Chapter 5

The waitress returned with our food, but as she sat my plate in front of me, I lost all interest in eating. There was too much going on inside my head right now. I could feel her standing there staring at me, making me look away from my plate of food. Her brown eyes looked at me with so much sympathy . "is everything okay, honey?" she said warmly as she reached out touching my arm.

I wanted to pull away from her—I hate being touched by anyone—but I stopped myself from pulling away, not wanting to hurt her feelings. "Yes, I'm okay," I lied. "Do you know somewhere we could go to possibly get a ride out of here?"

She removed her hand from me, which I was thankful for. "there's a bus stop about six blocks down, but you won't get very far without any money." when I stayed silent, she went on. "there a prawn shop right near the bus shop if you have anything worth selling go in there and see dave tell him sally sent you and he'll give you a good price."

 I went to answer her, but Elena interrupted me as she came back to the table. "You will never believe it; they have balloons in the bathroom." She held one up to her mouth, blowing air into it while handing another one to Lillie, who studied it.

"Why is it slimy?" she asked, her voice filled with discussion as she held it up between two fingers. 

"oh, sweety, they are not balloons", Sally said as she tried to hold back her laughter.

"Well, what are th..." Elena could almost see the light turn on in her head as she realized that they were. Both she and Lillie threw them. Elena spits, trying to get the taste out of her mouth. "Why the bloody hell would they put those in the girl's bathroom?"

"They didn't," Sally said with no regret in her voice for telling her. 

"no, there is no way that I was just in the men's."

I saw Lillie, out of the corner of my eye, pick up the unopened one from the table, have a look at it, and then shove it into her pocket. I was starting to get worried that running away with these two was going to be a lot of hard work.  

The waitress looked at us sympathetically before turning back to me. "I know things might seem tough right now, but it'll get better. Just hang in there." With that, she left our table to tend to her other customers.

Her words stuck with me. There was something about the way she said it and how she went out of her way to help us. That had me feeling all light and fluffy inside. Humans had already proven to be kinder than my kind. If someone had shown up at him not being able to get food, they would have been thrown into lock-up, no questions asked.  I passed my plate to Lillie, letting her finish it off, knowing that we might not get another meal for a while and how hangry Lillie gets when she doesn't eat; I wanted to fill her up as much as I could. I didn't want to risk her getting pissed off and having her powers come out and blow something up and id like to say that I'm joking, but sadly, I'm not. She has done it plenty of times before.

As we were leaving, I stopped at the door and turned back around to look at Sally, who was standing near the table we had just left. She stopped what she was doing and mouthed, " Good luck, pretty lady."

I smiled back at her before turning and leaving. I don't know if I'll ever come back here or if I'll ever see Sally again, but I do know she is someone that I will never forget. I feel as though our paths were meant to cross. 

 Lillie tugged on my sleeve, breaking me from my thoughts. "Are we really going to go see this Dave guy and sell something?" she asked, scepticism evident in her voice.

I nodded. "We don't have much of a choice right now. We need money for a bus ticket out of here."

Elena chimed in, "Well, let's just hope this Dave guy is as nice as Sally said he would be."

We made our way to the pawn shop and were greeted by a burly man behind the counter who introduced himself as Dave. I explained our situation, mentioning Sally's name, and he seemed to soften at the mention of her.

"Ah, Sally sent you, did she? She's a good egg," he said with a grin. "so what do you have for me today?"

I stood there thinking for a second. I hadn't really thought about what I was going to sell, and I wasn't going to let the other two sell anything. I looked down at my wrist before taking off one of the gold bracelets that my mother had given me for one of my birthdays. It had all different kinds of jewels through it. I thought it was worth something back home, but all I could do was hope that it would be worth enough here to get us three bus tickets out of here. Taking one last look at it, I handed it over to him. 

Lillie grabbed my arm. "Are you sure Winter, your mum, gave you that?" 

"It's fine. I have plenty more, and we need the money." I did my best to hide the hurt in my voice. Even if I was still hating on her, I couldn't help but miss her. 

Dave examined the bracelet, nodding in approval. "This is a nice piece. I have never seen anything made so perfectly. I can give you a good price for it." He stood there thinking for a second, his eyes going from the bracelet to us. "Since you're friends with Sally, I'll give you a price I would never normally offer. Ten thousand? And I'll hold it for a few months in case you change your mind and want it back."

I stood there staring at him, knowing that that was more than enough to get us out of here and a hotel room and food when we got to wherever it was we were going. I couldn't say no to that kind of money, but the pain in my chest that I was selling something that my mother had spent probably days picking out and having made me feel sick.

"is that a lot of money?" Lillie asked, snapping me out of my thoughts. 

"and you think I'm the dumb one" elena mutted.

"I'm being serious, is it?"

Dave laughed. "Yes, young lady, that is a lot of money, and it's even more when you don't have any."

I nodded, trying to push down the guilt that was bubbling up inside me. "Yes, Lillie, it is a lot of money. And we need it right now." I turned back to Dave. "We'll take the offer. Thank you."

Dave smiled and handed me the cash. As I counted it, feeling the weight of the bills in my hands, I knew that this was our ticket out of here. Our chance at a fresh start.

As we left the pawn shop, I felt a mix of emotions. Relief that we had the money we needed, sadness at having sold something precious, and hope for what lay ahead.

I glanced back at Sally's diner one last time before turning away. I may never see her again, but her kindness would always stay with me.

 As we made our way to the bus stop, Elena couldn't contain her excitement. "We're really doing this, huh? Leaving everything behind and starting a new."

Lillie added, "It's scary but exciting at the same time. Who knows what adventures await us?"

I smiled at my two friends. I wished that I could feel the excitement that they were feeling right now, but I felt worried and nervous because so much could go wrong. This had been my idea, so I had to protect them from anything bad that could happen to us. 

"hey, Lillie, remember when you could have killed winter with your potion?" Elena teased.

"but did she die?" Lillie paused for a dramatic effect. "no, she did not, and plus, she put way worse things in her mouth before".

"That's true. Remember that vampire we met one night at the lake party? What was his name"? Elena pretended like she couldn't remember when she could because she never let me live that night down. "dillion, wasn't it?"

"I still can't believe you sucked his..."

I picked up a bottle from the ground and threw it at Lillie before she could finish what she was going to say. "Like neither of you two can talk," I laughed. 

We continued to banter and joke around as we waited for the bus to arrive. But as I saw the bus pull up, my heart started to sink. This was it - we were really leaving everything behind. The reality of what we were doing hit me like a ton of bricks.

As we boarded the bus and found our seats, the playful energy that had filled the air before seemed to disappear. Lillie looked out the window with a regretful expression. Elena stared ahead with a determined look on her face, and I couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness in my chest.

I knew that what we were doing was going to be tough. We were leaving behind everything we knew and taking a leap into the unknown. But as I looked at my two friends sitting beside me, I knew that we would get through it together.

As the bus pulled away from the curb and began its journey to wherever fate would take us next, I reached out and took their hands in mine. "We're in this together," I whispered, feeling a sense of freedom and strength wash over me. I had to be strong for them I was the protector of this ground, and if I couldn't be strong for them now, then I never would be. They were giving up everything to help me get away from a life that i didn't want i will ever be in there debt and be thankful for them. 

As we drove further and further away from our past lives, I felt more at peace than ever before. I had everything I needed in life right now. We may not know what lay ahead, but one thing was certain—no matter what came our way, we would face it together. And maybe, just maybe, this new beginning could lead us to something beautiful.