“Ava, what in the world has gotten into you?” my mother asked.
“A pair of balls, Mom. Something you should’ve grown a long time ago,” I said.
I heard my brothers snicker just before something cracked against my cheek. I could feel it stinging as Hunter cried out for me, my head whipping around on my neck. Tears sprang to my eyes as my hand came to my cheek, touching the burning skin as my father panted. I slowly looked back at him, watching his hand stay raised as if he was preparing for another blow.
“I will not have you disrespecting me in my own house,” my father said. “I have raised you to be a proper woman. One who is respected and polite and beautiful. I put you through the best schooling as a child and paid exorbitant amounts of money for you to have the best clothes and makeup and guidance I could afford. You will not throw it all back in my face because you have decided to be ungrateful.”
Tears fell onto my cheeks as my body began to tremble.
“Now, get upstairs and clean yourself up. Your mother will be up in a couple of hours to help you prepare for your date tonight,” my father said.
I looked over at my brothers and they were poised to lunge at my father. Why they hadn’t already done it was beyond me, but they had done all they felt they could do, I supposed. I drew in a shaking breath as I backtracked upstairs, my mind reeling as I closed my door. I sank to the floor as tears continued to stream down my cheeks as my hand cupped my red-tainted skin.
I had to get out of here.
I couldn’t stay here another second.
I went and ripped the last suitcase I had out of my closet. I pulled out the few pieces of clothing I had snuck in over the years. Three pairs of jeans, two sweatshirts, some cotton panties, a pair of flip flops, and a two-piece bathing suit. I ripped at all the shirts my mother had made for me and grabbed a couple of the dresses I still enjoyed. I threw all of my library books in there and stuffed my favorite pillow on top, then I sat on the suitcase as I zipped it up.
I grabbed my phone charger and my phone, but I took the battery out of it. I grabbed the coffee can from underneath my bed that I had stowed money away in for a couple of years now. It wasn’t much. Maybe four hundred dollars. But it would get me to somewhere other than here, and that was the point.
I shoved it all into the pockets of my dress I had secretively sewn onto the outfit I was wearing.
Then? A knock came at my door.
“Who is it?” I asked.
“It’s Hunter.”
I pushed my suitcase off to the side and slowly opened the door.
“Are you packed?” he asked.
I furrowed my brow at him as I looked back at the suitcase I had concealed.
“How did you-?”
“Come with me,” he said.
He held out his hand for me and I took it within mine. I grabbed my suitcase and tossed it over my shoulder as we wove through the house. We went out the back entrance, avoiding Mom and Dad as we booked it for the far corner of our property. We ran until we couldn’t hardly breathe, and as we got passed the small amounts of brush, we came to a road.
And my car was sitting there with Finn and Lorenzo in it.
Hunter took my suitcase from me and stuffed it into my car. Finn and Lorenzo got out, then handed me an envelope. I opened it up and found a numerous amount of bills in it, and I gasped as tears streamed down my face.
“The first thing you need to do when you get to wherever you’re going is you need to change your phone number. Open your own account if you have to. Then? You call us. We want to know you’re okay,” Lorenzo said.
“That’s enough money to get you set up somewhere for a couple of months. But if you do a nice extended stay hotel, you can get four months out of it,” Finn said.
I turned towards Hunter as tears streamed down my cheeks.
“What they’re doing to you is wrong, Ava. And if running is the only way you can get away-- if that’s the only way we can help you-- then that’s what we’re going to do,” he said.
“Because we’re your brothers. And we love you,” Finn said.
I hugged each of their necks tightly before Lorenzo ushered me into my car. I gave them one last wave before I left, watching them recede in my rearview mirror. It hurt to leave them. To watch them wave me off. This was what my life had come to. Running from the only life I had ever known-- the only family I had ever known-- just to try and make something better for myself. I sighed as I got out onto the main road, my head on a swivel as I tried to figure out where the hell I was going to go from here.
I wasn’t sure if I was ready for California anymore. But I did know where the last place was that I felt safe.