Escape

Chapter 3

"..And that's when I saw him." Steph said, smiling through the webcam.

I was in the middle of packing for my aunt's when she texted me, telling me that she had some urgent news to discuss. She was in Las Vegas with her family, vacationing for the summer, and already she had had her first adventure.

When I approached the subject of LA with my parents, they literally laughed in my face. When I showed them the text messages, the real arguing began.

"No." my dad firmly said with a shake of his head.

"But-" I started.

"Bentley Ruth. You are already irrisponsible, you don't do your schoolwork, you stay holed up in your room, when you're out you're either on your phone or with Steph. No. You cannot go to a big city where there is no responsible person around." He lifted up his book, signaling the conversation was over. I was far from being finished.

"Your sister is there." I challenged.

"My point exactly." He lowered his face at me so he could look at me above his reading glasses.

"Dad, please. I never ask for anything, and when I do, it's lunch money or for something that I need, and dad I need this!" I stood up, standing directly in front of him.

"And why, pray tell, would you 'need' this." He questioned, lowering his book and removing his glasses.

"I'm tired of walking around this town having to put on an image to fulfill my expectations of the mayor's daughter. I'm tired of not having a life dad. I spend my time in my room because my life is up there. I'm tired of walking around and everyone knows my business. Everyone knows what happened to me, and everyone treats me different because of it. For once I'd like to walk out of my house and not have someone know me. For once in my freaking life I would like to be happy. Going to LA would do that for me, and you're taking away the one chance I have at that, don't you get it?" I was practically in tears. I'd never actually gotten into a real argument with my father before. My mom was always the tough one to crack, my dad bending at the knees at the flutter of my eyelashes.

"Let her go." My mother, who had been quiet this whole time, had piped up.

"What?" My dad and I said at the same time, looking at her confused.

"Let her go Paul. She's right. She needs this more than we realize." She gave my dad The Look. The one that said 'if you argue with me, so help me God.' I've gotten that look more times than I can remember.

My dad sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Okay. Okay you can go. On one condition."

I nodded my head, not caring about the condition, I was in a state of ecstasy. I was finally leaving.

"You have to get your grades up. If you can prove to me that your trying your hardest, you can go."

And so I did. I did every damned assignment those teachers gave me. I even made up the ones I failed to turn in. I ended up passing all of my classes with a B- average, with a little bit of help from a tutor for the math bit.

"Met who?" I asked Steph now.

She paused dramatically, smiling so big it hurt my face to look at her. "Luke Hemmings."

I felt my eyes grow wide. "NO WAY YOURE LYING!" I screeched at her.

She laughed manically, putting her phone up to the screen. Sure enough, a selfie of her and Luke smiled back at me. The lucky bastard.

"How? When? What did you say? What did he say? How tall is he? Does he smell nice?" I listed off questions, not even stopping to take a breath.

"Well I knew they were playing in Vegas, so I did a bit of stalking and found out where they were staying, sort of hoping to just get a glance at them when they came back. When I saw Luke, I all but pissed myself. There were about five other girls there, but I waited my turn." She gave me a look. Seriously, that must've been hard for her. She never waits for anything. "Anyway, when I finally talked to him, I didn't really know what to say. And I kept thinking 'what would Ben do.' And then it hit me. You and Luke. Together. Would be perfect. I gave him a slip of paper with your blog on it, telling him to check out your pictures. Oh, and I gave him your YouTube. Don't hate me."