Runaway

Chapter 7

Holly's POV:

After I'd finished in the shower, I had dried off, pulled my clothes on, and walked downstairs. I found the kitchen, and stood awkwardly in the doorway.

'Hey, Holly!' Says Lianne when she sees me.

'Hey,' I say.

'Phone,' blurts out Luke, 'I mean, you should call your parents, like we said...'

'Yeah,' I say, and Luke leads me into the living room, where the main landline phone sits in a holder in a table.

He hands it to me. 'You know your number, I guess?'

'Yeah,' I say, 'thanks.'

'I'll just leave you to... Yeah,' he trails off awkwardly, leaving the room.

My hands are shaking; I can see the phone vibrating slightly in my hand, but I force my finger to steady as I dial the number to my home phone.

'Hello?' My mother picks up on the fourth ring.

'Hi, mum,' I say, my voice sounding extremely small.

'Holly, that you?' She says tonelessly.

'Yeah,' I reply, 'it's me.'

'Well, why're you calling the landline?'

'Well, you see, I met this person, Luke, and he let me come take a shower and told me that I should call you, so I did.'

'What? Who's Luke? Why don't you just use the shower here?'

'What?'

'Yeah, if you'd just come out of your room for once!'

'What? I'm confused.'

'Come on, Holly. You haven't come out of your room all day. Just take a shower if you need a shower.'

'What?' My voice breaks. They hadn't even noticed I had left. 'Actually, never mind. I'm fine here. Shouldn't have called. Bye.' I barely manage to finished the sentence before I hand up. Still holding the phone, I drop to my knees, and ball up and cry.

That was it. They really didn't care about me.

But then, I feel strong arms around me, pulling me up to a standing position, but taking all of my weight. 'Holly? Holly, what happened?' It's Luke.

'I... She... They...'

'It's okay,' he says kindly, hugging me towards him, not complaining that I'm getting his shirt wet with my tears, 'take your time.'

'They didn't even notice I left!' I manage.

'Oh, my god, I'm so sorry, Holly!' He says, hugging me closer. 'I never should've gotten you to call them. They don't deserve to have you as a daughter, you're too good a person!'

I smile a little. 'Thanks, Luke.'

'No problem!' He says. 'It's only true!'

'No, I'm serious,' I say. 'I've known you for, what, an hour? But you've still been nicer to me than anybody I've ever met before.'

'You're one of the sweetest people I've ever met, honestly,' said Luke, and I smiled again, pulling away slightly to wipe my eyes.

Though, honestly, I didn't really want to let go of him.