I was walking Kira home and we were laughing about a science class incident.
“So about Kingsley . . .” Kira said.
“Who’s Kingsley?” I asked.
“Your crush!” she said. “You remember?”
I turned red. Oh God . . . I thought. “Uh! Yeah! Of course! What about her?”
“I was looking at all the attendance sheets for Mr. Justins and there didn’t seem to be a Kingsley.”
I blushed even harder. “Um. Her real first name is Kingsley Anne.”
“I didn’t see Kingsley Anne on the sheet.”
“Uh . . .” I didn’t have another excuse. Crap!
“You didn’t actually have a crush, did you?” she asked.
“No, I did!” I said. “I just can’t tell you who it is . . .”
“I’m your best friend, Harls, you can tell me anything,” she said. I hesitated. “Tell me!!”
“No!”
“Tell me!”
“No!”
“Tell me, tell me!”
“No, no!”
“Tell me, tell me, tell me!”
“No, no, no!”
“Tell me now or I’ll--”
“OK, OK, OK! I’ll tell you.” This was the moment. I was going to tell her how I felt about her. “I like--”
“Kira Mars!!”
Uh-oh.
We looked to our right and there was Kira’s dad, glaring at us.
“Why are you with him?” he asked. “I thought we talked about this.”
“I can explain,” she said.
“No. You won’t. Harley must forget you.”
“Daddy, no, not now.”
“Harley--”
“Harley, go!” she yelled.
And so I ran. I ran as hard as I could. I ran even harder. For Kira. For our friendship. For everything we’ve been through.
I fell on my face when I got to the driveway of my house. My forehead started bleeding and a bruise was already forming. Kira’s dad was angry and feet away from me.
“You’re mine,” he said.
“Not if you can’t catch me first!” I said. I used all the strength I had left and ran toward the woods.
I had never been in the woods before. Well, not in years anyway. The grass had grown taller and the treetops covered the sky. It was dark and shady. I ran to the other side of the woods. I could hear footsteps behind me, but every time I looked behind me, no one was there. I heard his voice a lot. “I’ll find you, Harley!” and “You can run but you can’t hide!” It was kind of dumb, since I hid and he couldn’t find me. I hid inside a hollow cave in a tree and tried to clean up my injury.
I didn’t want to leave. I didn’t want to forget Kira.
My head started hurting more than ever. I wished I could ice it, but I couldn’t go anywhere. I’d be staying there until I got some indication that he was gone. I wasn’t going to give myself up. For Kira.
Blood was staining my clothes and hair. I had to stay there. I kept thinking the only thing I could. For Kira, for Kira, for Kira, for Kira!
My mind was spinning. My surroundings were spinning. Everything was spinning. I couldn’t think straight. I tried to text my mom: “Sleeping over at Jack’s.” It probably came out as: “Slppeign eoverr ta jAcs’k.”
I could barely see. Blood was streaming down my face, burning my eyesight. I felt dizzy. Everything slowly went dark as I hoped Kira’s father wouldn’t find me.39Please respect copyright.PENANAxNhBXj9Lvs