Step Out And Shine(On Hold)

Chapter 4

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Hope you enjoy.

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Chapter 4

Jessica

I hate roadtrips. Oh god they're horrible. I mean this is the farthest I've traveled but I can tell you if I ever do this again, I will be in an RV or at least somewhere I can stretch out. I have longs legs and I'm surprised they haven't fallen off from being cramped between the small space between the dashbooard and passenger seat of Austin's truck. But then again Austin makes this all worth while. How can I complain when he's doing this all for me. I mean he barely sleeps, barely eats and is driving the entire time we're on the road so I can sleep, and I'm bitchy because my legs are cramping and numb. Ugh. I seriously don't understand how he deals with me, how he loves me. Eek always thinking of that makes me giddy, not as giddy as when he takes my hand from of my lap and brushes his lips against my knuckles causing chills to sprout the every part of me and then says he loves me, but still it gets me pretty damn excited. Sometime in the middle of the night I must have fallen asleep, because before I know it Austin is nudging me awake and I'm looking around confused. We're driving down an old dirt back country road and are surrounded by fields of all different kinds endlessly flowing over the country side in different shades of golden brown and green all hazed over in the shades of the sunrise and the early morning fog. A few people were already out and about tending to their land and I watched amazed rolling down the window to let the smell of damp earth, strawberries, cotton, water, fertilizer, musky air, hay, and grass. A few several types of animals were grazing in the fields and I leaned against the window watching in amazement. Wow this is beautiful. The sunrise had just started and only added to the beauty of it all. The horizon was just beginning to turn a golden yellow matching the wheat fields swaying in the wind, with light hues of pink and orange and red mixing in fading into a light purple evening sky that would soon fade into a baby sky blue. I turned my gaze back to Austin who was watching the road and me out of the corner of my eye. I would chew him out for waking me up before absolutely neccasary but this is too beautiful. "Where are we?"I ask in awed amazement, it's just so beautiful. Austin must have turned the radio down so all you could hear was it's low buzzing, the sound of the tractor, and the animals along with the general buzz of the morning, and it was already starrting to get pretty warm and sticky and humid. It was always relatively quite around our small town but we lived right out side the city in the suburbs but it was also on the outskirts of our town, so that we were close to everything but still had that small town feel my psychotic mother loved. But this was different. It felt like a small town was supposed to feel. It felt calm and serene and sleepy and familiar. "We, my beautiful, amazing, sexy, girlfriend, whom I loved more than anything and wouldn't know what to do without because you are my world and my best-friend; are in mid Georgia about 150 miles from Tallahasse."Austin says taking my hand interlacing my fingers in his kissing each of my knuckles individually smiling against my skin. See what I mean. He makes me want to jump his bones in the middle of a corn field when he says stuff like that. Austin looked up briefly at me turning his head slightly and smirking not moving his mouth from the back of my hand as he continued his assualt up my slightly sweaty arm giving me heart racing chills all over my body causing me to shudder as he pulled me closer. "Eyes on the road babe."I says putting emphasis on the word 'babe' before pulling my arm away smoothly. If I had kept letting him do what he was doing, I would've seriously been jeprodizing our safety by attacking him while he was driving. Austin smirked like he knew what he was doing as he did what he was told but kept me next to him by throwing his heavy muscular arm over my shoulders. Not that I'm complaining though. I just buried myself on his side tucking my nose in the crook of his neck breathing in his musky manly scent. My arms crossing over the soft cotton material off his plain white t-shirt feeling his defined stomach and back muscles as I clasped my hands at the side of his rib cage and laid the side of my face of his shoulder as he drove with one hand. His dark hair falling over his golden stormy gray green eyes and is damp slightly from the sweat he's accumulated from the Georgia weather. Mmmm he looks delicious. Oh my, just kill me now. It should be a sin, it's got to be a sin for someone to be that attractive and that amazing and make me want him that badly. Holy Jesus. Seriously it's not fair. We stay like that, with him driving and me basking in the greatness that is my boyfriend, best-friend, and the only guy I will ever love or that loves me like he does. So unconditionally. It blows my mind how someone can put up with me for as long as he does as much as he does and still love me like he does. Finally the road slowly turns from dirt to loose gravel until we hit pavement at the city limit sign of a town called Hopestone, with a population of five hundred. Oh wow. Our high school had more students than that. Maybe our town wasn't as small as I thought! I mean jeez. The outskirts of the town seem to consist of an old beat up abandoned dance warehouse, an electrical company head quarters and a sonic and walmart. The heart of the town is just a collection of two story houses that mirror each other from across the street. They are faded with paint and every parking lot seems filled with old trucks like Austin's. "I love this place."I say and Austin nods in agreement. There are a few people walking down the street and are talking to one another and staring as they point to Austin's truck. A familiar face finds my gaze and I find myself finding it hard to breath. My Aunt Sarah, the one who was supposedly living in Virginia. She hadn't changed a bit. She looked nothing like my mom