Chapter 33
Romeo
After the long talk about what happened to Julien and a lot of bitching on my behalf, we pack up and leave the campsite.
This is the first time we have no plans and no idea where we’re going.
As we hit the road, we don’t even really know what direction to drive in, only vague goals.
And I’m totally okay with that. All that matters is that Julien is with us, and he’s not dying after all.
I’m still pissed at him for running my emotions through a wringer, but I’ll get past it. It doesn’t dilute my love for him.
There was never any question that we’d take Jinx with us, and he was willing to tag along. He’s also still pissed, but he’s starting to calm down.
I’m scrolling through my phone looking up small towns where it snows when Julien suddenly gets a call. He glances at it and gasps. He quickly scans the road and pulls over on the shoulder.
“Of all fucking days to call me…” he says, putting the truck in Park.
Whoever was calling has hung up, but he’s calling them back.
“What the fuck do you want, Mom?”
His mom? Oh, shit. Why now? Seems weird she’d call him today of all days. She almost lost her son, not that she fucking cares.
I can’t see his face because he’s looking out the window on the driver’s side, but his hand is gripping the phone so tightly I’m worried he’ll crush it.
Then, just like that, Julien starts laughing hysterically, not the funny kind, like it’s mixed with anger. He sounds almost deranged. I have no other way to describe it.
“There must be a fucking god after all.” He chuffs at his mother. “It’s actually very funny. It makes my goddamn year. My goddamn life. It couldn’t have happened to a worse fucking person.”
Julien shakes his head and runs his hand through his hair, which is still wrecked from this morning.
“Not gonna happen. The police can kiss my ass. And if you tell them anything about me or what Holt did to me, I’ll fuck up your life.
I can afford to do that now that you have nothing.
All you tell them is that I’m off on a road trip with friends, and you have no idea where I am. ”
He laughs again, but this one’s more genuine.
“Tough shit. Maybe if you’d protected me or loved me, instead of being jealous, I’d send you some.
But you chose war. You chose a rapist over your own son.
You chose to ignore what Holt did to me for fucking years.
” His voice has lost all its humor, and it’s now laced with such venom.
I’ve never once heard him talk like that to anyone.
“On the day before I left, who knows how many times he raped me while I was passed out from his beating, and you left me. You let him. All I know is that there were four condoms on the floor next to me, as if to tell me he can do what he wants, and no one will care. He was right. No one cared, especially you. You can rot in hell.”
Julien hangs up on her, jumps out of the car, and stands next to an overlook.
I instantly follow him, terrified that he’s changed his mind about staying.
Instead, he steps up to the guardrail, grabs a rock from the ground, and with his arm outstretched behind him, he throws it as far as he can, letting out a violent scream.
“Julien?”
“I’m okay, baby. More than okay,” he says out of breath, nostrils flaring and chest heaving. I wish I could see his eyes behind his sunglasses.
We get back into the car, and he grips the steering wheel and rests his head on it. I’m holding my breath, dying to know what’s going on. Then he starts laughing again. “The world is fucking twisted, filled with irony and coincidences. Perhaps it’s fate. Of all fucking days this happens...”
“Bro! Don’t leave us in suspense, man,” Jinx says before I can.
“Apparently, my stepdad was about to be arrested, but he ended up putting a bullet between the eyes instead. Fucking coward, but I already knew that. There was an investigation into fraud and insider trading within his company. When they searched his computer before he could delete it all, they found a shit ton of child porn, the sicko. Mom said there was nothing of me on there, thank fuck, so I told her not to tell the police shit.”
“But… why? I mean, what does it matter if they know? He needs to burn for what he did to you,” I say.
He looks at me and smiles softly. “He did burn. Besides, I can’t because of you and Jinx. I don’t want to risk them finding out about what went down with Tito. We could all go to prison for it. It doesn’t matter what Tito did to you all. The police won’t care.”
Julien sighs heavily and rests his head on the steering wheel again.
“She apologized at least, so it’s something.
Then, of course, she ruined it by asking for money.
So, her apology is worth shit. She’s on her own now, and she’s going to have to learn to take care of herself.
Dad didn’t leave her with much, not compared to what he gave me.
She got a house and money from selling it, but it was never enough.
