Runaway

01: A Ruined Pink and Blue Sari

01: A Ruined Pink and Blue Sari

I screwed up.

"It's too late to be acting so stubbornly, idiot..." She whispered to herself, "Just go back to the apartment and forget this night ever happened."

She sucked in air, her raven hair was a frizzy mess from the constant rolling tears of the clouds. The millions and billions of stars hidden, a single light shined on Talia and it was the moon.

The detailed flower art creatively painted on her hands were smeared away. Scratches and purple bruises formed on her body and face. Talia ran down a mountain from a mansion filled with lively guests who rented the finest silk sari and suits. Her pink and blue sari was a rental too but from the hostess of the party.

She crossed the street in a rush to the ocean but stopped when she looked down at the thrash of water that pounded against the rocky cliff.

Talia knew what had happened, it always occurred when the blue sky turned to a misty night. Especially when the dark clouds made their unwelcomed appearance.

She remembered the disappointed looks on her parents faces the moment she refused to move back to India with them back. She was fifthteen but now she was eighteen.

The date was February twenty-first of 2016, Talia's birthday of all days. That was the second worst day of her life. She loved America but she knew she only loves it because she had only live in America.

The restless waves of the tide hit against the mountains made her mind feel a nerve-racking fear. Completely out of cigarettes to calm her nerve was a painful realization. Not that she ever smoked. She liked to watch them burn. It calmed her. The cigarette matched the scent her father who always smoked. When she hugged him before bedtime during her childhood, she could smell the smoke. Without the light of the tiny killing machine and the burning ash smell, she couldn't stop from thinking more of her parents she left three years ago.

Talia's hips touched the thin sheets metals glued together, it held her back from a watery death. The two bright bulbs from fast-paced cars blinded her each time it passed by. No one stopped for her.

Probably never spotted her. Too busy with their own problems and troubling lives.

Her caramel hands shook. "I left my bag..." She realized. She accepted that she always talked out loud when she felt pressured.

Her wallet, phone, even her baby-lips chap stick, all left in her run-down apartment because she didn't trust the rich fools she worked for.

Talia needed the job. She couldn't say no to the job, it always was a bad job. Working with a cheerful smile, carrying a light tray with rows of wine glasses for arrogant pigs.

It had been hours of running but who knows how long she's actually ran. As her short breaths puff out fog, Talia didn't stop moving.

"Why did he have to be there." She shakily whispered. Her older brother lived in Utah for a year for college, far from Florida. Like Talia, he barely received a message of the move before their parents were gone.

It was a week ago when Talia read the papers, she saw his success as a professor for a university in California, and his visit to Florida. Talia should have called it, the party was for a bunch of successful doctors.

Her dress started to weigh as it soaked in crystalline water. In frustration and exasperation, she dug her nails into the dress and ripped a sleeve off. Her grunts and curses spilling out her indignation.

She was a mess, all her hope was during the day. She recalled hearing other lonely girls and boys would walk the same path she's taking. Some would be found, some would be guided back, some would come back by themselves or some were never found. A dark dangerous feeling made Talia sob mutely. The bitter air pricked her skin, her eyes and ears burned.