The Runaways

Chapter 37

        “I’m sorry I can’t be something better than I am and that your mom won’t be meeting a man she can be proud of.”

        “Caleb—”

        “I’m sorry I stole your life from you for a little while, but the least I can do is give it back. So take it, and go home. Just go home.”

She walked over and held me to her before I crumbled to pieces on the pavement. She couldn’t see the chaos kicking and screaming inside me, but I guess she felt it ‘cause she caught me before I broke under the weight of a lifetime of loneliness.

        “Just stay with me for a little while, Caleb. I’ll do what I promised, but just stay with me until then okay?”

I would’ve rooted myself to that moment for her. I would’ve done anything to quiet the sad desperation in her voice that I’d tried so hard to hide in mine.

Hailey Anderson would be the end of me. I guess I kinda knew that when I met her, but standing on the edge of finally having to let her go, I really felt it for the first time.

        “You know, if you wanted me to meet your mom that badly, we should’ve stopped off at one of the strip malls, so I could’ve made myself look presentable.”

She cocked her head back and laughed the kind of laugh that rattles your heartstrings. God knows she rocked the inside of my ribcage hard enough to re-break the bones.

        “I think you look presentable, minus the cuts and bruises and gunshot wounds, you look pretty good for a guy on the run.”

        “Can’t disagree with that, but I’m sure you’ve brought home classier options.”

Hailey wrapped her arms around me, and leaned into my body like she belonged to it.

        “No, sir. You’re the first.”

        “Liar.”

        “Nope, you’re number one.”

If there was anything about tonight worth smiling over, that was it, but I tried not to get too excited.

        “Well, you certainly know how to pick em’. Criminal records and all,” I said.

        “Details.”

The walk up her driveway didn’t hurt half as bad with her holding on to me. A half-a- mile of perfectly trimmed grass, low-lit lamps, and lawn jockeys flew by ‘til we found ourselves standing on the widest white-pillared porch I’d ever seen.

The two-story giant looked like it had at least 200 years of secrets built into its walls just hiding behind the blue and white paint.

        “How many people live here?” I asked.

        “Just me and my Mom.”

        “Jeez, you’ve got enough room for two or three families in this place.”

        “This used to be my grandparents’. It’s been in the family for a while. We just got smaller over the generations,” she said.

        “That’s funny, my family had the opposite problem. We only got bigger and somehow managed to never have enough room.”

I peaked in one of the windows to get a preview of what rich people lived like. All the lights in the house were on, but the curtains were so thick I couldn’t see too far past them.

        “You should talk to your Ma first. I’ll be alright waiting outside.”

      “Okay, just don’t go anywhere. Even if you hear her freaking out just wait for me, okay? She freaks out a lot, but once she’s through the worst of it she’s pretty cool, I promise.”