Ava woke slowly the next morning, soft sunlight gracing her eyes as she gradually opened them. She had no idea where she was at first, her surroundings seeming hazy and unfamiliar for a few moments. She pushed herself up into a sitting position, glancing around the motel room only to see Gavin sleeping on the floor. Memories from last night rushed back to her, and she nearly wanted to curl up and cry. How had she gotten into this situation? It still blew her mind how quickly things had changed in her life. One moment, she was happy and excelling in college, then she was on the run with her professor to who knows where.
Gavin stirred a little, the sunlight cascading onto his face. His eyes slowly opened and immediately shifted to her, like his first instinct was to check on her. "Hey," he greeted her quietly, his eyes blinking slowly as he gradually woke himself up.
"Hi," Ava murmured, her eyes casting themselves down to the blankets bunched up around her. Looking at him just made everything feel all that more real, and she didn't like that feeling.
Gavin kicked off his blanket and got to his feet, his arms moving to stretch. "Well, I'm still your teacher. So, I'm going to teach you something today."
"What topic of psychology could you possibly be teaching me today?" Ava asked, narrowing her eyes in confusion as she slid herself out of the bed, straightening her clothes. She really enjoyed learning things about psychology, but she figured now maybe wasn't the best time for a lesson.
"Not psychology this time. Think of it more like a life skill," Gavin replied slowly, testing his words out. He threw his pillow and blanket back on the bed before motioning for her to follow him outside. He went into his car and grabbed a few papers from his glove department before taking the license plate off his car, dead silence filling the air in the motel parking lot.
Ava just stared at him, confused as to what elaborate scheme he was planning. She glanced around to see that no one was around like last night, the place having an eerie feel to it. Not even the soft orange and blue of dawn could comfort her.
"Alright, let's go shopping," Gavin told her, a small smile lighting up his face as he led her across the street to an abandoned used car dealership. Most of the cars were old and rusted, but a few were in alright condition. "They know my car, so it'll probably be better if we switch it up a little to throw them off," he explained to her as he stood next to an old white Corolla.
Ava nodded silently, finding that idea smart, but there would be no keys in the car. She didn't know how they could actually take any of these cars. She moved around to the driver's side of the vehicle to see him open the unlocked door and sit in the seat, his body leaning down beneath the steering wheel. "You're not going to ...," she trailed off as he started unscrewing a screw on a panel below the steering wheel.
"First, you take off the steering column cover," Gavin merely replied, steadily showing her step by step how to hotwire a car until the engine rumbled to life. "Any questions?" He asked once they were both situated in the car and pulling back out onto the road.
Ava had a lot of questions in her head ranging from how did he know how to do that to why did he teach her. It was strange to her that she had just witnessed someone hotwiring a car that wasn't their own. She had only seen these types of things in movies, and reality seemed too separate from that for this to actually happen right in front of her eyes. "Who taught you that?"
Gavin's expression seemed to darken some, a bit of an unpleasant expression crossing his face as he kept his eyes focused on the road ahead of them. "My father. He taught me a lot of things," he murmured, a hint of resentment in his tone.
Ava could tell there was tension between Gavin and his father since she was fully experienced with tense situations with parents. She didn't want to pry, so she merely nodded, a small frown adorning her face. She couldn't help but feel for Gavin a little. She knew what it was like to have a rocky relationship with parents. It had caused her more hardship and discomfort than she was prepared to face throughout her life. Her friends had been great at filling some of the gap, but there was still a hole in her life that her parent's support and affection should have filled.
"Maybe I like the content of your papers so much because I kind of understand where you're coming from. It's hard when your parents are dictators," Gavin sighed out, squinting a little as the sun brightened ahead in the sky. He kept heading down the nearly empty highway, the road cracked and old like it hadn't been touched up in countless years.
"Feels like you're trapped even in your own home," Ava murmured with a small nod, understanding where he was coming from. She felt like she had to walk on glass around her parents. She couldn't go out with friends too much or they would think that she was trying to avoid them. She couldn't make random or impromptu plans without telling her parents first or they would think that she was scheming to cause trouble. She was trapped in a cage that she hadn't even realized had been in place until she was later in her teen years. She had been so impatient to leave. If her parents found out what was happening now, she would never hear the end of that long conversation. She would be locked in her bedroom and never allowed to leave probably.
