Race to the Finish

Race to the Finish chp.28

“Hey!” Travis yelled from behind me making me jump and my heart to start racing.

I took a deep breath and put a hand to my heart. “Hey.” I said gulping down the lump that had grown in my throat since I stepped foot in the school this morning. 

It has been 2 days since I had last seen Jason and that horrific note; yesterday I had been let out of the hospital and had gone straight to Titi’s house. I hadn’t been ready to go home just to get another beating just moments after being let out of the hospital. 

I would’ve taken Jaiden with me and I was about to, but I needed to talk to Titi, I needed to calm my frantic heartbeat and the fear that I had only once experience course through my veins once again. I couldn’t let Jaiden see me like that. It would have freaked her and scared her out too much. I didn’t want her to worry. 

She didn’t know anything about my time with Sebastian and Fausto because she was only two when that happened. Titi didn’t know either; the only people who knew are my parents. I didn’t have the heart to tell him once I had escaped them. I had told him that I was at an aunt’s house for a bit more than half a year.  

“You seem a bit jumpy today. What’s up?” Travis said looking at me with worry filled green eyes.

I shook my head taking a deep breath before answering him normally. “Nothing, just didn’t get a good night sleep.” I said yawning at the end.

It wasn’t fully a lie. I hadn’t slept well last night due to all the questions that ran through my head.

“Maybe that’s why…” I heard Travis mumble to himself as he scowled at the dirty floor underneath his heavy combat boots.

That’s when I noticed he had dark bags under his eyes, his dark brown hair was a mess on his head as if he’d been running his hand through it nonstop, and his ‘The All American Rejects’ t-shirt was wrinkled and his jeans were faded. 

“Trav… Are you ok?” I asked putting a hand on his shoulder causing him to look up at me.

“I-I don’t know… I mean Tiana… she has been acting… weird.” He said with a sigh. “I don’t she hasn’t been sleeping well, she has nightmares, and is very jumpy whenever someone nears her. She’s also been distancing herself from her friends and myself. I don’t even know where she disappears to like right now.” He said and his eyes glimmered with moist.

I knew what he was feeling right now. Like he didn’t know what to do or even if he was able to help and protect his little sister. Difference is that I know what I need to protect and help my sister from (my father) while Travis is in the dark which is a much worse feeling.

I thought long and hard about the way Tiana was acting and it is not her. Tiana was bold and confident. She is friendly and kind. She trusts her brother and tells him everything. They are really close so for her to be jumpy around him is not normal.

“How about if I talk to her?” I asked him hoping it will cheer him up a bit.