• CHAPTER 6

    “Ok so we have a few choices” said the lady behind the counter whos name tage sayed “Hi! My name is Becky”. We were at a fake ID place, and im still wondering how my mom found it. At the moment, the lady was showing us different names to choose from.
    I guess I know why we need fake ID’s, now that Ian had explained the necessity to me. He said that the government had accsess to everyones files, like where they fly, what they use there credit cards for, excetera. So we were going to start out fresh. And, well, we were having a lot of fun with this, as strange as that sounds.
    “Oh my god, Ian!” when he turned toward me, I helled up my ID, all done. He smiled and walked over to check it out. My name was Chelby Jackson. Not the most wonderful name in the world, but it was better then “Cheeko Shaloong” or any of the other names Becky had presented.
    “Chelby Jackson… Texas…. 20…?” he glanced at me up and down and then nodded to himself. I blushed, but he couldn’t see. He stared at it for a moment more, and then looked at me and asked, very gently, “Are you okay, Molly?”. I wasn’t, the smile on my face was forced in place.
    My face slowly crumpled, showing the panick underneath the percky smile. He put my card on the counter and pulled me into a tight hug and just held me. It felt nice, and when he whispered “It’s ok, we’ll be together” most of my panick started to receed. Then I heard my mom clear her throat.
    I stepped back and looked at where I had just had my head on his shirt, and realized that it was damp, as if…
    Ian ran his hand across my face, but didn’t evaperate the tears as I expected. Instead, he looked at his hand with a expression that words can’t explain. He grabbed my chin and lifted it to his mouth. It was a quick kiss, but it helped us both.
    When we got back home, I helped Ian settle in, even though he would just be there a month. I was sitting on a chair in the guest room (now Ian’s room) when I heard a noise outside the window. At first I thought that I was imagining it, but then I heard it again, it was like the sound of twigs snapping… and then, horrifyingly, and camera going click! I jumped up and ran to the window, only to see nothing. I backed away from the window, and right into Ian
    “What” he asked when he saw my alarmed expression. I looked back at the window and started backing up again. He quickly strided over to the window, and then ran out of the room. After a few seconds, I followed. He had went to get my mom, and was pacing in the kitchen. Then he asked me a quick question.
    “What did you hear, or see, Molly?” he asked urgently. I studdered out what I heard, that I had heard some russeling, and then a camera going off. After that, he crumpled to the ground, and put his head in his hands. I went over and bent down. He reached over and slipped his arm around my waist so swiftly that I fell into him. He held me tight, and explained.
    “Molly… that ¬was a camera going off that you heard” he said softly. “I saw that the bush was ruined, and I thought that maybe someone had been out there watching you. You just confurmed that.” And he looked at me, waiting for me to comprehend this.
    “Wait…” I couldn’t really grasp this yet. “If it was the government, then they would have come in and gotten us…” I trailed off because his expression was making me feel like I was missing something. And then I gasped.
    “No… no… no one at school could have…” of coarse they could have! If anyone was offered something big, they would do anything. Even wrat out another student at school.
    “Yes, some could, and apparently they are” he said quietly. “Can you think of anyone that might have a reason to have something against you?”. I whipped the tears from my face, and thought about it. No, no not really… oh wait…
    “I can’t think of anyone in specific, but there are people that have looked at me weird since you came here...” and I was beginning to make a list in my head, which I proceeded to say it out loud. “Lauren… Mr. Bennett… oh, and Matt” I whispered.
    “Iv’e noticed them to” my mom said. I looked up, I had almost forgotten that she was there.
    “And matt has a good reason to hate me” I said, realizing this for the first time. Ian snapped his head up and looked at me, his look said “who could hate you?”, and I giggled.
    “Ever since 8th grade, Ian, Matt and I have been enemys” I began, “I had been with my friends, at the bowling ally. Him and his friends had been there too” and I took a breath. “Our two groups had gotten together after bowling, to go to the park and play some games. We took our own cars, so we hadn’t noticed what was in their trunk” I had to stop for a seck, this was a traumatizing story, and I had Ian and my mom listening. “When we got to the park, it was around 11 pm, and we were all hungry, so the boys told us to wait while they went and got some food. They came back not with food, but with scotch and beer and whiskey… and told us that we could pick first” I looked up and both people were staring wide eyed at me. I took a deep breath and whent on.