except they both had green eyes and I was glad they were exact opposites, all I could hope for was that it was true for their personalities and mental stability too. Her hair was still dark honey wood brown with a tinge of dark purplish red almost maroon color to it and she was still skinny with slight curvesand beautiful icy green eyes that shone with warmth even from where we sat in Austin's truck about fifty feet away, her skin was slightly tanned with freckles around her high cheek bones and her bangs were choppily cut to the edge of her eyebrows that were knitted together in confusion, I knew she recognized me, even if it was a vague memory. She stood in front of a three story dance studio called Dance Dance Dance with the concrete walls painted white covering the cement blocks with a mural of different types of dancing. The top two floors had windows covered in curtains and looked like anapartment. The bay windows of the front gave way to the spacious dance studio and I told Austin to pull in there. He had never met my Aunt Sarah only heard the stories I had told, but I knew he recognized her description, and the fact that she was standing in front of a dance studio. I just can't believe she's in Georgia, in this small town. I am honestly blown away and extremely excited she's here. Now we don't have to stay in a motel. Ugh, unless she doesn't want us. I mean, who wants to keep a couple of restless over worrying teenagers running from their pasts even if one of them is your niece. What am I going- correction what are we going to do if she doesn't want us? Or worse sends us back. I know she never really for certain knew how my dad acted behind closed doors along with my mom but she had her suspicions, I mean who wouldn't. So would she believe me if I told her or call my parents and told them where I was and to come pick me up like an unwanted toy donated to GoodWill that was broken and poorly used. I hope not. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't survive the horrid beating that would come if my father ever found me, us. God who would be there for Rosie. Who would Austin be with. My heart crushes at the thought of him moving on if I were to die first, but I knew if it were him he would want me to move on and be happy it's just selfish and stupid for me not to want the same for him. I'm broken out of my thoughts when my Aunt Sarah opens the door and pulls me into a hug, her stick thin arms crushing my spine as she squeezes me tightly. I hug her back just as tightly, and she strokes my hair. I can smell her vanilla, rose, and straberry scent, and I can feel the focused stares of practically everyone who lives in this small town staring at us both intensely. "I've missed you JessieBear, I've really, really missed you."She says her soft motherly tone causing tears to cascade down my face. Aunt Sarah is the definition of how a mother should be, not like mine. She didn't ask about my parents, or Rosie, who I'm pretty sure she didn't even know exsisted and I know she knew they weren't here and that I wasn't neccisarrily supposed to be there either. But I was. And I would tell her, but maybe later. "I've missed you more, and I'm sorry I didin't call, I didn't want my dad or mom to find out."I say softly and she nods understanding crossing her strong harsh yet delicate soft facial features, as she leads me out of the truck and into her dance studio with Austin not far behind with our bags. The inside was almost as amazing as the outside. it consisted of several rooms. One was a waiting room sorta of thing for the parents I guess and it was fifty feet by fifty feet at least with light wood bamboo floors and soft white walls covered in photos of dance teams at competions and dance recitals. There was a bulky TV hanging in the very top corner of the wall directly in front of the door and the one across from the front desk area booth thing, that wall had a maroon colored couch leaning against it while the other was bare besides the hard plastic cushioned seat sickly green colored chairs that mirrored the ones on the opposite wall that leaned against the bay window on that side. The mini office booth that was across from the the wall with the couch seemed small and cluttered. It was about ten feet by five feet and had papers strewn everywhere. From the gray metal filling cabinet covered in childrens artwork and magnets that sat in the far left corner next to a light wood door to the small secretary's desk that sat in the back right corner right across from the filing cabinet, with the maroon colored carpet covered floors, and the mini fridge and bullutin cork board with differnt stuff pinned up along with a calender, along with the light grey plastic wooden desk that covered the rest of space behind the pentagon shaped bay window, with more folders and files on top of it along with a cup full of pens and a file folder clear plastic holder hanging right to the left next to the bulletin board holding what looked like registraion forms next to a clipboard hanging by a red pin on the bulletin board. "You guys can stay in the apartment above. It needs some serious work but it's better than nothing, the door right there leads out into a hallway stairs are in the very back corner, I'm sure I could get some help from around town in supplies and help to spruce it up but for now....."She trailed off before pointing to the previousl mentioned door. Austin nodded kissing my lips quickly whispering against them saying. "I'm gonna go put our bags up, I love you."His lips left mine leaving me dizzy and lightheaded in a tailspin of want. I nodded telling him I loved him too before turning back to my aunt who had her eyebrows raised with a playfully teasing look, that made me blush only worsening as she giggled and bumped her hip with mine. Usually the sudden playfull contact would make me flinch, but I felt so safe and securue and sure with Aunt Sarah I guess that's why I just smiled and laughed following her out to the locker room, where she was setting up for her morning class. Hmm maybe it won't be so bad living here.

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