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I roll out from under the bed and wait for her to do the same, then pull her into my lap. She wraps her arms around my neck and sobs into my shoulder.
“You’re okay,” I tell her. “I’m not going to let anyone hurt you. I promise.”
For whatever reason, what was supposed to be comforting only makes her cry harder.
“I didn’t think he was back yet,” she says. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t have done this.”
“It’s okay,” I tell her. “Ally…what’s going on?”
“They hurt me,” she says.
“What?” I heard what she said; I just wasn’t expecting that.
“They starve me sometimes, too. I can’t stay here.”
“You should tell someone,” I say. “Call the police. I’ll go with you.”
“Devon, come on. Look at them. Look who they are, and look at me. How do you think that’s going to go? Do you really think they’ll take me out of the house?”
No. I know better than that. I don’t say it, but she must see it in my eyes.
“I’m saving the money so I can leave when I turn eighteen in October. That’s it for me—that’s myonlyout. I already snuck a withdrawal form from the office and filled it out with the date. I’llget a bus ticket, hand it in, tell people goodbye so they all know I left on purpose, and then I won’t come back. I’d go now, but I wouldn’t even be able to check into a hotel, let alone find a place to rent if I’m underage. And if I’m eighteen and leave by choice, the police won’t come for me. They can’t make me go back.”
“It sounds like you’ve thought about this a lot,” I reply, shaking my head. “What about graduation? Or college?”
She laughs. “Devon, I’m stupid. You didn’t know that? Seems like you know just about everything else about me.”
“You are not stupid.”
“Maybe not, but I’m not going to graduate, and I’m certainly not getting into any colleges. I didn’t always go to school when I was younger. My grades are horrible, and I can’t pass math or science. But…that’s okay because I have a plan.”
“Stealing isn’t the best long-term plan, Ally. Not unless you want to end up in jail—”
“Stealingisn’ta long-term plan. It’s a means to an end. I’m going to find a cheap place to live, a job, and a tattoo apprenticeship.”
“You want to do tattoos?”
She nods.
“That’s actually…smart.”
“Thank you.”
“Where are you going to go? Not far, right?”
“I don’t know,” she says. “I was thinking maybe Florida.”
“Florida? Why Florida?”
“Because it’s far. And because if they did look for me, they’d never look there.”
“I don’t want you to go.”
She shakes her head. “This is why we can’t get to know each other, Devon. I don’t want to have anything in my life that will make leaving hard.”
“We already know each other,” I tell her.
“Devon…”
