The Runaways

Chapter Four

I raise my eyebrows. He didn't tell me why he ran away, so I'm not going to push him.

"When did you leave?" I ask.

"Last week. Wednesday, I think... You?"

"Today. At about 4:30."

"Well, we definitely need to keep moving." He stands and helps me up.

"I've got an idea," Luke says,"My friend doesn't mind if I stay over at his house for a few nights. I could bring you along.. Does that sound good?"

"That sounds fantastic. Does he live in Birmingham?"

"Mhmm." He walks over to his motorcycle and cranks it. He

glances at me and raises an eyebrow.

"Have you ever ridden on a motorcycle before?"

I swallow hard. He can tell that I haven't.

He laughs and says, "C'mon! It's nothing to be scared of." Luke scoots forward, and I sit behind him, gripping his torso for dear life.

He drives to his friend's house and parks the motorcycle on the street.

"Wait.. What's your friend's name?"

"Jeremy. He's cool, he'll be fine with us staying here," he says, smiling.

Luke leads me to the front door and knocks. Jeremy comes to the door. About 18 years old, blonde hair, bright blue eyes, maybe 5'11.

"Hey, Luke." Jeremy says smiling, "Oh, who's this?"

"This is Skyler," Luke says. I give

a little wave from behind him.

"Is it cool if she stays here, too?" he asks.

"Sure! Fine with me."

"Thanks, man," Luke tells him as he leads me inside the house.

"Thank you so much," I tell Jeremy as I pass him.

Luke and I walk up a staircase and into the guest room. One queen-sized bed. My heart starts to beat faster.

Luke seems nervous, too. He turns to me and says, "Don't worry. I won't.. uh, try anything.. I swear. And- and I'll even sleep on the floor if you want me to."

He goes into the bathroom to shower, so I plop down on my back at the foot of the bed and think about all that's happened today. My stomach snarls at me, and I curl onto my side, trying to make the pain go away. In a few minutes, I hear Luke coming back toward the room. He walks through the doorway and my jaw drops.

He only has on grey gym shorts. And I thought he was smokin' when he had a shirt on.
Immediately closing my mouth, I try to keep cool. Instead, I act very distracted with the knots in one of my boot laces. Luke smiles as he sees me struggling with the tangled strings.

"Need a little help?" he asks, coming over to me.

"If you're up to the challenge," I answer, dropping my grip on the laces.

He sits on the bed next to me and props my foot on his leg. Within seconds they're untangled, and he gives me a 'really? that was hard?' look. I know it's stupid, but I do it anyway. I squint and stick out my tongue at him. Luke just laughs. I take off my other shoe and head to the bathroom down the hallway.

The shower feels rough on my bruised head, but I'm thankful for that clean feeling. When I step out of the shower and wrap a towel around me, I glance in the mirror. All of my makeup is washed off, and now I notice that my face has

bruises and scrapes on it as well as my arms and shoulders. Somehow I know this isn't from my little 'adventure' today. Ugh. I hope I never see my dad again.

Turning to my left, I see a blue oversized Old Navy sweatshirt and some shorts sitting on the bathroom counter. Luke must've set them in here for me.. I slip them on. The sweatshirt is a bit too big in the shoulders, but the bottom of the shorts comes to just above my knees.

I push up my sleeves a little, open the bathroom door, and walk back to the guest room, carrying my other clothes.

As I turn into the room, I see a

lamp is on, and Luke is laying back on the bed, flipping t.v. channels with the remote. Once I step into the room, Luke turns his head toward me and does a double-take as his eyes grow wide. He quickly glances me over and accidentally drops the remote on the floor. He immediately blushes and

picks the remote up.

"Uh, sorry.." he mumbles.

I sit on the edge of the bed next to him.

Luke continues flipping stations. I drop my old clothes onto a chair by the wall. As I lean back on the pillows next to him, I glance at the alarm clock on the nightstand. 10:30.

Jeremy sticks his head in as he walks by and tells us goodnight. Luke clicks the t.v. off, but leaves the little lamp on before he gets in the floor to sleep on a few stacked quilts.

"Luke, we can share this bed. It's not a big deal. I don't want-"

"No, I don't mind. Really," he insists.

I turn on my side and curl into a ball on the large bed.

For a few minutes there's hardly any noise in the room, and I wonder if he's already fallen asleep.

"Skyler?" Luke whispers.

"Hmm?"

"What's your favorite memory?"

Tough question. Mom died when I was little, so that took away what little joy I would've had in my younger years. So..

" I don't know," I answer.

He nods and gives his adorable crooked smile up at me.

"What about you?" I reply after a beat.

"When I met you in the restaurant," he says.