On The Run

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Waking up the next morning, I see Juan is still sleeping. I lay in bed and don't move so not to wake him. An hour later, he wakes up and looks over at me. "Morning." he says. "Morning." I say without looking at him. "Are you hungry?" he asked. "No thank you." I say. He looks at me sadly and asked "What did he do to you?" I just shake my head and say "Nothing, sir. Can I get a shower please?" I asked. "Yeah. You don't have to ask." he says. I walk into the bathroom with my bag and take a fast shower. A few minutes later, I walk into the main room and sit in the chair like I am supposed to. He walks by me and gets his shower before walking back over to the bed. Everything is quiet for a while before he speaks. "Looking at the map, we have one more night in a motel before reaching the house that Alvarez set up." he says. I don't say anything, just nod. I get up and start making sure all of my things are packed while he does the same. We walk out the door and get back into the car.

We are on the road for about an hour before he speaks again. "I guess if we are married, we should get to know each other." he says. "Okay." I say simply. "Tell me a little about you." he says. "There's not much to me." I say. "Then tell me what there is to you." he says, trying to make conversation. "Raised in Lodi. Parents are dead. No siblings." I say. "What do you like to do?" he asked. "Don't know." I tell him. "What do you mean?" he asked. Finally letting myself breathe a little, I say "I wasn't allowed to do anything. I was to clean the house and service my boyfriend and his friends when I was told to. The rest of the time, I was in a chair in the corner." I tell him. "Shit. How did you last this long?" he asked. "I fought back once. Hoping he'd kill me but he figured out what I was doing and had some friends over to rape me instead." I tell him. "Shit Olivia. I'm so sorry." he says. "Not your fault." I say. "That why you thought you had do something for me to sleep in the bed?" he asked and I just nodded. "How did you end up with the Mayans?" he asked. "The one they called Chico, came by to collect on some money he owed their club apparently and took me in exchange for clearing that debt. I guess when that man Alvarez saw me, he had pity for me." I tell him. "What about you? How did you get there?" I asked, looking at the floorboard. "My club wants me dead. The president had me do some horrible things and when the club found out what I did, they wanted me dead." He says sadly. "Oh. I'm sorry." I tell him. We sit in silence for the rest of the ride to the motel.

Once inside the room, Juan asks "You hungry?" I just shake my head no. "We've been on the road for two days and you haven't eaten once. You need to eat." he says. "I'm okay. I'd like a shower though." I say. "Yeah. Get a shower and I'll find us something to eat." he says. "I'm okay." I tell him. "You're eating." he says firmly and I cower away and just nod. When I get out of the shower, I walk into the main room, dressed and he's sitting at the table with food set out. It's fast food but it's food. "Come eat." he says. "Thank you." I say. I don't look up from my food but I can sense him watching me. I nibble at the food and he says "Please eat." Nodding, I slowly eat all of what he brought me. Once we're done, we decide to get in the bed. I lay on one side, curled up into a ball and he's on the other side. He doesn't try to touch me but does tell me "Goodnight Olivia." Softly I say "Goodnight Juan." before the tears start to fall.

The next morning, we get up and head out to the car. "Let's get breakfast to go." he says and I just nod. Before starting the car, he says "You aren't with him anymore. You don't have to hide and cower down. I won't hurt you. I won't let anyone else hurt you." he says. I take a deep breath but still stay stiff. We hit a drive thru before hitting the road again.

We drive for six hours before pulling up to a little house. It's in a small neighborhood and there is a nice size yard. Walking up to the house, Juan puts the key in the lock and opens the door. Walking inside, we see that it's already furnished. "You can take the master. I'll sleep in one of the spare rooms if that's okay." I say. "Yeah. Sure." he says. We go to our respective rooms and start unpacking. I hear a knock on the door and as I open it, I see Juice standing there with what looks like a ring box. "What's that?" I asked. "Wedding rings." he says softly. "Oh. Okay. We, uh..." I start and he says "Gotta make it believable right?" Nodding he takes my hand softly and feels me stiffen up. "I won't hurt you." he says for what seems like the hundredth time since meeting. He slides the ring on my finger and I ask "Can I put yours on?" He smiles softly and nods. Handing me the ring, I put it on his finger before pulling away. "We can order dinner if you want." he says and I nod. Looking in the phone book on the counter, he finds a place that delivers and orders food.

