if I decided not to do them, it just got more painful. She's not like any type of abuser I've ever read about, ever heard about on the news. I told my dad about her once. He laughed me off. He said, 'Sky, you're so funny. Women are nurturers. Women can't be rapists, only men!' I don't think I've gone to him with a secret since then. 

"Right, I forgot." I sigh, closing off the memories of Vanessa. 

"I will go with you, though, to get you settled in." Song tells me. "Simon, are you going too?"

Simon nods. "Wouldn't want to miss it." 

I sigh shakily, so relieved I won't have to do this quite alone. "Thank you guys, so much. You don't even know how much this helps."