RUNAWAY GIRL

CHAPTER 8

MELLISSA POV

I stood there dumbfounded at Moses outburst and watched his silhouette leave the premises of the school. I didn’t know how to react to this and my legs were not moving from my place. I really don’t know for how long I was standing there when my trans was broken by the ringtone of my cell phone.

I quickly bent down and picked it up as it fell down on the floor while I was fighting him back and clicked on the green answer key on the screen.

“Where the hell are you? I’m hungry since I haven’t really had my lunch.” Luke says annoyingly from the other side of the phone.

“Ad…ad..ri…an.” I say stammering.

“What! Are you okay? s**t. Where are you little one? Tell me I’ll come there right f*****g now. Where are you?” He asks.

“The empty classroom near my locker.” I said and slid down on the floor while my call was still connected to luke’s.

He came there in like two minutes panting and sweating like an animal, picked me up and put me in his lap. He saw the hurt marks I had on my arm from where Moses pulled me in the room and how my knuckles were bruised from hitting him and how there was some blood on the floor of the classroom.

“Little one tell me what happened? Who did this to you and more importantly what did you do to the other person?” He says slowly.

“I just want to go home please. I will tell you everything but please let’s go home first.” I say.

Luke then pulled me along with him, put me in the car and secured me properly with the seatbelt and drove home as fast as he could. We reached home and he pulled me with him, threw me on the couch, like literally threw me and got me a glass of cold water.

After I drank some, he asked me what was wrong.

“What is wrong, little one? Who dare hurt you?” He says changing his demeanour from a worried to an angry one.

“Mo..Moses. He knows something is up.” I say slowly.

“What do you mean he knows something is up? Did he do something to you?” He asked.

I narrated the whole incident to him and how I had seen before that Moses had been noticing me as he always is noticing people.

“We need to be more careful. We don’t know for sure about anything and this is not enough a good reason to move. Plus I know you are happy here staying with these people.” He says and I agree with him.

“You are right. We have to be very very careful. He can’t find us here. No one in sane mind will think that we are here back. In this very god damn town.” I say collecting myself.

“Good. Now go wash up while we wait for our oh so dear parents to come and can discuss all this with them.” He says.

“Hey do you think about Nickolai and Lisa? I mean there has got to be something in between them. They have worked together since day one.” I say.

“I really don’t know. And I am happy if they are together also as they look good and pose as our parents. It just feels so weird calling them by their names instead of Agent or mom and dad. Now go ahead and rest, little one.” He says.

I go up to my room and take a quick shower and lie down on the bed thinking of todays events. Everything went alright then at lunch, Arya and Moses confession and then Moses threatening me. What I don’t understand is that how did Moses come to this conclusion. How did he figure out that something was up. If an eighteen year old boy can figure this out then I am sure we are not safe here anymore too.

I was just about to dose off into a deep slumber when I heard a small knock on the window of my room. I looked towards the window while lying down and saw Nate standing there. I look at him and he motions for me to open the window.

“Nate it is 6 in the evening. You could have easily come from the front door, you know right?” I say.

“Ya. Ya. I could have but why miss such an adventurous leap of faith.” He says smiling and launches himself on my bed as if it was his own.

“Wow an amazing 3 meter leap of faith I must say.” I say chuckling lightly.

“Hey! Shoes off my bed.” I say and push his legs off the bed and sit next to him.

“So what did I do for you to grace me with your presence?” I say.

“Nothing. Jack is not home since he has gotten a job so he is not home, Mae is babysitting Syd, Moses is with Arya and I cannot spend alone time with Peggy and Riley otherwise I will go mad. So you were my safest option.”  He says showing me his perfect pearly white teeth.

“Thanks for telling me how important I am to you.” I say putting my hand on my heart.

“Yep these reasons and I wanted to ask you something. So can I?”  He asks.

“Yeah sure.” I say.

“So the other day when you came to Jack’s house all Godzilla style,” he says and I start laughing hearing him call me Godzilla.

“What! Don’t laugh. You scared the f**k out of us all. Woman you are scary.” He says laughing lightly with me.

“So as I was saying that day I held you in my arms and I am pretty sure I saw that your eye colour was forest green. But if I look at you now all I see are brown eyes.” He says and I quickly put my head down as he might also just notice that I am wearing contacts right now.

