ELUSIVE (Book 2)

CHAPTER 19

"You okay?" He asks and when he's not paying attention I push him down into the water and run out of the lake.

I hear him right behind me as I laugh. He grabs me by the waist and we both lose our footing. I fall first on the soft grass and I turn to see Sawyer falling on top of me face first but he catches himself.

We're both smiling, our breathing hard.

"That wasn't funny." He tries to sound serious and I nod laughing.

"It was for me." His face is so close to mine, his eyes wandering on every inch of my face. His eyes stop at my lips and he lowers himself and right as I think he's about to kiss me, we hear a gun shot.

"Get off my property you stupid morons."

"It's not a real gun it just makes the noise." Sawyer whispers into my ears, when he sees my eyes are widen.

In seconds I'm surrounded by black and we're back in the forrest. We're still drenched.

Sawyer doesn't say a word when he leads me back to the van. The van isn't there.

"Fuck. I knew they would leave." Sawyer curses.

"It's okay. I told Avery." I tell him.

"She's the one who probably mentioned to leave." Sawyer glares at me.

"Let's just walk until we find a small town." I shrug, trying to stay calm.

We find a gas station after twenty minuets of walking. While Sawyer is in the bathroom I call a bus station. When Sawyer is out of the bathroom his clothes are still damp and his hair is all wet.

"Want the good news or bad?" I ask and he looks at me just waiting to continue.

"Bad is we have a two mile walk to the next bus station... good news is well there's a bus station." I shrug not really having good news.

"You're quiet this morning..." Sawyer says after waking half a mile in silence.

"Just umm a little tired." I shrug. We continue in silence for a few more minutes.

"It's last night isn't it?" He says. "If you want to talk about it..."

"Not really..."

We continue walking and every few steps he glances my way. I'm not in the mood for talking or sharing but my silence is obviously bugging him.

"I keep thinking about you and Evan. That no matter how hard your childhood seemed you guys were laughing and happy. When I felt you tense up I wanted to..."

"Wanted to what?" He cuts in.

I shrug, "Yell, run and take them away."

"If it was real, you shouldn't. Don't get involved."

"Not the point." I murmur as I hit a rock with my toe.

"Okay, so the point is?"

"I know how they...." I pause, "you guys felt. When I saw that knife I froze. I felt helpless. Hoping that someone would come and help."

"In the alley you had no time to process what was happening. You talked to Jospeh about this right?"

I shake my head no.

Sawyer frowns, "But you did tell him what happened?"

I shake my head again.

"You should. You need someone to talk to. Avery isn't even an option." He pauses. "You can talk to me, but you probably already figured out I'm shit at this." He places his hands in his pockets, "but if you wanted to.." He trails off and he stands up straighter, "But it should be Jospeh. He would want to know what happened. He would want you to be the one to tell him."