Fire Moon

Chapter 1

Jade's POV

TW: mentions of s*xual assault, teenage pregnancy and physical ab*se.

I wake up with a start, remembering after a couple of seconds I am parked at a rest area. My watch says 5:20 am. I pull myself up and step outside to stretch.

Not many people are here this early in the morning. I notice a couple of old men at the coffee vending machine; I guess they're truck drivers. I keep my head down and try not to be obvious as I make my way inside to use the bathroom. As much as I want to check the news and see if my mother has reported me missing, I don't have my phone. I couldn't risk taking it before I left.

My name is Jade Starr, I'm 18 and I'm pregnant. I'm not your typical pregnant teen though. I've never had a boyfriend and have never even been on a date. My mother raised me on her own, but our relationship has always been rough. She has made many mistakes and the older I get the more I realize we will never be close. The last two years have not been good. She married a man named Tom Bradshaw when I was 12 and we moved from our small two-bedroom trailer into a mansion right outside Louisville. Finally, my mother moved up in society.

I wasn't happy when we moved. I loved the trailer park we lived in before we moved. Yeah, I know sounds weird right? But it was a very safe place with really nice people. There was even a pool where I spent many of my summers. I loved my school where I had friends and great teachers. After my mom married Tom, I was put in a private school surrounded by spoiled rich girls. I've been bullied and looked down on ever since I stepped foot in that place. I made only one friend, my best friend Katie Sanders. Her parents aren't rich and because she was on a scholarship program, she was bullied too. Katie is my rock and I consider her my sister.

Tom is an arrogant drunk, but he's rich so my mother puts up with him and his antics. He and I are civil and he does support me to a fault. He doesn't go out of his way for me like he does his son. My stepbrother David is a total creep. He's ten years older than me. From the time I became a teenager, David has always made inappropriate comments towards me, gestures, and I've even caught him taking pictures on his phone of me.

Not long after the start of my senior year, I got home from school one day and David was waiting. He a**aulted me for the first time that day and took the thing I wanted to hold on to, for someone who really loved me. Later that night I told my mother. She slapped me across the face and told me to keep my mouth shut and to stay away from David. My blood still runs cold at her next words. "I had it much worse than you did when I was your age. I got over it, and so will you!" I never saw her the same after that and it's why I've pulled back from her the last couple of years, though I don't think she's even noticed. Her only cares now are the country club and how much she can get out of Tom for her many shopping sprees.

I made it a point to stay away from David and successfully avoided him again until three months ago. It was the night of my graduation party and he cornered me when I went to use the bathroom. He said I was his, and I slapped him and told him I would never be his and tried to leave. David hit my head into the wall so hard I was knocked out for about a minute. When I came to, he was on top of me. It was so much worse than the first time. He called me horrible names and didn't use protection. Even though I jumped in the shower right after and scrubbed until my thighs were bleeding, even though I snuck out the next morning and got the morning after pill, the son of a b*tch got me pregnant.

I was terrified when the clinic doctor told me. Thankfully, I have just graduated high school. As much as I despise David, I've always wanted kids and decided to keep the baby. But one thing is certain: I don't want my mother or David anywhere near my child.

The only other person who knows what David did to me is Katie. She begged me to go to the police, but after we talked we both realized that with David's money and connections, it would be swept under the rug and him and my mother would make my life a living hell. I decided my best bet was to leave town. I have been saving my money from jobs and gift money from graduation, and had around $5000 before the car. Katie's father is a car dealer and she knows what to look for with cars. Katie found this Dodge Intrepid I'm driving now. She even bought it with money I gave her and had the temp tags put in her name. This car was from an older lady and has been very well maintained. Best of all, it can't be tracked since it was made long before GPS devices. My plan currently is to drive it as far away as I can get. I've already made it about 300 miles since yesterday.

I have Katie's number written down on a piece of paper and look for a phone to call her. Thankfully, this rest area has a payphone. I know it's early but she told me to call and let her know I'm fine. I dialed her number and hear a groggy "hello".

"Hey girl I'm so sorry I know it's very early or very late for you. But I'm fine the car is doing fine." I tell her.

"Thank goodness I was nervous when you didn't call last night!" Katie says.

"Any news?" I ask her.

"Yes your mother called my parents to see if I had heard from you. She wanted to talk to me directly and my mother said that's fine but she wanted to be present, and your mom got really b*tchy and said forget it. But as far as I know your mom hasn't reported you missing yet. She did say something about hiring a private investigator."

I roll my eyes in disgust. Typical Mom. "Yeah I doubt she'll call the cops. She won't want to risk them finding out her daughter is pregnant by her stepbrother. What will her country club entourage say about that?"

"Jade I'm so sorry you're going through all this. It isn't fair." Katie says, and I hear compassion and sadness in her voice that almost makes me cry.

"Listen I'll get off here and call you when I get to another location. Thank you for everything Katie. You'll never know how much you helped me. I hope one day I can return the favor."

"Stay safe and take care of yourself Jade. Also, maybe not call for a while just in case the PI pulls my phone records. It looks like you're calling from St. Louis, so if they ask I will just say you were breaking up and I couldn't make out what you were saying."

"Sounds good. Thank you and I'll be in touch soon. Love you brat."

"Love you too bae." We have some odd terms of endearment for each other. I hang up, go back to my car and break down sobbing. I really hope if nothing else comes out of this I can at least see Katie again someday. I calm down, take a deep breath and put the car in drive, not really sure where I am driving to. As long as it's far away from David and my mother, I honestly don't care where I end up. It has to be better than where I was.