Page 10 of Run Away With Me

‘You want me to run it one more time?’

‘Sure. Thanks.’

She did, swiping it her side this time. ‘Try the PIN?’

I hit the numbers I’d memorized months ago, my fingers tingling with pins and needles. They were icy cold, and I wanted to rub them against my jeans to push the feeling back into them again, but I held off. No point in making my nerves even more blatantly obvious.

The till beeped.

‘All good,’ she said, passing me the card back. I felt like I was going to throw up, like the stress that had curdled in my stomach was desperate to be purged.

‘Great, thank you so much.’ I took the plastic bag from her with a forced smile.

‘Have a nice day.’

‘Thanks, you too.’ The words left my mouth by habit. My brain had stopped working.

Outside, it had started to drizzle, the cold biting my fingertips.

The ATM was next to the exit doors and no one was around now – no people, only cameras, to witness this.

I slid the card into the machine and punched in the PIN again, absolutely sure that the card would be swallowed and I’d fail. I was going to fail.

The next screen flashed up and I pressed the button for cash.

$250 was the maximum I could withdraw in one transaction.

Fine.

Receipt?

What was the point? I hit the button for No.

It took a second, then the machine whirred and spit out the cash and the card. I rolled the bills up and stuffed them into my bra, then slid the card back in again.

Cash.

$250.

No.

The next wad of bills went into the pocket of my hoodie.

Cash.

$250.

No.

Back pocket.

This was Brooke’s plan – break up the cash into smaller amounts instead of putting it all in one place in case we lost a bag or got robbed.

Cash.

$250.

No.

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