Runaways (Orphans 5)

She knew what it was like to be lavished with

unwanted attention.

"Come on, let's just go in and sit down. They'll

leave us alone if we ignore them." I said, opening the

door to the diner.

After we'd ordered I got up to use the bathroom

and when I returned to the table I saw that one of the

motorcyclists had sat down in my vacant chair. I

cleared my throat and he started to get up. Crystal,

Raven and Butterfly all looked up at me gratefully, as

if I'd saved them from some sort of torture. When I

heard the motorcyclist speak, I knew I had.

"Well, if you girls need anything you just holler

for Paulio. I'll be right over there," he said, pointing to

the table where his greasy friends sat.

Thankfully the waitress came then with our

order and we settled in to fill our grumbling tummies.

As we finished the last of our food Crystal asked if

we'd need gas soon.

"I'll get gas here before we leave," I said. "The

wagon's a guzzler. Lucky we have Gordon's credit

card."

"Don't you have to sign his name?" Butterfly

asked fearfully.

"We'll use those tanks where you just stick the

card in," I said. "When we drove up, I saw they had

them here."

Crystal took out the map and we started to

discuss the trip, where we thought we would be after

another day's travel, and how far we would get by