Unmarked

Part VI

She decided to elaborate as we waited for him to answer; she had put it on speaker and the dull rings of a phone line and the police sirens were making me anxious. "We can trust him, he's lived with my family since he was a little kid."

As soon as she was finished with that sentence, a scratchy voice asked, "Who's this?"

Asher rolled her eyes, "The only other person who knows about the secret flip phone on the carrier plan."

The voice, which sounded kind of groggy, (like you just woke up groggy) was suddenly awake. "Asher? Are you okay? Where are you? They told me you were sick and that I wasn't allowed to see you! I almost broke down the doctor's office door when your mom let it slip that you were there..." He kept rambling on a while, it sounded like a bunch of nonsense.

She finally cut him off, "Okay, okay, I get it. You missed me, I missed you; calm down. Listen to me closely; I need you to get me all of the clothes you can fit in my duffel bag, and no dresses. I'm not going to a Cinderella ball. We will also need money, every bit that you can find in my room and in my dad's wallet. Anything you would need to run away, I want it. You hear me, cousin?" 

I heard a sigh on the other end of the line, but it was quickly followed by, "Yes, of course, but Ash, can you please tell me what is going on?" 

"Jaime, I promise I'll tell you everything you need to know when you get here," Asher looked all of us up and down and added, "one more thing before you hang up, we need soap, lots and lots of soap." 

Another sigh, "Got it," and then he hung up.

Asher estimated that it would take about an hour for him to round everything up, give an excuse for leaving the house to her mom, and drive to where we were. He clocked in at 57 minutes; she was good. We heard a crash and grumbling.

Asher just shook her head, "He always forgets about that crack." 

When he finally made it through the opening, Jaime dropped everything in his hands and basically tackled Asher. She returned the favor and the hug didn't look like a hug, it looked like a wrestling match. While they battled it out, I took a moment to look Jaime over. He was a big guy, at least 6'1'' with the same deep brown hair and eyes as Asher's. His skin was a little darker than hers, though. He wore sweatpants and a tank top, and he looked like he was ready to work out. He was actually really handsome. Movie star handsome. When the wrestling match was over and the winner was anyone's guess, Asher turned to us.

"Guys, this is James Maddow, but he just goes by Jaime." 

She then pointed to Corin, "this is Corin," and pointing at me now, "this is Malone." We all shook hands. 

Jaime looked at us, "Alright, spill, what's going on?" We explained our situation. 

He held his nose, "Well, first thing's first, you guys reek, it's shower time." 

A thought dawns on me, "Wait a second, where are we going to take a shower at?" 

Jaime laughs. "I have a Y membership, I'll go in and open the back door for you." 

Corin laughs, "Okay then, that was much more simple than I thought is was going to be."

As we sort through the bag he brought my only thought was that Asher had a lot of really nice clothes. As soon as we had an outfit and tons of soap, we were off to the Y. Everything went according to plan, which was a good thing, it would have been really awkward if the police would have shown up. I left the girl's locker room feeling the cleanest I ever had in my life. Jaime was waiting for us in weights room. He was talking to another guy, but when he caught my eyes in the window, he said goodbye and joined us at the door.

"Okay," he said, looking us over, "next thing, you have to change what you look like." 

Asher blanched, "No way!" 

I pleaded with her. "Come on, Asher, do you want to be back in that tiny cell again?" She got even paler, if that is even possible. 

"Okay, but you're not doing it." 

We smiled at her and Jaime and Asher gave us identical grins. (It must be a family trait.) They answered at the exact time, "Let's do this!" Corin looked like she wanted to slap them and hug them at the same time. I have a feeling that they make a lot of people feel that way. 

She took a deep breath and continued, "Okay, I know the perfect person to do this for us, they are fast and they know how to keep their mouth shut."

They all looked at me, I guess they wanted to know what I thought about all this. While I wasn't too keen to completely change my look, I knew we had to do it to stay free. 

I said the only thing I could, "Can we get some clothes that actually fit first?"