Runaway

Chapter 16: Mia

Flashback

"Mia, Ella, come on. I'm leaving in 5 so if you're not in the car, you'll miss out on ice cream" my mum yells at us from the bottom of the stairs. I grab my shoes and run down the stairs and can her Ella just behind me. There is no way we are missing out on ice cream. This was the best part of the week.

Every Friday afternoon after we got home from school, my mum would always take Ella and me out for ice cream, no matter what the weather. It's never too cold for ice cream especially before dinner. This was our little girls time out together. It started about 2 years ago when I came home upset because of some things that a girl said to me at school. I didn't cope very well and mum always said that ice cream makes everything better so every Friday since we have gone for ice cream.

Both Ella and I run towards the car and I can hear my mum locking up the door laughing behind us. She always looks so happy but I can tell that somedays she's not but she pretends to be for us. I hope that ice cream makes her feel better too.

We make our way to the ice cream parlor down the road and Mike, the guy who owns it already knows what we want. I take a cookies and cream, Ella loves mint choc chip and mum mixes it up but today she goes for double chocolate. Its either that or strawberry.

We sit outside eating our ice cream talking about how our days where and just watching the world go by. It's my favourite time of the week. I look over to Ella and notice the necklace around her neck, it's silver with an E charm, I have one the same but in gold with an M charm. Mum has a white gold one with the letter M and E. Mum and dad gave them to us about 5 years ago now and I haven't taken it off since.

"Mia" I hear Ella say. Shit is was so lost in thought I didn't even hear her come in. I'm not even sure how long I have been sitting here thinking about mum. I really miss her, she was always so caring to Ella and I. I wish she was still here, things would have been so much different I just know that she would have looked after us, we wouldn't have had to run. Ella would have had the childhood she deserved.

I heard my name again and this time Ella was crouching down in front of me with a concerned look on her face. I shake my head to clear my thoughts.

"Hey, sorry just zoned out for a bit" I smile at her trying to reassure her that I'm fine. We talk about mum all the time, I never want her to forget the good times we had before she died. We have photos of the 3 of us from when we were little and Ella still wears her necklace every day saying even though it was from both our mum and dad, it only reminds her of mum.

Unfortunately I lost my necklace about a year ago now. I never took it off, I'm the same as Ella it was my way of keeping mum close to me. I'll never forgot the day I lost it. I was a mess, throwing everything around the small apartment we were living in at the time, cushions off the couch, blankets off the bed, clothes out of the drawers. But I never could find it, I came to the conclusion that it must have fallen off at work or on my walk home.

I remember that Friday that we got ice cream, even though we did the same thing every week, I will never forget that night. That night changed our lives forever. Our dad was out for work drinks, like every Friday and we were having a movie slumber party just us girls. We were watching The Little Mermaid, it was Ella's favourite movie and then Beauty and the Beast.

We must have fallen asleep at some point because I was woken by a knock on the front door. I remember I was in a daze when I first hear the knocking and just tried to go back to sleep knowing that mum would get it. Knowing dad it was him arriving home drunk not being able to unlock the door. But when the sound continued I open my eyes and see that it is just Ella and me in the lounge room, I had no idea where mum was or even what the time was.

I remember the voice yell through the front door, tell me that it was the police. I can still remember to this day the look on the officer's faces when I opened the door and I couldn't tell them where either of my parents were. I was only 10 at the time and didn't understand what was really going on. They took Ella and me back to the station while they tracked down my dad.

I still remember what her said to us when we finally got home early in the morning. All her said was that mum had died then told us to go to bed. He never cared about us, that's when I knew it would be me and Ella together looking out for each other.

Back to the present I could tell Ella was still worried about me. "I was just thinking about mum and how we always got ice cream on a Friday" I say with a smile on my face as I remember the happy times again. She comes and sits next to me on the lounge.

I ask her about how college is going and she asks me about work. I tell her about the friends, well I think they are my friends, and how we are going ice skating on Sunday. I also mention about what happened with Brooke, both times.

"So what's going on between you and Ethan then." She questions me "or is she just delusional?" I laugh because I really don't know why Brooke is acting like this towards me. Sure I've talked to Ethan and he's driven me home but isn't that what friends do, again I think we are friends?

"Nothing is going on with Ethan. He's just being friendly" well that's what I think anyway "don't get me wrong the boy well man, is gorgeous, and nice and smart but you know me and everything that's happened, I don't want anything especially after..." I trial off with Ella knowing exactly what I was thinking.

"You know that not everybody will be like him. You can't hold back on life because of your past. You deserve to be happy Mia"

"But he is, he comes from a rich family and has been given everything. I can guarantee he has never worked a day in his life. And I know he's a player. I just can't go there again and do you know what, he probably doesn't even what anything other than sex, that's why he's being so nice to me, just to get me into bed. And who actually says he even wants that" I knew I was getting worked up with my breaths becoming shallow and my eyes clenched closed.

I feel Ella wrap her arms around me and her soothing voice trying to calm me down. This happens every time I think or talk about him. He has ruined my life and this is why I can't even think about a relationship or anything near that. He broke me. Ruined me. I will always feel this way, I can't trust anybody.