“Oh my god,” she said loudly. “I thought, I thought…,” she said, then bent forward, putting her hands on her knees and inhaling deeply like she was fighting hyperventilating. “I thought you were about to jump. You didn’t jump.” She said it more to herself than to me. Then she began muttering to God in Spanish. Some words I recognized thanks to Spanish 1 and 2, but most I didn’t.
“I can’t go home. At least not yet,” I told her.
That got her attention and snapped her out of what appeared to be a panic attack. She lifted her head and looked at me to say more.
“I’m going to get in that truck and drive. Just go. I don’t know where or for how long. I’m just going. I have to get away from this and get my head together,” I said.
She stood slowly, and I waited for her to try and talk me out of that, too. She was running outside in the dark, but I had no doubt she was going back home tonight. I’d drive her most of the way before I left. I didn’t like the idea of her out here alone, but I couldn’t be caught by her parents either. I had to get out of this town unseen.
“Take me with you,” she said, snapping me out of my inner battle.
“What?” I asked, unsure I’d heard her correctly.
“I want to go. I don’t want to jump off a bridge and end my life. But I want out of this town. I want free of my prison.” There was a passion in the way she said those words. She wasn’t worried about the outcome or how angry her parents would be. She just wanted out of here.
This would cause me more problems. “How old are you?” I asked, knowing prison for kidnapping a minor wasn’t something I was ready to face anytime soon.
“Eighteen,” she replied.
“Promise?” I asked, not sure I believed her.
“February fourteenth,” she assured me.
I chuckled. If that wasn’t fucking ironic. “We share more than screwed-up family lives,” I said, then nodded my head toward the truck. “Get in. Let’s go.”
“What do you mean?” she asked me, not moving.
“We share a birthday,” I said with an amused grin.
The smile that spread across her face lit up her eyes, making them sparkle with adventure. I would have to keep my head. This was not going to happen. She was off-limits. She had to be. We both had families that were holding us back. I needed a friend who understood. Who knew it all. She would be my first. I wasn’t going to mess that up.
I slid my phone out of the pocket of my jeans and quickly made sure all tracking devices were turned off. I was sharing my location with no one. I considered tossing it over the bridge, but I would need my phone. My mom would call.
Ezmita’s eyes widened in shock.
“Phones are the best trackers. Do you have yours?” I asked her.
She shook her head no.
“Good. Let’s go,” I said, then headed to climb back into my truck.
This Night Was One Nightmare After Another CHAPTER 6
EZMITA
My parents had refused to let me have a cell phone. Even when I’d explained that I would pay the bill monthly. I wondered now if they would regret that. Somehow I doubted it. They never regretted anything, even the fact my sister’s death had been fueled by their smothering her.
My parents never admitted their wrong. Not even when Maya’s drug addiction had come out. They didn’t see where their overbearing parenting had sent her to rebel in a way that would eventually take her life. I had only been fourteen when Maya had died. I’d always thought it was an accident. I couldn’t imagine she would do that on purpose.
Now I wasn’t so sure. If Asa Griffith, a guy who I had assumed had it all, could face his own death because he saw it as an escape, could Maya have done the same? Had she wished someone was there to stop her? At any point, had she regretted it and it had been too late?
Needing to think about something else before I panicked and decided to go home, I asked, “Where are we going exactly?”
He shrugged. “I have no fucking clue. You got any ideas?”
Me? I’d never left this town. I shook my head, thinking this was possibly the worst idea I’d ever had. I couldn’t leave my parents like this. They had lost Maya. How could I do this to them? Even if they controlled my every move and refused to let me be free.
“Changing your mind already?” he asked with a smile that didn’t meet his eyes. As if he had been expecting me to do just that. I wanted to say “No!” with conviction, but the lump forming in my throat at the idea of causing this kind of pain to my family stopped me. He slowed the truck and turned around in the middle of the dark road. We hadn’t even made it out of town and I was backing out of this. Torn between guilt and the need for freedom, I sat quietly.