Chapter 5
Two Days Expired
THEN
(Amelia)
OMG… cute guy alert.
I stuffed my hands into the front pocket of my hoodie and rolled my eyes.
I knew there were some streets in town I wasn’t supposed to be on, but I never knew why until now.
After cutting through a few yards, walking along an old, rusted chain link fence, I heard the sound of voices and couldn’t believe what I had seen. A guy on the hood of a minivan, swinging a baseball bat over and over. Three other guys on the ground, watching.
Stupid me for freezing up and being seen.
And stupid me for running and stopping at a random house not that far from where the vandalizing had happened.
But at least I got to talk to him.
And by him I had no idea his name or who he was.
Just some tough, cut boy in a black hoodie who was super tall. With messy, long hair, and a really mean look in his eyes. At least until we started talking. Then the look in his eyes changed. He relaxed a little, even after I told him I lived in the house I stood at and that my father had a gun.
I hurried back home and went through the back door into the kitchen.
As I turned to shut the door, I bumped the counter full of empty beer bottles. They clanked together and one took a dive to the floor. The sound was like a bomb going off.
“Dammit,” I growled.
I locked the door and looked up, waiting for the creak of the floor.
I picked up the beer bottle and hurried to take off my hoodie. I balled it up and put it on a chair at the kitchen table. When I pushed the chair in, the hoodie was totally hidden. I reached back and pulled the hair tie out of my hair. I bent forward and messed with it. It was forever in a million knots because of my curls.
When I stood back up, I let it fall wherever it wanted.
I walked to the fridge, opened it and took out the almost empty gallon of milk. The expiration date was two days ago, but my father insisted it was still good to drink.
“Hello?” a voice asked. “Who’s there? I have a weapon. I’ll fucking kill you.”
“Mom, it’s just me,” I said. “I’m getting a drink of milk.”
Mom shuffled into the kitchen with her right hand hidden in her royal blue fuzzy bathrobe.
She took her hand out of the robe, holding the TV remote from her bedroom.
“What’s that for?” I asked.
“I was going to pretend it was a gun,” she said. “In case you were a robber.”
“I’m just getting a glass of milk,” I said.
“Can’t sleep?”
“Just thirsty,” I said. “Go back to sleep. Before…” I looked up. “… he wakes up.”
Mom nodded. “Yeah. I’d better go.”
“Goodnight, Mom,” I said.
“Goodnight, Amelia,” she said. “Fly, baby, okay? Always fly…”
I smiled. “Okay.”
Mom left the kitchen and I put the milk back.
I looked down and gasped.
All that planning to lie to my parents, and I had forgotten to take my shoes off.
Not that it mattered.
Mom didn’t notice.
I couldn’t blame her.
She was afraid for her life.
So was I.
That’s why I went for my midnight walk. Wishing I could just walk to a new town, a new house and a new family.
Or meet someone to save me from it all.
I thought about that cute boy again and bit my lip.
He certainly wasn’t the knight in shining armor I wrote my stupid stories about.
If anything, he would only cause more trouble for me.
At least I’d never see him again.
Chapter 6
Pictures, People, Pissed Off
NOW
(Josh)
… in every way possible. But the thing is, Delilah, you don’t understand what that means. And you can’t understand what that means. In my mind and my heart, you are so great. Greater than anything I’ve ever seen, held or loved in my entire life. Nobody understood that part. Everyone looks at age as this way to judge you, and I call bullshit on that. We’ve been through so much. So much of that not a single person gets. A day can pass by in a breath or a day can pass by in a year.
I’m going to tell you a hundred times that I love you, Delilah. There’s no escaping it…
“Have a drink with me,” Aaron said as he passed me a small glass with amber liquid in it.
I took the glass and put it down on the table.
“You’re turning down a drink?” he asked.
“I’m not drinking that shit,” I said. “Let’s get a beer.”
“They have beer here?”
“If I say I want beer, it appears,” I said. “I’m a magician.”
“Hey, there you are,” another voice said.
I turned and saw Rae walking with her hand locked tight to Toby’s little hand. He was carrying a small elephant and looked as nervous as Rae.
“What’s wrong?” I asked Rae.
She curled her eyebrows down. “This is madness here, Josh. I didn’t realize you were famous.”
“Hardly,” I said. “It’s just a bunch of people trying to look smart in front of each other.” I crouched and opened my arms. “Where’s my hug, little man?”
Toby pulled away from his mother and came charging at me. I scooped him up and stood. He smelled like ketchup and grape juice. The smell of youth and innocence.
“I came back to have a drink with Josh,” Aaron said.
“Drinking? We have the baby with us. You can’t be doing that.”
“Easy, love,” I said to Rae as I smiled. “I wasn’t going to let him get wasted.”
“Yeah, right,” Rae said. “I know how you two are together.”
“It’s called a bromance,” I said.
“It’s called moronic,” she threw back at me.
“Maybe you need a drink.”
“Excuse me?” she asked.
“That’s not a bad idea,” Aaron said. He grabbed the small glass of champagne off the table. “Here. Drink.”
“I’m responsible,” Rae said.
“Hardly,” I called out.
“Josh,” Aaron said.
I put my right hand around Toby’s head and covered his ear. He put his head on my shoulder
