Dirk: A Stepbrother Romance(64)
“I heard he was with someone new,” she said quietly, “Took me a while to get the courage, but I had to warn you…” With that, she turned and made her way to the end of the alley. As she approached the road with its steady stream of cars driving past, she turned and added, “Get out while you can.” With that she turned one last time and was gone.
Laurie stood in the alley, resting against the wall and for the first time in months she went into her handbag, rooted around in it for bit, and pulled out a cigarette. She dragged on it hurriedly three times before throwing it on the floor and stamping it out.
“Fuck,” she whispered to herself. She leaned her head back and looked up to the sky as she felt the tears well up behind her eyes.
It was after work that day that she’d gone home and started to pack. She’d dragged her clothes out of the drawers and thrown them into the trunk of her car. A lot of her things were still in their shared wardrobe but she didn’t dare touch them in case he went in there when he got home and saw that they were missing. She would just have to leave them behind. Her car keys were on the central island in the kitchen and she put them in her handbag which she then placed by the door. When she heard the familiar sound of his truck swerving onto the street she turned out the light and pretended to be asleep, although underneath the covers she was mostly clothed. All she would have to do was throw on a pair of jeans with some shoes and she would be good to go.
Brad practically kicked open the front door in his drunkenness before he staggered down the hallway, stopping at the kitchen to grab yet another beer. Finally, he crashed into the bedroom, the still unopened fresh beer in hand, and fell down next to her, face first on the mattress. He dropped the unopened bottle on the floor and she heard it roll under the bed. He was asleep within seconds and she was very glad she hadn’t waited up to face him.
This is it, she thought. This is the first day of the rest of your life.
2.
She would never call it running away. She just needed to regroup her thoughts, be on her own for a while and know that there was a great deal of distance between her and Brad Richards. After she had snuck out of the house she had only just got to her car when she looked up and saw his silhouette in the doorway, his fists clenched and his eyes wild with anger. She had been sure he was out for the night. She tried to start the engine but in her panic dropped the keys. She immediately slammed her palms down on the locks, making sure the doors were secure. Brad stomped across the lawn shouting at her. She did her best to block the impending threat out in order to focus on her escape. She had to find the keys and she had to get the car moving. When she finally found them on the edge of the floor mat she picked them up with shaking hands and slid them into the ignition.
“Fucking bitch,” Brad spat at the window as he pounded his fist against it. She looked up at him one more time and she saw something in him she had always known was there but that was at last revealed, the maniac beneath the surface. He punched the glass with the full force of his muscular arms and it cracked as she threw the car into reverse and sped off down the drive. He chased her to the end of their road, jumping at the trunk and hammering on the back window as she slowed to turn the corner.
“Goodbye Brad,” she said, her voice faltering but determined. She’d done it. She’d escaped him. He grew small in the rear view mirror and was finally gone as she turned and drove out of her old neighborhood.
She’d chosen to go to a small town she had visited when she was a teenager, there were fond memories wrapped up in that place and it was only an hour’s drive from the city. Laurie had always promised herself that one day she would go back and relive her youth. She remembered being there one summer with her parents, she’d laid in the sun by the lake all afternoon and counted the clouds as they drifted overhead. In the evenings they buddied up with other families staying close by and had barbeques at dusk. She’d had her first kiss that summer with a boy who was staying at a lodge near theirs. He’d followed her around the back of the play park and into the woods where they’d wrapped their arms around each other and swapped spit for half an hour. She couldn’t remember his name but she remembered the t-shirt he was wearing. A black one with an alien head on the front. She had vague memories of him telling her about Area 51 and she had deduced he was a nerd and hadn’t spoken to him again. She was a bit too quick to judge back then, she thought in retrospect. She loved thinking of that summer because she didn’t have anything in the world to worry about back then. It was that feeling that drew her back there now. The promise of simplicity.
As she pulled off the highway she recognized the roads immediately, even though it had been ten years since she’d been there. She put on her high beams and followed each bend and dip cautiously. She knew there were a lot of animals in the forests around those parts and after the night she had had, she really didn’t need to hit anything. Soon the old familiar sign came into view in the distance. Blakestone Ridge. She was sure it was the same sign that had been hanging there all those years before, rusted and swinging on an angle by two chains of slightly different lengths. She looked down at her dashboard and saw that it was coming up on three in the morning. She had stopped on the way to fill up with gas and get her head together and it had suddenly dawned on her that there was no motel that was going to take her in at that time of night. In the city maybe it wouldn’t have been a problem, but out there in the practical wilderness she was going to have her work cut out for her finding somewhere to stay the night. She was exhausted and needed a warm bed, both for her physical comfort and her emotional stability.