9. Chapter 4
Evie
The breeze whips my hair back as I peddle down the streets. Snot and tears run down my cheeks, creating a mess on my face. I peddle faster, because I just need to get away and hide.
I take a sharp left turn, and somehow misjudge the turn. Losing control, the bike slips out from under me. My body slides across the concrete, scraping my left side, leaving blood in its wake. My whole body hurts, I sit on the concrete in the alley while my tears run down my face.
“I hate this life. Please just take me, please.” I pray to what some people call God, hoping he will answer my prayers. I lay down in the alley, deciding to have a full on meltdown.
“What’s wrong?” I hear a voice, and notice someone’s hand is on my shoulder.
“Why do you care?” Trying to calm myself, I wipe the tears from my face with my dingy shirt.
I lift my head slowly and see a boy who's maybe a few years older than I am.
He stands from his kneeling position, then he takes a step back and crosses his arms. His brown shaggy hair keeps falling into his eyes, so he tosses his head to the side to clear the strands.
I look into his eyes, and they seem to suck me in, promising me safety from this horrible life.
“Come on.” He holds out his hand and I just stare at it for a minute. He starts to chuckle, which calms my nerves a little, so I decide to take it. What’s the worst that can happen?
“Where are we going?” I ask nervously. He helps me stand, and I try to wipe my face off some more with my shirt.
“Somewhere safe.” That immediately causes alarm bells to go off in my head.
“Safe?” As we start to walk down the alley, my knees feel wobbly from the fall.
After about a 5 minute walk, we stop at a house.
We walk through the door, and I notice a top of line big screen TV, sitting in front of a U-shaped couch.
There are several guys grinding the buttons on their controllers, cussing at whatever game is on.
When I walk in, they all stop to look at me.
“Umm, hi,” I say nervously, trying to avoid any direct eye contact, thumbing a thread that has come out of my shirt.
“Emmit, who is she, and why is she here?” One of the guys asks. I lift my head and look over towards them, and the one I assume asked, immediately stops what he's doing.
“Who did this to you?” The question startles me, causing me to jump.
My side of the tracks, don’t ask those kinds of questions.
They use their hands to communicate. I needed to get out of there, so I just peddled and peddled until I couldn’t any longer.
The only thought I had was I had to get away from him, the monster my mom wants me to call dad.
Evie
Present day
I crouch down, trying to pull my shit together enough to keep hidden. Whether he knows it or not, he saved me that day, and made me into the person I am today, him and his best friends. I shake my head trying to clear my mind as all the memories start flooding back.
One single tear flows down my cheek, before I quickly wipe it away; can’t show any weakness around here, that will get me killed.
I can’t let them know I’m back, I’ve come too far to fall back in with them.
I carefully peek back out and quickly move to the other side of the alley.
I must have made a sound, because Emmit‘s head whips around. “Thanks man.” Emmit gives the officer a friendly hand shake for dropping him off. Emmit’s muscles ripple as he turns away to leave, making me melt inside.
Fuck, he’s even bigger than the last time I saw him. Ok Evie, time to get your shit together.
I knew there was a chance of running into one of them eventually.
I guess sometimes I have to decide which is the lesser of two evils; my stepdad or one of the five men who have always had my heart in the palms of their hands.
I pull out a joint and place it in between my lips, and as I light it up, my heart beat starts to slow down.
I take in a drag, holding it for a few seconds, before releasing the smoke out. I love the sting in my lungs.
Bang… Bang. My head snaps around at the noise. Shit, a man’s body lands on the concrete with a loud thud. Shit, Emmit, what the fuck?! I have to get moving. I can’t have any run-ins with the cops, or even worse, one of them.
Do you ever have old phantom feelings? They can be the worst, but they can also feel so real. I have that feeling now; a mouth sucking my right index finger, trailing its way up my arm. I try to shake it off, but seeing Emmit definitely woke up something that I thought I had locked up tight.
Finally pulling myself together, I exit the alley, shoulders up, stomach in, standing tall. I refuse to cower to anyone. I start walking so fast, I end up bumping into a random guy on the street. “Watch it!” he snarls at me.
“Fuck you, you got in my way?” I yell back at him while shaking my head.
I keep walking, lighting up the joint again, and pull in a quick drag.
I hold it until my lungs burn, then release it slowly.
Fuck, my head is so messed up right now.
Seeing Emmit was more of a mind fuck than I thought it would have been.
I haven’t seen him, or any of the others, in years.
A part of me wanted to run into his strong arms, and soak in his snuggles.
“Get out of the fucking road!” A man yells from the driver side of his car.
Shit, I hadn’t even realized I was in the road, but it pulls me back to reality.
Emmit was my rock, my safe place, and meant so much to me.
My eyes start to water, but I shake it off, because bad bitches don’t cry.
I made my bed, so I have to lay in it. As harsh as those words are, they are also true.
I ran, I had to. Every other choice ended with one of us in a body bag.
There was no way I was going to let my vindictive stepfather destroy the one thing I loved.
My boys!