Fuck! Azzi think! Think fast you moron. He can’t catch us. It will break him.

“No. How can I have green eyes when I have brown. What are you saying. Oh God! I am such a bad host. I didn’t even offer you anything to eat or drink. Give me five minutes I will get some snacks.” I say and quickly rush down.

When I reach the kitchen I see mom and dad in the kitchen cooking dinner.

“Hey mom. Dad.” I say.

“Hey sweetie.” Mom says and hugs me.

“Luke told us what happened at school. Are you okay?” Dad said putting his hand on my shoulder.

“Yes. I am alright. Nathan is here and I just came down to get some snacks.” I say going to my stash cabinet and taking out two packets of Flaming Hot Cheetos that both of us to death. After that I took two glasses and a bottle of coca cola and made my ways upstairs.

“Wait where did the guy come from? I didn’t hear the front door open.” Mom says.

“He climbed in from the window.” I say shrugging.

“That sneaky bastard.” Dad says.

“Oh hush. Go on dear. Have a nice date.” Mom says.

“Mom!” I shriek.

“Keep the door open, will you?” Mom says smirking in my direction to which dad just laughs and I just ignore her and walk towards my room.

When I entered the room I saw Nathan playing a small bracelet lying down on the bed and after seeing my come in he made space on the bed and patted the space beside him for me to sit.

“Feel free to sit. Feel at home.” He says jokingly.

“Thanks for the hospitality Mr. Johnson.” I say and sit down next to him.

“You know since you got snacks, it is only fair if we watch a movie.”  He says.

“Seriously. What this is your hangout ground now?” I say.

“Oh come on. What do you want to watch?” Just as he says his phone starts ringing with Jack’s name as the caller id.

“Hey broo… no…. uhuh….. naa I’m at Melly’s…. shut the f**k up dude… oh ohkay… Let me ask her….” He says and puts the phone down and turns to me, “Hey Mell, Jack and the others are asking if they can hang here. Its been ages since we all hung out together.”

“Wait. Let me ask my parents.” I say and run downstairs.

“Woah speedy. Where do you think you are running in this speed. Man, you stomped over my house bunny slippers.” He whines.

“Liam! You’re wearing those hideous slippers again, aren’t you?” Mom says.

They both start bickering back and fourth and I stand there for two minutes listening to their banter when I realise I have to give an answer to Nate.

I whistled loudly which caused the bickering of these two year olds stop and look at me.

“Can my friends come over for a while?” I ask.

“Will there be boys?”

“Yes why not sweety.” Are the replies I get.

“Thanks mom and yes there will be boys.” I say.

“Shush Liam. Let the girl live. Tell your friends they can stay over for dinner too. I am making my all time famous pizza.” Mom says.

I nod and run back upstairs. “They can come and my mom says to stay for dinner since she is making her all time famous pizza.” I say.

“Yeas…. She says you can come over… her mom is making her all time famous pizza… okay see you in 10.” He says.

“They’ll be here in 10 minutes or so.” He says.

“All of them?” I ask remembering Moses is going to be there too.

“Yep. Something wrong?” He says seeing the change in my demeanour.

“Nope.” I say when dad walks into the room causing Nate to sit up straight.

“I need both of you run to the grocery store and buy pizza cheese. Buy at least three to four packets since I plan eating it tomorrow as well. Trust me I love that woman’s cooking so much that I’d give you and your brother up any day.” Dad says rubbing his toned stomach.

“Feeling so loved dad.” I say. And Nate laughs loudly. 

“Okay. Take this money and buy the cheese as well as fill in your junk stash. Get more of those candies and sour patch kids. Yep that’s it.” He says and turns to walk out of the room.

“Wait. How the hell do you know this. Daaaad! You finished my stash. I just filled it up three days ago.” I whine.

“I can’t help it. Your stash is way more better than your brother’s. Come on now, chop chop get going.” He says.

“Bloody spy.” I say under my breadth.

“What did you say?” Nate asks.

“Huh.” I say.

“Something like bloody spy.” Nate says.

“Huh… Nothing. Why would I say something like that.” I say nervously.

“Ya…. Why would you?” he says and we walk downstairs and out  of the house. It was a total 10 minute walk during which Nate was just saying how cool my dad was and was so friendly. Little does he know that he is only 7 years elder than my brother and 12 years elder than me.