"Always trying to break free," Gavin mumbled, his accent becoming so thick that she almost couldn't understand him.
Ava felt her curiosity spike again, prompting her to speak. "Where's your accent from?" Ava asked him, tilting her head a little. She still couldn't place it.
Gavin glanced at her briefly, giving her a look that told her to caution herself from asking so many questions. The less she knew the better off she would be in this situation. After a moment, his shoulders loosened, his tenseness giving away. "My family is from Ukraine. I lived there all of my life until recently," he explained, his eyes shifting around like he was checking to make sure no one was around to hear despite them being in a moving car.
"Why did you come here? To get away from your family like I did?" Ava pushed for another question, trying to uncover as many pieces as possible so that she would have at least a shot at figuring out the complicated puzzle of a situation that she was stuck in. She couldn't figure out the answer if she didn't have at least a few clues.
"Just my father. My mother passed when I was very young. My father and I ... we just don't see eye to eye. It's better if we're apart," Gavin replied, choosing his words carefully. He seemed to answer her questions, but his replies were still bordering on cryptic, not revealing everything.
"I'm sorry about your mom," Ava told him, a sympathetic look crossing her face. As bad as her relationship was with her parents, it would still pain her some if they passed. They had been fixtures in her life for so long that it would feel like something was missing. It would be strange not having them around anymore, and Ava didn't wish that on anyone.
"I heard that she was so kind. She was adventurous, always going on random excursions and trips just to explore something new. I wanted that life that she had so bad, but my father wanted me to work for his business. I couldn't say no to him," Gavin sighed, a look of regret clouding his expression.
Ava had a feeling the business he was talking about wasn't some regular father and son repair company or laundromat. Deep down, she felt like it was something bad. "I'm guessing you won't tell me what kind of business you worked for," she commented, watching a small smirk quirk up on his lips.
Gavin shook his head a little. "For your safety. You don't need to know much more. Trust me, I'd love to confide in you. You're a good listener, but you can't listen if you're dead," he pointed out.
Ava felt a random blush grace her cheeks at his words, her head ducking a little as she stared at her hands in her lap. It warmed her a little that he wanted to open up to her. Maybe he felt closer to her than she thought he was to her. She had opened up a little to him throughout the past few weeks, and now he was finally showing her some of his past. Things were starting to make more sense, but every time she learned something new, a few more questions popped up in her head. It was an endless questioning cycle that she couldn't escape, especially with him purposely withholding answers from her.
"I'm going to drive until sunset. Then, we'll find another motel and figure out which direction to go from there. I'm not exactly sure where we're going to be honest, but it's safer if we keep moving. If we stay put anywhere, they'll catch up even faster," Gavin told her, his thumb tapping against the steering wheel as he turned up the rock music on the radio a little bit.
"Okay," Ava murmured, resting back more against the car seat. She had nothing else to do but go along with the ride. She wondered if the people chasing them had anything to do with the business that Gavin's father ran. She had so many pieces, but she didn't know where they fit. The connections were so unclear, creating a frustrated storm in her mind. She hated being left in the dark, of feeling helpless and lost. She just wanted to be clear about her life for once.
Gavin glanced at her briefly, realizing that she wasn't going to talk anymore. He reached forward and turned the radio up a little higher, a guitar solo filling the small sedan as they thundered down the highway to whichever town they reached by sunset.
Complete uncertainty laid ahead, but Ava didn't feel as much dread as she thought she would. It was a bad situation overall, but at least she wasn't back at home. She was in different places doing different things with someone new. Everything felt new to her, and she still found that better than being at home in the same boring routine. She wasn't living a life then she felt like. At least, she was living a little by trying to stay alive. She had experienced more adventure and thrill in the last night than she had in her entire life. As great as college was to her, it was much milder and tamer than the night she had just experienced. It was a story that could be told for ages if she ever made it out alive. She just didn't want to end up like another sad news story that played over and over until people eventually just forgot about her. She just wanted her once miserable life to finally mean something, no matter how dangerous or reckless it came to be.