Godspeed

Chapter Eight

"How did you find me?" Ava spat.

The day had just barely begun but the Bayside hurricane had no intention of waiting. Lightning crackled throughout the darkest regions of clouds and even within the enclosed space inside the thick metal doors of Richie's jeep, the thunder was deafening. Somewhere, close to Bayside, the hurricane must have already been well underway. It was only a matter of time before the destruction arrived here.

Ava tried not to jump at the thunder's suddenness. She was sure she looked weak enough as is. Her hands were still shaking from the moment they left Marley alone in the sand and every time Richie glanced at her in the backseat through the rear view mirror, her eyes would instinctively flick away. It felt too strange to be looking at him, here, again.

She knew eventually he would come back and she'd have to face the music but in the past few weeks she had also grown accustomed to existing outside of him. She could put her phone on do not disturb, enter Jah-Jah's Jamaican Jerk Foods and suddenly Richie would disappear. For select moments of her day, the boy didn't exist. Now, dodging Richard O'Riley's gaze inside the Jeep his parents got him when he was sixteen, she realised how stupid all that was. She could run if she wanted but no matter how far she got Richard O'Riley would catch up to her again.

"How did you find me?" she repeated when no one answered her.

"Why did you sleep with him?" Richie fired back. His eyes found Ava in the rear view mirror and she looked away again. She felt Jeremy tense up beside her and looked out the window. "Guess neither of us are getting or answers then."

She was okay with that. It would be wrong of her to relive those moments with Marley and it would be wrong of her to express those moments to Richie. Either way, she was betraying a boy. But Ava DeLoughery could not sit there quietly either. When they got to Duncan's house and the jeep stopped she used the split moment of silence and awareness to say, "We shouldn't have left him there. He's alone and hurt."

"He'll survive," Duncan said, stepping out.

"It was still wrong."

Richie and Duncan exchanged goodbyes and as they waited for Duncan's figure to enter his house Richie said under his breath. "We're all dealing with the consequences of our actions right now. He'll get over it too."

Ava doubted that but she didn't try to correct him. She knew Marley a lot better than she should have and a part of her twisted when she considered the chances of him ever 'getting over it'. Marley Mason wasn't like them. He wasn't a result of his experiences, he was despite them.

She thought about Richie's words nonetheless. "Does that mean you'll get over it- what I did?"

"Eventually," he answered.

"And do you think I can forgive you? For coming here, hurting Marley and whisking me away like that. Like I'm your property."

"You're not my property," he said to her, angling his head around slightly, "but you do own many things that belong to me. So, I'll hurt anyone and I'll take you from anything that I think will destroy that. Do you understand me?"

Too well, she did. Ava DeLoughery sunk in the backseat and allowed his words to dry and harden on their own. She knew if she pried while wet, she'd get stuck and after enough time had passed they'd dry and lock her in forever. Like a fly caught in a cement web.

Eventually Richie drove off and they dropped Jeremy home next, the boy leaned over and promised her she'd be okay before telling Richie something low under his breath. When Jeremy made it inside, and it was just only Richie and Ava the thunder rolled.