On The Run: Part Two

Chapter Thirty-Seven - "Parental Guidance"

Chloe

There was a knock at my door, and I grabbed my bag with a sigh. Last Day. Finally. How could I ever have been so excited to go to school?

There was something else niggling at the back of my mind but I pushed it aside, as I pulled open the door.

“You ready?” Jake asked.

I nodded, turning off my bedroom lights and shutting the door behind me. I took in the dark gloomy morning, and my stomach dropped. Elsewhere, people were just getting up.

We’d moved into the house in South Hampton. I absolutely loved holing up in one of the little rooms and it was beautiful, but I missed waking up an hour before school, and leaving the house at a sensible time.

The commute was long, and occasionally, I’d take The Cannonball, which ran all the way into Manhattan, where I was picked up by a driver and dropped off at school. But it was just so convoluted, so, most times, I just went with Jake and caught a few extra winks in the backseat.

But I had to say, there was a certain perfection about my life right now that gave me butterflies. The normalcy of dinner table conversation with Jake and Sarah; the occasional weekdays and Saturdays I spent at Barron’s Fort; flying off to D.C. for a few hours to see my best friend whenever Jay was going; and most of all, spending my days with my label-less Fitch, hanging out. Really, I do mean hanging out – we went out to eat, we spent long hours in that auto shop, we talked, we had movie marathons, we spent nights at Sarah’s Manhattan apartment, which she’d given to me for college, because I couldn’t seem to give up that view; and with large amounts of self-control that I didn’t even know I had, we refrained from giving in to our desires. Sometimes, I left him, and felt so dizzy with want, that it took me a while to find my way to the car.

Somehow, I liked the resistance and the teasing; Fitch and I were connecting in a whole other way, far better than I could even have imagined. Sometimes, I’d be sitting at dinner with him, and I could tell exactly what he was thinking. We had gotten to that stage where we knew that we were anything but simply friends, but we still were. I told him stuff that I never thought I’d be able to tell anyone, and bit-by-bit, that other letter than he burned was revealed. There was still a lot left unsaid – Robert, etc., but I could now truly say, the person that knew me the most in the world was Fitch Jackson, and vice versa.

We went to visit his dad together, and it was almost like we had stepped onto a whole other level. We were opening the doors to each of our worlds, and we were embracing it all.

I don’t know how, and I didn’t even know that it was possible, but I had fallen more and more in love with him, each passing day.

I was so comfortable around him now, and I could barely comprehend it. To think that there was a time when I would flinch at his touch; now it was all I wanted.

“Chloe, you still haven’t replied Oxford,” Sarah said, stepping out of the kitchen in her swimsuit and dressing gown.

I frowned, averting the topic, “Aren’t you going to work?”

She caught on, “I’m going to Savannah, remember? Why haven’t you replied?”

Jake grabbed his files, and muttered, “Car’s running, guys.”

Sarah sighed, “Chlo, you don’t keep Oxford waiting. They snap their fingers and there’s somebody else in your place. Deadline’s in two days.”

“I’ll reply,” I murmured, heading for the door, “Today.”

She looked skeptical, but I was already walking off. From the corner of my eye, I saw Jake give her that look – his Sarah look – and kiss her gently. I looked away – they were technically my parents, still; no matter how cute it was.