Newsies Forever

The Chase

Melina POV:

I laid down in the middle of Central Park into the cool grass and pulled my book out of my bag. It was a beautiful sunny day and I needed an escape from the house. Jordyn and Ben are constantly practicing for Anastasia, Parker is almost never seen without Genevieve and Maddie following right behind them, Sky and Kinsley are usually shut in their bedroom, Lucas still hates me, Carmen has been in her room most of the time, and Josh is always with the little twins. It's nice to relax out here and get some fresh air. I still don't know what to do with Jason. We are supposed to start rehearsals in 2 weeks and I don't know what's going to happen. Jason still won't talk to me, which is insane because he had just told me he loved me. I seriously don't know what the fuck Lucas could have said. And what right does he even have! He's just pissed at me for no specific reason! It's absolute bullshit! And Max hasn't talked to me forever. Life's just great.

"How slow of a reader are you? I mean you haven't flipped the page in 10 minutes now." some guy said laying down next to me on the grass. I turned my head and I didn't recognize him. He had longer blonde curly hair that made him look like he should be out surfboarding right now instead of in the middle of Central Park.

"I might be a little distracted." I laughed.

"Yeah I can tell. You don't seem at all interested in To Kill a Mockingbird." he winked.

"Who are you again?" I smiled.

"Right, the names Sam." he said.

"Do you always like to interrupt people reading Sam?" I asked.

"Only when they aren't actually reading." he joked.

"Fine you caught me." I laughed setting the book down.

"So you know my name, now what's yours?" he asked.

"Melina." I smiled.

"Interesting, you look more like a Jessica to me." he said.

"I take that as an insult!" I laughed.

"So what are you really doing out here in Central Park." he asked.

"Escaping my house, what about you?"

"Escaping something too." Sam laughed. He looked around and then quickly jerked his head back to me. "Mind if I borrow that sun hat?" he asked reaching over me, grabbing my hat, and placing it over his face as he laid back down.

"Sam?" I asked confused.

"Just keep reading your book, pretend like I'm not here." he said from under the hat. I looked over where he had seen and saw a police office walking this way. Oh shit. I quickly picked my book back up and continued to act like I was reading. Out of the corner I saw the cop walk past up, looking side to side at everybody around us. Finally she moved on and I grabbed my hat off of his face.

"Want to explain that?" I laughed.

"Just a little game of hide and seek." he winked sitting up.

"You have got to be kidding me!" I said sitting up.

"Hey you're an accomplice now, hiding a criminal." he winked.

"Hardly!" I said hitting his shoulder with my book. "So why are they after you?"

"Trespassing. Hardly worthy of a charge though, apparently they have nothing else to do." he joked.

"Here comes another one!" I said causing him to instantly grab my sun hat again and lie down. "I'm joking!" I said bursting into laughter.

"Not funny." He said sitting back up and hitting me with the sun hat.

"Do you live around here?" I asked.