Page 46 of Behind the Bars

We hardly knew each other, but we knewenough.

My year in New Orleans had come and gone too fast. Each hour felt like minutes, and each minute felt like seconds.Time—that was all we wanted. We both craved a little more time, and there was never enough ofit.

We’d spent so much time behind those bars, listening to different types of music and making promises we couldn’t keep—promises of futures and dreams, of us keeping in touch, offorever.

We were only sixteen years old, but our hearts felt older whenever we were together. Before I met Elliott, I thought loneliness was a thing I’d always feel. Then he found me with his music and everything changed. If I’d had it my way, I would’ve stayed with him, but, as life taught me, sixteen-year-olds didn’t get to make thosedecisions.

We were simply supposed to follow wherever the adults ledus.

“Where are you guys going this time?” heasked.

I hated the feeling in my gut. I hated how I felt so unimportant to Mama. I’d been homeschooled my whole life, and it wasn’t until Ray got the contract in New Orleans that I got a glimpse of what a true life could feel like…what it felt like to have a bed in the same place, to go to an actual school…what a best friend looked like, what home meant—and now I was losing itall.

“London. We’ll be over there for awhile.”

He turned toward me, searching for a bit of hope in my eyes. “And then you’ll come backhere?”

I frowned. We never wentback.

I shrugged. “Maybe.”

He frowned too, because he didn’t believe me. “How much does it cost to calloverseas?”

“Probably alot.”

“This is good, though. It’s going to help yourcareer.”

“I don’t want a career,” I told him, speaking honestly. “I just want to stay withyou.”

“I want you to stay, but if it’s good for you, I want you togo.”

“Don’t make logical sense,” I stated softly. “I hate when you make logicalsense.”

“Just think, if you make enough m-money, you can move back h-here and buy a big house with big trees, and you can sit on the porch drinking iced tea. Your own place… a home of yourown…”

I sighed. “Yes.” I lowered my voice and looked down at my hands. “But I don’t want to leave you. You’re my only friend. And Ray is my only family.” The only family that cared, atleast.

Elliott took note of how my body reacted, how my hands shook a bit, how my voice slightly cracked. He sat up straighter. “Do you think this will really help yourcareer?”

“My momdoes.”

He inched a bit closer to me and kicked his feet back and forth. “That’s not what Iasked.”

“Yeah, I know.” I raced my hands through my thick, black hair that matched Mama’s. “But that’s all thatmatters.”

Elliott looked at me and smiled, though his eyes appeared so heavy and sad. “You want to run away with metonight?”

Yes.

Please.

Anywhere.

Let’sgo.

“I wish,” Iwhispered.

He turned away from me and went back to fiddling with his fingers. “Metoo.”

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