Lizzie by Dawn Ius

Author:Dawn Ius
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon Pulse

CHAPTER

17

Parallel forests flank either side of the highway, which stretches far into the distance. I focus on staring straight ahead and not looking back. I don’t want to go back, not now, not ever. I think of my suitcase stuffed next to Bridget’s rainbow backpack and wonder how long we can survive with just this. Just us.

As the coach bus turns onto Highway 24, I feel my tension drain like a slow-leaking tire.

Bridget leans in close and whispers, “Holy shit. We’re totally doing this.”

Her breath is hot against my neck, and I’m flushed. The woman in the aisle seat next to us glares at us through her thick-rimmed glasses, curling her lip in disgust. Bridget says I should ignore her—“let them judge”—but my eyes keep flitting back, her disapproval seeping into my rapidly darkening soul.

I inch my fingers closer to Bridget’s. She grabs my hand and smiles. “We’re heading to Boston, can you believe it?”

Emotion swells in my chest. I shake my head, unable to speak. The trees, cars, and road signs all pass in a continuous blur. I shift closer to peer through the window and take off my hat. It doesn’t even matter that my hair’s a mess, that it’s disheveled and imperfect.

This.

This moment is what matters.

A slow smile creeps across my face and I fall back against the seat in a sudden burst of soft giggles. Bridget joins in until we’re laughing out loud. I force myself not to look at the judgmental woman in the seat across from us.

“I wish the scenery was better,” Bridget says, when the laughter finally dies down.

“It’s perfect.”

Bridget scrunches up her nose. “It’s Massachusetts, aka boring as fuck.”

My voice catches. “Why did you come to Fall River, then?” I ask, not for the first time. It’s questions like this she refuses to answer, and I’m afraid she finds me too invasive, too needy. But her phone never rings, there’s never any mail. I understand her parents are traveling, but don’t they even want to know how she is? “I mean, you’ve been to so many amazing places. . . .”

“I needed a change, I guess.” She shrugs like her response makes all kinds of sense, but it doesn’t. Not to me, at least. If I’m ever able to travel, I don’t think I’ll ever come back. “Being on the road all the time can get lonely.”

That’s okay too—I’m used to feeling alone.

Half an hour passes where we say nothing, giving root to my insecurities. I feel the madness, tight like a guitar string, urging me to tell the bus driver that we need to go back. Guilt eats away at me, leaving black streaks of doubt across my heart and my flesh. I’m wound up so tight that when Bridget speaks again, I actually jump.

“Twenty Questions?” she says.

“Yes!” I nearly gasp in relief that things are on their way back to normal. This is our game. “Only if I can go first.”

Bridget nods.

“Most beautiful place you’ve traveled to?”

She groans. “You know the answer.

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