The alternating laughter and outbursts of Ooh! were so loud I could hear them from the street in front of Jake’s house. I swung open his front door to the stuffy odor of guy stink, beer, and pizza, enhanced by the old furnace cranking heat into the duplex. Jake, his roommates, Hunter, Sean, Christian, along with Hannah, the girl Christian was trying to sleep with, and Hunter’s girlfriend whose name was so unique I never remembered it surrounded the coffee table playing Scrawl, the crass child of Telephone and Pictionary.
“Hey!” a few of them echoed off each other when they saw me. “It’s Sawyer!”
“She’s got the dirtiest mind here,” Hunter said as he scooted down the couch. “Move over.”
I stripped off my zip up. “It’s boiling in here.”
“Yeah, but it’s getting you to take your clothes off,” Christian said as he tipped his beer to me.
“Oh, sweetie, we could be in hell and it wouldn’t be hot enough for Hannah to take her clothes off for you.”
Everyone but Christian laughed as Jake stood and wrapped his arm around my waist. I took a sip of the beer in his hand before pressing my chest into his. “Can we go to your room for a sec?”
There were a few shouts of “Ow, ow!” and “Get it, Jake!” as we climbed the stairs to his room. He closed the door behind us, and I started digging through his closet.
“What are you doing?”
“We’re running away together.” After pulling a rolling suitcase from the farthest corner of his closet, I dropped it on the bed and then opened his dresser drawer.
“Like for the weekend?”
“No, like for forever.”
“What?”
“How do you feel about LA?”
“Umm…”
“Or Miami? You’ll like it there. The gulf water is warm. And their sand is white. It’s crazy. Though, you’re not going to need all these Henleys—”
“I don’t want to go anywhere I won’t need my Henleys.”
“Fine!” I plopped a pile of long sleeves into his suitcase. “Colorado then.”
Jake grabbed my arm and turned me to face him. “Sawyer, you have three months left of school.”
“I’ll get my GED.”
“No. You’re not going to be a high school dropout with a 4.2 GPA.”
I cleared out his sock and underwear drawer, then shoved the contents in the bag. “I’ll enroll in Miami.”
“Colorado.”
“Sorry, right.”
“Can you tell me what’s going on?”
I didn’t stop packing his clothes when I said, “Jeff’s getting released early.”
“What? Why?”
“I don’t know, but he’s coming home tomorrow. I’m sure as hell not going to be there when he does.”
“He was only in jail what, nine years? That’s not very long for raping you.”
“That’s not what he went to jail for.”
“What? Why did—”
“Forget it.” I snapped. “Do you need these?” I held up a second pair of boxing gloves.
“Yeah.”
I threw them in the suitcase.
“Don’t you have nationals in a few weeks?”
“Three weeks. I don’t care.”
Jake opened the pants drawer of his dresser. “What about OSU? Will it mess up your acceptance or your scholarships if you switch schools in the middle of your last semester?”
“Maybe, I don’t know.”
“Sawyer,” he said as he took me by the shoulders and turned me to him. “I can’t just let you throw away everything you worked for.”
“Fine. I’ll go by myself.” Clutching his shirt in my fists, I kissed him hard and deep before pushing him away. “I love you. Take care of yourself, okay?”
“Sawyer!” His fingers wrapped around my hand and yanked me back. “You’re not leaving me. Have you tried talking to your mom?”
“She doesn’t believe me. She’s never believed me.”
“What?”
“I have to go.”
“Move in with me.” The words just spilled out of his mouth, but I knew he meant them.
I stared at his eyes a long time. They were warm but serious. “I can’t afford rent. And I’m on my mom’s cell plan and car insurance. She’s not going to pay for all that if I move in with you.” Jake and I held each other’s gaze, silently realizing this would be the case in Colorado or Miami or Los Angeles—anywhere but home. I was trapped.
“Then just stay here every night. Sneak out or something.” His rough hands ran up and down my arms. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
I rested my forehead against his and closed my eyes, doing everything in my power to believe him.