We entered the grocery store and went to the dairy products aisle. Both of us picked up two packets of pizza cheese each and then went to talk junk food aisle then from there to candy aisle and last stop was to the ice cream fridge before going to the cash counter.

“So I’ve been meaning to ask you something but it never came up.” I say while the girl was scanning our items.

“What?” Nate says.

Is it alright to ask him about his parents. They were like parents to me too. But if he doesn’t talk about them it clearly means he does not like to talk about them. A lot has changed in these 4 years.

Just as I was going to make an excuse the cashier girl spoke and saved me from lying to him.

“That would be 20 dollars and 15 cents. Cash or card?” She says politely.

I nod at her and give her 25 dollars and say, “Keep the change.” And walk out of the store with Nate.

“Melly you were going to ask me something?” Nate says.

“Sorry it slipped my mind. When I remember I’ll surely ask you.” I say and he just nodded not fully believing me.

When we reached home we saw the others were walking into my driveway from Jack’s. We greeted each other and went inside the house. I could feel Moses’ eyes on me and I tried my best not to get uncomfortable.

“Parents, your daughter is home.” I say.

“In the living room.”

“In the kitchen.” Are the two replies I get.

We all go to the living room and see dad and Luke sitting and watch Grey’s Anatomy.

“What the hell guys. You were supposed to wait for me. This is not done.” I say.

“Shut up. You know it is f*****g impolite to not give someone if they ask you for it specially if they give you money for it.” Dad says.

“What?” I say.

“Candies. Now.” He says.

“You know what is impolite is that our daughter’s friends have come to our home for the first f*****g time and you are asking her for the candies she got for herself that too.” Mom says glaring at his head from the back with wiping her hands on the apron.

”To-ma-to, to-ma-toe. Same thing. Baby give your dad the candies.” Dad says.

“Please don’t mind the father of my kids. Sometimes he forgets his age. I am Melanie and this is Liam. You all know Luke I guess since he teaches you all.” Mom says.

“Mellissa Scott. I will tell your brother where you hide your stash if you don’t give the candies right now.” Dad says.

I quickly open the bag I had and took out a packet of sour patch kids and threw it at him and went into the kitchen to keep the cheese and quickly put my stash in my place. I will have  to change the place tonight.

When I entered the living room I saw dad talking to all my friends as if they we his friends. Mom came back and asked me to help out in the kitchen. After an hour the pizzas were ready and we all were summoned to the dining and finished our dinner.

“Hey guys  why not have a sleepover at mine today. Parents and Sydney are also not home. We can even take a bottle or too of alcohol from my parent’s bar.” Jack says.

“Yes.”

“Deffo.”

“sure.”

“Why not.”

“hell yes.”

They all look at me and I excuse myself saying I will ask my parents first.

I go into the kitchen and see my parents cleaning the dishes.

“Mom, dad. Jack has invited me for a sleepover at his house today since his parents and Sydney are not home.” I say.

“Sure why not  go ahead.” Dad says and mom nods.

“But you know what happened the last time. I am scared.” I say.

“Baby, you can’t live your life like this. He is not going to come after you this time, Azzi” Mom says putting a hand on my shoulder.

“God. It feels so nice to hear your real name for once.” I say.

“Plus we are in the next house. Don’t worry. Go have fun with your friends. Just be careful of you know who. You are Astrid Miller. You don’t have anything to be afraid of.” Dad says referring to Moses.

“yes dad.” I say.

I go back to the living room and tell them I am in and all them thanked mom for food and after bidding goodbye to me parents went to their respective houses to get their supplies while Jack, Nate and I after taking my things went to their house.

The three of us  settled the living room with many mattresses so that all of us could be  comfortable. The guys were getting the blankets while I was in the kitchen making popcorn and other snacks when I heard the others come in. Just as I was about to take the stuff out Moses came in the kitchen and stopped me.

“Do you need something Moses?” I ask politely.

“Yes. Who are you and who is the person you are so afraid of that is after you?” He asks.

“What?! What are you talking about?” I say. s**t! He heard my parents and I talking in the kitchen.

“Don’t play dumb. I heard you and your parents talking in the kitchen, Astrid Miller.” Moses says.

Well f**k! He knows!