The Blues of Atlantis | ✔

Chapter Seven

Nerina heard them coming down the hall, and slammed the door shut, turning the lock. She didn't want to see them, didn't want to hear any of the lies they would come up with.

Sliding down the door, she pulled her knees close to her chest, and wrapped her arms around them. A loud cry ripped from her mouth and her shoulders shook violently. It wasn't fair. They had all lied to her. Even Wade, he knew and didn't tell her.

"Honey, please open the door," Maggie said softly.

"Just go away," she cried, hugging her knees even harder. Looking up, she saw the window above the toilet shining like a halo. She needed to go somewhere to think, to be anywhere but here.

"Open the door, Nerina," Kyle, her fake father, said. He was a fraud, a phony. Standing up, she used her sleeve to wipe the tears away. The window wasn't overly big, but she could squeeze her small frame through it.

Flipping the latch, she pushed open the window. She was on the first floor, so it was only 5 feet above the ground. Slipping through, she gently lowered herself to the ground, and rushed along the side of the house to the gate. When she rounded the corner, something snagged her arm, and before she knew it she was pulled against a warm, hard body.

"Somehow I knew you'd try something like this," Wade said, giving her his all-knowing, annoying smirk.

"Let me go." She squirmed to break free of his grasp, but to no avail. He started to direct her back towards the house. Digging her feet into the ground, she pleaded, "No, you can't make me go back in there. Please."

"Sorry. You need to talk with them." He continued to maneuver her towards the front door.

With all the strength she could muster, she turned and kicked him in the shin. Violence seemed to be taking root inside her and she hated it with a passion, but she was her own person and would make her own decisions. If she didn't want to go back in the house, she wasn't going to go.

He let go of her arm and grabbed his shin, jumping up and down on his other leg. "You little..."

She didn't stick around to find out what the last word was going to be, she was already out on the sidewalk, hightailing it down the block. A sharp pain in her lower abdomen brought her to a halt, making her duck around the side of the nearest house.

She leaned against the building, holding her stomach, waiting for the pain to subside. Was it supposed to hurt like that? She knew next to nothing about pregnancy, but she did know that worrying and stressing couldn't be too healthy for the baby.

There had to be a place she could go to lay low for a while, so she could sort out her thoughts that were running through her mind like a freight train. Pulling out her phone, she dialed Jenny's number.

"Hey, girl! What's up?" Jenny answered.

"I need you to pick me up," she whispered into the phone, acutely aware that Wade was limping down the street looking for her. Ducking behind a large green shrub next to her, she watched as he looked around.

"Where are you?" her friend asked.

"I'm at the blue house just a couple doors down from my parents." Nerina peeked out from behind the bush and found Wade staring at her hiding spot. "Crap. Hurry, please!" she said, pressing her back against the side of the house.

"Be there as soon as I can."

She hung up the phone and stuffed it back in her pocket, wiping her sweaty palms on her pants. Her friend's house was at least 20 minutes away, and the odds of her remaining hidden until she arrived decreased significantly with each passing second.