flawed

Chapter 2

Lisa

"Where have you been?" my mother says, her voice shaking ever so slightly.

"Out," I quickly reply, throwing my backpack onto one of our motel room's creaky beds.

"Lisa."

I glance up, and my mother is staring back at me, with her arms crossed.

"We need to go. We've stayed here too long."

"It's been three days."

"They're not far behind. I know it."

"Mom, I need one more day. At least one," I say, testing the waters. "He's here."

"Which one?"

"The mind reader."

My mother simply nods, and walks over to the window. As she opens it, a breeze wafts in and moves her coffee colored hair a bit. I sit down on my bed and stare at the orange carpet, lightly touching the dog tags hanging around my neck.

I stand up, and look at my mother. Our lives have gone completely downhill in the last three weeks. I grab my backpack and unzip it, pulling out two apples, two bottles of water and a few granola bars I managed to steal from the corner store a few blocks away.

I take a bite of one of the apple, and close my eyes momentarily, savoring the taste. My mother turns around, wiping her eyes, and I look at the ground acting as if I hadn't seen. We both know I did.

"Where did you get all of this?"

"There's a mini-mart a few blocks down. I borrowed them."

She says nothing, and takes a bottle of water from off the bed.

"I need to go. I'm gonna try and catch him after he has school later on today."

"Be careful," is all she says, as I repack my bottle of water and granola bar into my bag.

I swing it over my shoulder, and turn around, thinking of about a thousand things I could say, like "I'm so sorry," or "I love you," but I know sorry and love are too very small words. They do nothing to explain the ache and emotions I feel.

I open my mouth, mulling over everything that's been running around in the back of my brain, but no words seem to fit, so I close it before anything comes out.

I turn back around towards the door and leave, feeling more guilty than ever. Hopefully, what I'm about to do can help fix at least a tiny bit of what's happened.