Holt probably left her something that the authorities haven’t confiscated. Maybe. Don’t give a fuck…”
“Well, at least she didn’t name you Tyler when you were born.
” Julien laughs again, and I slap a hand over my mouth as I giggle.
“Seriously, your mom is fucked up, bro.” Jinx sits up and pats Julien’s shoulder.
“Look, man, I appreciate you’re trying to protect us all, but if the cops wanna find you, they will. ”
“Yeah, I know. If they do, I’ll tell them I know nothing about Holt and his…
proclivities. I’m sure they’ll let it go since I’m not tied to any of it, or so I hope.
It helps that he’s dead, too. We’ll just have to deal with it when the time comes.
I’m not going to hide. We’re not going to live off-grid and never use computers, phones, or credit cards.
I don’t want to live on the run, and it’s not fair for any of us just because two men decided to be perverts and abusers. ”
“Shouldn’t your mom be arrested or something, too? She let it happen,” Jinx says.
“Oh, she’ll suffer. With no money or work experience, she’s fucked. Let her be broke and forced to work. It’ll humble her.”
I hold out my palm to him. Julien takes it, and I kiss the top of his hand. “I can’t speak for Jinx, but I’m with you all the way, Sugar, no matter what.”
“Oh, I’m totally in,” Jinx agrees.
Julien smiles back at Jinx, then at me. “Thanks. We’ll be our own family from here on out—a family with Nutmeg.”
Because Julien and I didn’t eat last night or this morning, we stopped at a diner in a small town called Cameron, north of the Grand Canyon.
We’re eating outside, so Nutmeg can hang with us. The table is filled with pancakes, bacon, eggs, toast, chicken and waffles, fruit, and carafes of orange juice and coffee.
“Hungry much?” Jinx laughs when our server leaves.
Julien reaches for the fried chicken sitting on top of a waffle. “Fucking starving.”
His need to eat is such a relief. It’s nice to see him devour the breakfast.
I grab some bacon and feed it to Nutmeg, who’s sitting like a good girl.
She never barks or begs. Nutmeg could do no wrong in my eyes.
As I nibble on a piece of toast, I scroll through my phone.
“I’m still trying to figure out where to go.
I’m looking up small towns we could live in.
I’ve always wanted to live in a little town where everyone knows you, smiles at you, and they don’t want to hurt you. ”
“That’d be nice, actually,” Julien says, practically drowning his waffles and chicken in maple syrup. “I’ve always wanted to go to Durango, Colorado. Look it up on your phone and see if it’s something you’d like to visit.”
The pictures of the old western town are so pretty. Even prettier are the mountain peaks with snow on them. It’s also greener with tons of lakes, rivers, and creeks. “Oh, this is so pretty.”
Jinx wiggles his fingers at me. “Let me see.”
“Shit, you both need new phones. Yours are going to turn off eventually when Tito doesn’t pay the bills.
” Julien says, shoving a strawberry into his mouth.
“We’ll snag a couple when we reach a town to settle in for a few days.
If we go to Durango, it shouldn’t take us more than about five hours to get there. What do you think?”
“Oooh, this place looks cool… and fucking cold. No short-shorts for me anymore.”
“I thought you liked the ladies,” Julien says, smirking and taking a sip of his coffee.
“I do, thank you very much. Still, I’m just used to it, I guess. Well, I suppose having a sugar daddy wouldn’t be so bad.”
Now Julien is shoving a whole sausage link into his mouth. “We’ll definitely need warmer gear. Maybe we can go skiing this winter. I’ve never been.”
I laugh at his eating, which is usually refined. Now, he’s eating like an animal, and I love it. “Skiing looks fun,” I chime in.
Julien sits back, rubbing his stomach after cramming several bites of chicken and waffles into his mouth. “Then it’s settled. Durango, it is. We’ll stay there for a while to see if we actually want to settle down, then we can look for a house.”
I take his hand and laugh when Nutmeg tries to lick us. “I can’t wait to see what our future’s gonna be like.”
He squeezes my hand back. “We both know it’s going to be messy as hell.”
Jinx snorts a laugh as he cuts into his pancakes. “Please, you two have this in the bag. I’ve never seen two people more perfect for each other.”
“You think?” Julien asks.
