Chapter 10

"Turn the wheel! Turn the wheel! Turn the wheel!" I don't turn the wheel and I crash into the fence. Bruno puts his hand on his forehead. I bite my lip and look at him. "Why didn't you turn the wheel?!" he yells. "Cause you're screaming at me!" I yell back. He closes his eyes and leans his head back. "Turn the car on, were gonna do this again." I obey and the car roars to life. "Now, TURN THE WHEEL." I turn it and the car smoothly glides into the driveway. I look at him and smile. "I turned the wheel." I tell him. His mad, frustrated expression lingers for a moment than is replaced with a grin and he laughs out loud. He ruffles my hair. "Driving lesson is over for today, I don't want to see what else you can crash into. I'd like to keep my car." He says and we get out. "This hunk of junk?" I say and kick the bumper. "Hey! Stacey is not a hunk of junk." I fall to my knees laughing. "Stacey?!" I manage to spurt out. He raises an eyebrow and stares at me. I look up at him, still on the ground. He's not laughing. I look at the car. "Sorry Stacey." I say to the tire. He laughs harder than I did and helps me up. He puts his arm around me. "You're such a nut, you know that?" "Than you must be a squirrel cause you love this nut." I say. We both laugh and walk into the house together.

Why do I do this to myself? I think as I lay in bed, staring into the darkness that is the ceiling. Why can't I just not think about him? I wish I could switch the 'Bruno' button off in my brain. I turn on my side. The light in the hallway is on and I can hear Ahmity and Adrian talking. Ahmity giggles. Adrian laughs. I hate love. I turn on my other side and stare at the wall. The urge to call home is overwhelming. I look at my phone. I haven't turned it on since the plane. I stop arguing with myself and grab it. I wait a minute and my screen lights up. 'Inbox 100% full' I look at the texts. Bruno: Lena, where are you? Please answer your phone. Joe: Lena, where the hell are you, answer your phone, everybody's looking for you. Eric: Hey, where are you? Mom: Mija, donde estas? Contesta el telefono I had about 30 of these text. Than it got more serious. Bruno: Lena, answer the phone! Your mom called the cops. Bruno: God Lena where are you? Are you okay? Please answer the phone, I need to know if your okay. Joe: Lena, the cops are looking for you. They declared a missing persons case for all of North Brooklyn. If your okay, please text me back, please!"

Oh my god. I cover my mouth. I don't even listen to my voicemails. I can't. My phone buzzes. Mom. I watch it ring until it goes to 'missed call' I turn my phone back off. I should've never ran away. What was I thinking? How could I do this? I get off the bed and start putting my clothes in the duffel bag. I don't know how I was going to go home, but I needed to find a way. The door opens and I turn around quickly. Ahmity is standing in the doorway. We stare at each other. She looks at the duffel bag, than back at me. "You lasted longer than I did." she says. "What?" I ask. She walks in. "I had my clothes packed 3 hours after I landed." she says. I swallow. "I can't stop you from leaving, but think about it. At least for tonight." she says than turns and walks away. I sit back on the bed. I put my head in my hands. Why did I get myself into this mess? The door opens again. "Ahmity, I know--" It's not Ahmity, it's Brendan. "I saw that you were still awake, and I was wondering if you needed anything or---" he trails off. I look up at him. "Um, no..I'm fine. Thank you." I say. He nods. "You sure?" he asks, one last time. "Yup." I tell him. "Okay." He slowly turns and I can tell he doesn't want to leave. I don't want him to leave. I don't want to be alone. "Brendan....You can stay, if you want?" I say. His green eyes sparkle and he shuts the door. "Really? You don't mind?" I smirk. "Why would I ask if I minded?" He laughs. "You're right." He sits on the other edge of the bed. An awkward silence fills the room. I look over at him and give him a small smile. He does the same. Silence again. "Sooooo, how's it going?" he asks. "Um, I'm actually thinking about going home." I blurt out, without meaning to. He whips around. "What? Why!?" My face gets red. "The cops are kinda looking for me." I tell him. His face turns to shock and his green eyes pop out of his head. "I kinda ran away." I say, before he says anything. He doesn't. For the first time since I met him, he's speechless. He finally manages to spit out "WHY!?" I make a face and turn away. My stomach hurts. My head is pounding. I want to puke. I crawl across the bed and sit in front of him. His eyes are full of questions but all I wanna do is feel like I did when we were in the kitchen. He takes me to another place where Bruno doesn't exist, and I didn't run away, and I don't have any problems. "Can we just talk, about anything? It doesn't matter as long as it's not about me running away from home." He looks startled and a bit green, but he blinks a couple times and says "I see the stud muffiness worked cause you couldn't wait to get me in your bed." I smile. "You came in my room!" "You came in my house" he shoots back. I roll my eyes. "Touche" I tell him. We talk and joke around for a long time. I look at the clock. 3:30 A.M. "Aren't you tired?" I ask him. He's laying on his back, hands behind his head. I'm laying on my stomach next to him, chin in my hand. "Nah, you?" I shake my head. He looks at me, and holds his gaze. My cheeks get red and I stare at the pillow. "Stop looking at me." I say. He laughs. "Why?" "Cause, you make me nervous." "How do I make you nervous by staring at you?" "I don't know! You just do!" I say and throw the pillow at him. He catches it and throws it back. It turns into a full blown pillow fight. He grabs me by my waist and throws me on the bed. I try to push him off but he grabs my hands and I end up falling on top of him. Were both laughing so hard were out of breath. He stares into my eyes and I stare into his. He gently rubs his thumb across my lips. "I've never met anyone so beautiful in my entire life." he says. Of course, my face turns red. He puts his other hand on the back of my neck and carefully pulls me down and kisses me. My body is stiff and I resist for only a second. His kiss is so gentle and welcoming, I melt into him. His hand softly grabs my hair and I kiss him more intensly. His tongue grazes mine and a tingle runs down my spine. He sits up and puts his hand on my hips. I stop and pull away. Small snip-its of that day zoom through my mind. "What's wrong?" he asks. I get off of him and hug myself. "I'm sorry Lena, I didn't mean to make you feel like you had to do something you didn't want to do, that's not the kinda guy I am." "It's not you...I shouldn't of-----" I keep my head down, not knowing how to explain myself. He sits next to me and lifts my chin. He moves my hair out of my face. "Lena, look at me." I don't want to. "I'm not him." he says. I stare at a spot on the floor. "I don't know what happened, but I promise that I'll never hurt you." I look up. Green eyes, not brown. I can't explain what they hold. Worried, but loving at the same time. He touches my face. I don't want to make myself vulnerable again, but with him I can't help it. I can't put my wall up. Everything he tells me, is believable. I've only know the guy less than 24 hours. How can this be possible? A tear rolls down my face and he wipes it away. Damn it. I hate crying. He grabs my face with both hands and kisses me and I don't fight him. His kisses are inviting and they make me want more and more. I grab the back of his hair and kiss him with all I have. He groans a little when I suck on his tongue. He pushes me back on the bed. "Now you did it" he says and I laugh as he jumps on me and kisses my neck. Before he gets too carried away, I stop him. "This is as far as it's gonna go." I tell him. He kisses my lips. "That's fine with me." He rubs my nose with his and gives me one last peck on the lips. I cuddle up next to him and he holds me, almost protectively in his arms. I fall asleep with a smile on my face...