She’d escaped.
She was free.
I smiled, knowing she would be free from the bullshit life she’d been handed and I knew somehow, she would make it up to me for keeping her secret safe.
I got into my car, smiling, as I sped off into the desert, past the gates of Verona Heights and toward my apartment to write the story of a lifetime.
Only…it wouldn’t be real. It would be what they wanted to hear.
One day…I may see her again.
My friend.
My saving grace from a hellish school.
But until that day, I would continue to be the journalist I always wanted to be.
I flung the flyer out the window of my car as I sped past the gates of the new city and toward the future, both hers and mine.