“You know what I like about you, Julien? You don’t treat me like a kid. Even though I’m a few years younger than you, you treat me like an equal. You’re alright in my book.”
“I’m pretty sure you’re smarter than Romeo and me put together.”
Jinx smirks and shoves a bite into his mouth. “Probably.”
An hour after we leave the restaurant, Julien suddenly slams on the brakes and pulls into a place that sells RVs. “We need one of these,” he says. “It’ll be way more comfortable to drive for long periods as we find a permanent place to settle down.”
We park and get out. Julien rushes over to the largest RV I’ve ever seen in my life.
“Bro, that’s not an RV, that’s a fucking house on wheels,” Jinx says.
Julien runs his hands across the surface. “Exactly. It’s perfect.”
“Do you even know how to drive one of these, dude?”
“I can learn.”
Jinx stares up at the sky and closes his eyes. “We’re all gonna die.”
Two hours later, we’re driving off the lot in the new RV. They almost didn’t sell it to us, considering we’re only nineteen, but once we showed that Julien had a lot of money, they were happy to let us have it.
The thing is a monster, and it’s powerful enough to pull his truck behind us. It’s comfortable inside and has all you could ever possibly need. It even has two beds, a shower, and a washer and dryer. Nutmeg can walk around freely without having to sit the entire time.
“We could live in this, dude,” Jinx said. “I have to admit, it’s fire.”
“We’re going to live in a house. I want us all to have a real home. We’ll travel a lot, but I think we need some place that’s steady. A place to return to.”
I stare out the window as the mountains grow taller and more and more trees appear along the windy road. It’s so beautiful, and I kind of like it more than the desert.
We don’t reach Durango until just before eight at night. It’s still light enough that I can see all the sights. There are so many horses and so much green grass, more grass than I’ve seen in my life. There are fields and fields of it. We only had weeds and half-dead palm trees where I grew up.
“We need to find a hotel or something for the night,” Julien says, keeping his eyes on the road.
I’m on my phone again, looking for a place to stay, when the RV slows down to a crawl before stopping. I look over to where Julien is looking.
“What’s going on?” I ask.
“There’s a house for sale over there. See the sign?” He grins at me. “Let’s be spontaneous and check it out.”
He slowly turns onto the driveway that leads us higher. It’s long, too. I look at Julien, wondering where the hell he’s taking us. “You sure there’s a house around here?”
“Yep.”
We go around a bend, and the house suddenly looms in the distance. It’s fucking huge and looks like the biggest cabin I’ve ever seen in my life, made of wood and stone. It’s surrounded by pine trees and other trees with white trunks, but I have no idea what they’re called.
As we turn into the curved driveway, we park and jump out. Across from the house is a huge pond, and behind the house are the mountains. The rest is surrounded by woods and fields.
There’s another for sale sign with some pamphlets. Julien takes one and reads it. “Shit, it sits on seventy acres. There’s also a river that runs along the property.”
“Do you think we’ll see a bear?” Jinx asks excitedly.
“Possibly.”
Julien suddenly runs off, and we chase after him. We find him on the other side, at the back of the house. There’s another house, or a barn. I’m not sure which, because there’s a place for horses, but above it is an entire house.
Julien spins around with his arms spread out, smiling like a crazed man. “It’s fucking fate. It has to be. This is it. This is ours. I saw the for sale sign for a reason. Can you imagine what we could do with this place?”
Jinx laughs and spins around like Julien. “I’d be happy in a crack house, as long as I’ve got shelter, but I could definitely get down with this. It’s so beautiful.”
I walk over to Julien, who’s smiling so wide it must hurt. When I reach him, he wraps an arm around me, lifts me in the air, and spins me. I giggle as he puts me down and turns us to face the mountains as the sun starts to set, casting them in gold.
“What do you think, Cupcake?”
“It’s so beautiful. I love the mountains and trees.”
“I’d planned to keep on driving and exploring, which is why I bought the RV, but I think we’re meant to live here. Do you think you’d be happy living in this house?”
I rest my head on his shoulder. “I’d be happy anywhere you are, Sugar. If you want to live here, then so do I.”
“Then it’s settled. I’ll reach out to the agent tomorrow.” He kisses the top of my head. “Welcome home, baby.”
“Home,” I whisper. A real home with people and a dog I love.