On The Run

Chapter Fifteen - "Chloe or Happy?"

 Chloe

“If you had a million bucks, what would you do with it?” Kayla asked.

Ricky sighed smiling, “I’d buy Eva Longoria.”

Trey snorted, shaking his head, “Right.”

“What about you, Chloe?” Kayla asked me, looking up.

“I don’t know. Where would I get a million bucks?” I asked blankly.

“If, I said. Just imagine it,” she replied.

I snorted, “I’d buy an imagination.” They all chuckled in response.

It was a Saturday evening, and we were all in the living room – Trey and me, at opposite ends of the couch; Kayla on the floor, painting her toenails; and Ricky on the island. Fitch was goodness knows where, but it was okay, because I was slowly starting to feel less like an outsider – slowly. It had been two weeks, and I’d made an effort to stay out of my room as much as I could.

Trey said, “I’d buy a yacht.”

“With a million bucks,” Kayla said, giving him a look that said, ‘seriously?’

He rolled his eyes, “What would you do?”

She sighed, “A time machine.”

I smiled. The more I hung out with them, the easier it became to laugh and smile, and find things funny at all. Not completely, though.

Ricky and Trey laughed.

“There’s no such thing,” I said slowly.

“I know that. But if something as far-fetched as a million bucks dropped into my lap all of a sudden, it’d be in an age where there are time machines,” she answered nonchalantly.

After we had gotten past the hostility and discomfort, I’d instantly started to like Kayla. She was just so easy to hang around; she never asked questions, and she never gave straight answers. It was kind of amusing.

“Oh yeah,” Trey said, and she punched him in the shoulder.

“So you could go to the past and change stuff?” Ricky asked, slipping off the island.

“No, silly. So I could go to the future and check it out. Then, I’d make my life perfect,” she replied contentedly.

“It wouldn’t really be,” I said, “There’d be no surprises. Where’s the fun in that?”

“You are totally ruining this dream for me,” she said, giving me a hurt look.

“Fine, sorry,” I said, completely unapologetic. I hated surprises, but I couldn’t imagine that having a life without any would be better than one with.

She leaned back looking at her toes. The combination of lime and aqua had formed some color, which was almost glowing beneath the shadow of her hand.

“Hey, that’s so awesome,” she said grinning.

“See? If you had a time machine, you’d have known that was going to happen, and it wouldn’t have been the same,” I said, getting up and going over to the fridge.

“Fine,” she said, still admiring the color, just as Fitch walked in.

Trey perked up, “Hey man, did we get it?” he asked Fitch.

Fitch smiled slowly, “We did.”

“Yes!” Trey exclaimed.

“And it is?” Ricky asked.