Page 110 of Run Away With Me

‘Do you think I need, like, a disguise?’ I asked, feelingoff-kilter from the news report. Seeing myself on TV was bizarre and disorienting and really, really scary.

‘Do you honestly think you still look like the girl in those photos?’ she asked, gesturing at the blank screen.

‘I don’t know.’

Brooke smiled and reached over to ruffle my new streaky blonde hair. ‘You look nothing like the girl they’re after,’ she said. ‘But we still have those glasses, from Denver, if you want them.’

‘Maybe,’ I replied, still unsure.

‘Jessie, it’s not just the way you dress now, or your hair. They’re looking for a shy girl in a baggy T-shirt, and that’s not you. Not anymore.’

‘I guess.’

‘Trust me,’ Brooke said confidently, straightening up. ‘No one at St. Catherine’s would recognize you right now. The police have no chance.’

We checked out of the hotel, packed up the Mustang, and then fell into step with each other as we headed out into the city to explore it one more time before the next leg of our road trip.

‘I’ve been thinking,’ Brooke said. Then rushed to add, ‘But if you don’t want to talk about it, that’s totally fine …’

‘Go on,’ I said, wondering what she had to say.

‘About your mom.’

I froze, and I could tell Brooke had noticed. ‘What do you want to know?’

She brushed her hand down my arm. ‘Did she know? About the Creep?’

‘No. I don’t think so.’

I didn’t know how much I could tell Brooke. How she would react.

She took my hand and squeezed it, flooding me with calmness, and in that moment I realized:

Everything.

I could tell her everything.

‘Me and my mom aren’t that close,’ I said. ‘She was only sixteen when she had me. Just turned sixteen.’

‘Wow, that’s really young,’ Brooke said sympathetically. ‘It must have been hard for her.’

Sixteen and pregnant. It was such a cliché now that I barely gave it much thought, but back when she was a teenager, it was a big deal. She made sure I knew that. My mom thought she was doing the right thing by having me, but the decision hadn’t worked out so well for her in the long run. I was pretty sure she resented me a lot of the time, and I was certain she ended up with guys like the Creep because they made her feel like she could relive the youth she’d lost while busy being a single mom.

I didn’t know much about my grandparents – my mom’s parents – other than that they had encouraged her to give me up for adoption. My mom had left Oregon when I was still a toddler, and I could just about remember going to see my grandparents when I was really little, back before she cut them out for good.

On top of all that, I wasn’t like herat all. My mom wasbright and sociable, and she loved talking to people – the original extrovert. She was like Brooke in a lot of ways. Pretty and vibrant. The sort of person other people were attracted to because of their looks and personality. I was none of those things. Instead of getting a kid she could take to dance class and sing karaoke with in the kitchen while making dinner, she’d gotten a quiet, mousey child who cried at fireworks because the noise was scary, and who hid behind her mother’s legs at the store when someone tried to make conversation. She got frustrated with me when I became shy and introverted, which only made the shyness and introversion worse.

‘I think she struggled,’ I said. ‘We went to church a lot, especially after she stopped all contact with my grandparents. The church has always been like a surrogate family to her.’

‘And to you?’ Brooke asked.

‘I guess.’ I didn’t know what it was like to have a big, extended family like Brooke’s, so I didn’t know how different it was to having a church family. ‘As soon as we moved to Seattle, my mom found the church we’re with now, and that’s where she met him.’

‘The Creep?’ Brooke asked, and I nodded. Her eyes widened. ‘Do you thinkshedid it? To him?’

I shook my head. ‘I don’t think she’s capable of something like that.’

‘Really? You’re her kid. And he’s the scumbag boyfriend who abused you. I think any mother would do something like that to protect her child if she found out that had been happening.’

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