The information didn’t really sink in, I was still thinking to myself until I noticed Ethan had started running around looking for an exit. I closed the front door and pulled my mum onto a couch, and then surprisingly it wasn’t difficult to do the same to Ethan. My mum was still in shock, her eyes bulged but her finger was no longer pointing, which calmed me a bit. I cleared my throat and began to explain even though I didn’t really know much about Ethan. I remembered why he looked so familiar, it was cause I saw him on the television in the hospital the very first time I woke up properly after my collapse. He was a runaway.
‘Umm, mum this is Ethan Rain.’ I looked at him to make sure I said it right but he just looked down.
‘Ethan? Ethan!’ He looked up at me as if I had awoken him from a nightmare. It was a look of a scared and innocent kid, it almost made me want to pity him but I knew better than to do that.
‘Ethan this is my mum Tracey Frost.’ He looked at me and nodded.
‘Mum your scaring him, stop staring!’ At once she stopped staring.
‘Umm, Kayla, your dad will be fine, he’ll be out by next week.’
‘Yeah alright.’
There was nothing but silence after that, what’s worse? It was awkward silence. The good thing is that Ethan and my mum both seemed to have settled down, though that didn’t mean my mum had stopped staring. The fact that he was a runaway really hit me; he said he was desperate but why? I was so curious but then like they say, curiosity killed the cat. After about half an hour of my mum staring at Ethan I decided to let him go I just didn’t want him to suddenly disappear. I led him out the door and talked to him in private.
‘Ethan, don’t worry my mum won’t tell anyone. I can guarantee it.’ I shook him.
‘I trust you, and even if she did, nobody would be able to find our place.’ The word our tingled through my body and replayed in my mind.
‘Yeah, now go, I have to convince my mum.’ He turned and walked away.
‘Don’t get raped!’ I shouted, he waved and disappeared.
I sighed and walked back into the house knowing that I would have to face my mum.
‘Kayla, where did you meet him?’
‘In the shops.’
‘Really, why would a runaway be at the shops and then come home with you?’
‘He was just buying some stuff and I helped him around the town a little.’
‘How was he at our house!’ She started raising her voice.
‘I was being followed by a man and he saved me!’ She annoyed me and she knew it.
‘I’m going to call the police.’ This alarmed me, ideas of how to stop her raced through my head, but nothing was reliable.
‘YOU CAN’T!’ She turned her head and stared wide eyed at me.
‘Why not? His family is probably worrying about him!’ I couldn’t agree more but I had to stop her, she wasn’t going to force him to go anywhere.
‘You don’t even know his circumstances and your just going to send him to the police, selfish is what that’s called!’
‘No Kayla, your being selfish, for goodness sake what about his home!’
‘It was his choice!’ I ran up the stairs and locked my room, I expected my mum to come knocking soon but she didn’t, what if she did call the police?
My headache got stronger and couldn’t help but let out a gasp of pain. I always had a constant headache but I had gotten used to it. Only rarely did it get severely painful, which was much stronger then usual. I fell onto my bed because my headache was threatening to give me a blackout but I fought to stay awake. I held my head and curled up into a ball, I could feel the throbbing. I bit into my blanket to keep me from screaming and stayed like that for a while. When the headache finally settled down a little my jaw hurt from the sudden tension. I knew that I needed to go check up soon.
I lay there on my bed and listened into the silence then slowly I fell asleep. The whole next week was horrible because my mum didn’t let me go anywhere by myself, which meant I had no chance to go to our place. I had no form of contact with Ethan and I couldn’t take any photos, my mind was again deteriorating. Finally it was Wednesday the next week and I had a check up at the hospital, obviously the doctors told me that I wasn’t getting any better and I had been getting worse. After the check up my mum went to check up on my dad and I snuck out to our place.
I nearly ran, got back home and took my camera. Then I arrived at our place at 1:13 PM, I squeezed through the little gap and like always the place took my breath away. I looked around for any clue of Ethan but there was none. I started to panic and thoughts were running through my brain like what if he left, what if he thinks I left him, and more. But at the moment I started doubting him being here, he appeared.
‘Hey Kayla.’ He was eating a cream puff and he held one out to me.
‘No thanks, you know you scared me!’ I breathed deeply and flopped to the ground.
‘How?’
‘I thought you left!’ He smirked
‘Is that all that made you panic?’ I blushed.
‘Seriously Ethan!’
‘Calm down, I told you that I believe no one will find this place. And if they do I already have an escape route.’
‘If there comes a day that you do leave, would you tell me?’ I realised what I had said and covered my mouth as he chuckled.
‘Of course.’
With his reassurance I relaxed, took a few photos and realised it was already 5:20 PM. I had been gone for four hours; my mum was going to freak. My dad had been told about the incident on the day he was hospitalised. He came back on Monday but he thought my mum was overreacting because he said he had once ran away from home when he was a kid too. That didn’t convince my mum that Ethan was safe though, obviously. I was still curious and he hadn’t told me anything. I sighed and told myself he was probably just not ready to talk about it yet.
When I got home I snuck up to my room and hid the camera, went back down and out to the groceries to buy some snacks and the weekly iheartphoto magazine. I carried the stuff back home and rang the doorbell even though I had the keys.
‘KAYLA FROST WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!’ My mum’s voice echoed through the halls.
‘Let me in first?’ I raised my hands to show my shopping bags and she let me in. I sat in the kitchen and explained that I had gone to buy some photography magazines and read some books at the local library. She didn’t believe it though.
‘You can’t lie to me Kayla!’ She was suspicious but she had already calmed a little.
‘I’m not lying.’ I smiled as sincerely as I could and left for my room. I locked the door and plopped the magazine onto my bed. I checked my mobile for the time and was completely shocked by what I saw. My eyebrows furrowed as I read the text message.
Hey Kayla, I added your number in my mobile a while ago :) I was thinking and I reckon I owe you an explanation. Meet me tomorrow, around 4:00 pm at the place. Text from Ethan 5:41 PM
Oh man.
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This turned out to be shorter than I expected but I really tried, it's getting harder and harder to write =______=! Oh well, comment or vote or both :) thanks!
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Living through Lenses
Novela Juvenil*COVER BY iwishiwasawinner13* When you're 15 years old, a young teenage girl, the last thing you expect is brain cancer. With a year left to live Kayla Frost feels dead already, so young, so gone. Her brain tumour is too large to be surgically remov...