    “All of my friends picked the hard core stuff, and pretended to drink it, although I saw them pouring it out when the boys weren’t looking” I paused for a little giggle. “Matt came to sit by me, and offered me some scotch. I said no, but he was insistent. I could tell he was drunk by the way he acted and the smell of his breath, but he wasn’t so drunk that he didn’t remember what had happened that night…” I stared at the ceeling.
    “When I had said no for the hundereth time, he stoped asking, and tried to kiss me” I heard a small gasp, but I didn’t look to see where it had come from. “I backed away, but he kept coming toward me until I couldn’t back away farther anymore, because my back was pressed to the ground” I stoped to let some tears excape down my face. Ian pulled my head to his chest, and I could feel him trembling, but he whispered “Go on when your ready” and I did.
    “I shoved him so hard away that he lost his grip on me, and stopped trying to kiss me, but all I did was get him up in the air, so he just kinda, well I guess you could say he fell on me. He gave up on trying to kiss my mouth and started at my cheek, continuing down…to my neck…” I was the one trembling now. “I couldn’t’ stop him, I tried so very hard” my voice was thick with tears, but I went on. “He slapped my hand away when I tired to stop his hands from moving from their place on the ground… and by then his mouth had gone past the hollow of my throat.” I decided to skip the rest. I looked up, telling them with my eyes that I was going to skip past this.
    “I wont make you listen to the rest… and a few minutes later, after trying to scream, or anything, sound actually came out…but guess what? My friends had gotten drunk, so what did they care? I was alone. Finally, I was desperate enough that, well, I guess my survival skills kicked in, because I thrashed hard and threw him off of me” I smiled at the memory of his stunned face. “I stood there, in my bra, and walked over to him” I was still leaning against Ian, and he was tense.
    “I kicked him, and hit him, and called him bad names” I said. “He got up and stalked off, leaving me alone, becaue he took everyone else with him. I had to walk home that night” I whispered. “That bye itself isn’t enough to make him hate me, but I humiliated him in public whenever I could, and that made him very angry with me” I had finally finished, and the tears were running freely down my face now.
    Ian studdered incoherently, but held me super tight. He kissed my forhead, and finally words came.
    “Im so sorry molly, i…i…I didn’t know that this had…had happened…” and then I felt arms tugging me in the oppisite direction. I turned and hugged my mom, bursting into tears. I had never told her what had actually happened that night, I had said that I had wanted to get some fresh air, so I had walked home. When I was done crying I looked back at Ian, who looked murderous.
    “Ian whats wrong?” I was scared by that look, it was like…like…
    “I’m going to kill him” he said flatly. That’s what I had been afraid of. I stood up and walked over to him, now that he was standing, and looped my hands around his waist.
    “No, that’s not right” but I knew that right and wrong proably didn’t worry him right now. “He was drunk…” he hugged me, and then said the words I didn’t want to hear.
    “We have to leave, tomarrow” and he pulled away. I was frozen in place, and I barely heard my moms protests, or Ian explaining why we had to leave right away. I was in shock, and then I found myself in my room.
    Everything was worked out by 10 pm that night. My mom booked us a flight to Paris, and it left at 10:45 the next morning. I had 12 more hours with my mom! It just wasn’t enough. My mom helped me pack, and she said I had to pack light, only a bag small enough to carry on a plane. I packed pictures of me and my mom, some clothes, and other neccessitys, before I realized that we had no money.
    “I can give you500 dollors but that’s it” my mom said regretfully. We had always been tight on money, and I couldn’t believe that she had 500 somewhere. When my mom said that, Ian came into my bedroom, and stated something that surprised me.
    “I have 5,000 dollars in an account that only I can use, and more money in another account that my brother said that I could use in emergencys” I stared dumbfounded at him. How did he get that much money? And as if he could read my mind, he said, “My brothers job… pays well” and he looked so uncomfortable, that I didn’t ask what he meant by that.