Half an hour later, our food is there and we sit at the table to eat. Neither of us say anything. Once we are done eating, I start to clean things up and he says "I guess we should get our story together of how we met. Wedding and shit." he says. "Uh, yeah." I say. "How would you want to meet?" he asked. "I don't know." I say. "How about this. We were a one night stand, ran into each other a couple of weeks later and started talking. Six months later we were married." he says. "Okay." I say. "What about wedding details?" he asked. "Uh, courthouse wedding?" I asked. "You okay with that?" he asked. "Yeah." I say. "Okay. One night stand turned married." he says and I find myself smiling a little.

We move to the living room and he is sitting on one side of the couch and I am on the other. The tv is on but I'm not watching it. I just look at the floor. It's late when we finally decide to head to bed. As we head to our respective rooms, we say goodnight. Closing the door, I lay in bed and cry myself to sleep. I must have been having a nightmare because I woke up feeling Juan's hand on my arm. I jerk away and jump out of bed, cowering in the corner. "Hey. Olivia. It's just me. Hey. Breathe sweetheart." he says softly. I start to wake up fully and start to sob. Juan tries to reach out for me but I cower deeper. "I'm sorry. I won't do it again. I swear." I sob. I feel him pulling me to him and I stiffen but he doesn't let go. "Hey. It's okay. I got you. No one's gonna hurt you." he says softly as he tries to calm me down. But being this close to him, I feel myself relax just a little. "It's okay." he says again. I pull away from him slowly and he watches me. "I'm sorry. You, uh, you should go back to bed." I tell him, trying to move away from him. "I have them too." he says and I look at him. For the first time since meeting, I look at him. "What were you dreaming about?" he asked. "The last time Jake and his buddies beat me." I tell him. "What happened?" he asked. "I, uh, was in my chair in the corner when, uh, Jake came in. He told me to get on the bed and tied me to it. He had his friends come in and there were eight of them. They, uh, took turns raping me and then when they left, Jake beat me while I was still tied to the bed, telling me that I was a whore because I wanted it." I tell him. "Shit." Juan says before moving closer to me. Surprisingly his closeness is comforting. "What do you dream about?" I asked. "The local sheriff was blackmailing me, trying to get me to rat on my club. We had gotten in with the cartel and the sheriff wanted me to steal some coke. I had the brick and one of my brothers caught me hiding it and went to attack me and I shot him in self defense and told the club he was the one that stole it. I keep seeing his face. The shock when I shot him. Seeing him dead by my hands." he says. "Will you stay with me?" I find myself asking and I don't know where that came from. "Yeah." he says. Standing up, he offers his hand and I take it. Laying down in the bed, he pulls the covers back for me to get in. Laying next to each other, we don't touch but just knowing someone else is there helps.

Waking up the next morning, I wake up and Juan's arm is around me. I freeze. It must have woken him up because he quickly moved his arm. "Morning." he says. "Morning." I say back. We lay there in silence before he moves to get out of bed. "I'm gonna get a shower." he says without looking at me and I think I did something wrong. I just nod. Heading out to the kitchen, I look in the cabinets and fridge and get the things out to make breakfast and start coffee. "That smells good." he says when he re-enters the room in sweatpants and no shirt. I look away quickly, blushing. He must have noticed. "If we're married, we need to get comfortable with each other." he says. "Okay." is all I say. "You don't have to shy away. Look at me." he says, turning me to face him. "Take a deep breath." he says. I do what he says and he says "One more." I do what he says and feel myself relax a little. "Being newlyweds, we need to act like we like being near each other. We don't have to be anywhere for a few days so we can just hang out here and get comfortable." he says and I nod. I turn back to finish cooking while he sets the table.