You can't keep running away
It's gonna catch up someday
Don't be this way, don't be this way
No, you can't keep running away
It's gonna catch up someday
Don't be this way, don't be this way
Can't Keep Running Away, Eyeshine
"Do you put sugar in your latte miss?" The slightly too friendly teen waiter asked me while leaning in a little too close for comfort. I shook my head while tapping my fingers on the counter and staring at the menu. I really wanted to stick out my finger, point to the Caesar Salad and order it pronto but now I couldn't. It would be a foolish move and I was no fool. I wanted to eat here and stay a while, I really did, but my plan hadn't gone my way.
The teen nodded to himself and tapped his foot to the subtle jazz music that was being played over the speakers. "You eatin' here, or do you want this latte to-go?" I looked at his nametag. His name was Joe Smith – how unoriginal. It was almost like the parents had said 'Oh what the hell, his last name is unoriginal enough so we might as well go all the way!'
"To go." I stated. I was desperately hoping that this ordeal would be over with soon. I originally planned to eat here and hang out with the clusters of musical people that hung out at this cafe, but I couldn't now. An emerald green Bentley had rolled up across the street, prompting all my senses to leave and escape. It was him. He had found me again. You would think getting a passport overseas to Australia of all places would derail his steadfast plans to find me and tell me something 'important'. But it didn't, and now I had to find another place to eat after ever so carefully planning to go to this particular location. I had my suspicions that the important thing was just a ruse for him to talk to me in close range, just to shoot me with a taser and ship me back home.
A woman shrieked at a table behind me. I turned my head and tilted my sunglasses down and saw an insect crawl out of her sugar pot and, to the utmost horror of the frail woman, into her Chai Tea. There was a reason why I didn't add sugar to my latte, and that just added to it. I made a mental note not to have sugar in my drinks when I visit any cafes in the future – I would hate to have a roach swimming around in my drink.
"Oh shit! 'Scuse the language miss, but I'll be right back." Joe jumped over the counter to help the lady calm down. I wonder if I could jump over a table like that. People began to watch in amusement and disgust as the woman began to have a panic attack while all the staff tried assist her and subtly remove the tea and replace it with a bug-free one. Ten points for the smart kid who thought that one up. Some people even began to film the scenario and joke about how many views they were going to get on YouTube. While they were distracted I grabbed my latte and left a ten dollar note on the cash register. I couldn't steal; it was against everything that I had ever been taught at home. But I couldn't think about home. I had to think about the present, not the past.
I pushed my sunglasses up my nose and combed through my jet black hair with my spare hand, before ducking through the kitchen, slipping past the chefs with cigarettes in between their teeth and slinking through the backdoor unnoticed. Surely he wouldn't notice my swift and timely escape. Surely this time I could escape again, just like last time and the time before that. I had to finally drive the signal through that I would never go back home. Not now, not ever. My two inch black heels clacked against the cobblestone alley as I ran down the alley and onto a busy street, filled with congested traffic. Perfect. Two minutes later I had jumped into a taxi empty of passengers.
I had a woman in her twenties with untamed fiery orange hair as my driver. It was unusual to have a female driver, and I felt special that I now had the experience of having one.
"Good afternoon, where would you like to go?" I checked her cab license, it was a hobby of mine; remembering the names of people that I had interacted with. Deborah Tanner spoke with a European accent, and reeked of the grape bubblegum that she was chewing with her mouth open, like a cow.
"Ma'am, where would you like to go? If you're not going anywhere, I'm sorry but I'll be forced to ask you to leave the vehicle." I looked up with a false shocked expression and bit my lip.
"I'm sorry; I was lost in my thoughts. Could you please take me to the nearest airport?"
Deborah nodded, gunned the engine and turned the radio on to full blast. The windows slightly rattled and I was forced to bounce in my seat to the heavy bass that pounded from the speakers under my seat. It would've been a fun experience, but my head was bumping onto the window every time I became slightly airborne. I shook my head – it didn't matter, because in approximately twenty four minutes Deborah Tanner pulled the cab up to the curb of the airport. The throbbing headache that had accumulated during the trip was worth it, just to see Deborah's face when I handed her a $100 dollar note for a $32.95 fare. Her gum dropped out of her mouth and stuck to her collar like a leech to human flesh. I flashed my best grin and hopped out, making my way to the international flights. I love tipping people ridiculously large amounts of money.
I walked up to the Service Counter to see a man with a receding hairline. The nametag stated that his name was Norman. I felt like saying a pun about how normal his name was, but I held back. Doing that would be a bad joke, possibly offending, unoriginal and would probably result in not getting a good ticket.
"How can I help you?" he drawled, without even looking up at me. How polite.
"I want to buy International Ticket to Barkarby Airport in Stockholm, Sweden as soon as possible. I would prefer to arrive in that particular airport, but any other in Sweden would also be fine. Could you please assist me with that? I'm not very good with computers." I lied about the computer part. I completely understood computers, and knew how to sabotage one with a few nasty algorithms too. It was just faster for him to do it and I like to be lazy when I can.
Norman looked up to see my notepad and nodded. Unfortunately, he took interest in me and decided to make conversation.
"So, are you one of them people who can't use computers or are you just dumb?"
How inconsiderate. If I actually couldn't use a computer I think I would kill him for being so insensitive, and get away with it under justifiable homicide. But since I wasn't, I just shrugged it off. He nodded again and slowly tapped away at his computer with his two pointer fingers. What was so wrong with using all the fingers you have to type? It's so much faster than just two. By pure chance, I looked through the glass doors and to the curb where Deborah Tanner dropped me off.
But instead of seeing the cab belonging to Deborah Tanner, there was a too familiar emerald green Bentley belonging to the person who I despised the most.
He knew I was here.
He wasn't inside his car.
He was here, trying to find me.
I had to escape.
I told Norman that I needed to use the ladies room, ran out the glass doors and through the crowds.
He wasn't in his Bentley, so there was a big chance that he would be inside the airport waiting for me and not lurking outside. I had never escaped so directly and in such plain sight. Adrenaline rushed through my body, and my tongue tasted like copper. He had never found me this fast, not after thoroughly losing his trail. What had gone wrong? How did he find me this fast?
I slammed into a hard lumpy chest. I looked up to apologise, but froze up before I could. The scent of lilacs and fabric softener was so pungent and disgustingly familiar. I looked up to see him. The distinctive blonde hair, straight posture and expression that just screamed confidence and trust – it was him all right. The man I had run away from for three years. The person I had hated for such a long time.
"Amu, I almost didn't see you there." He wrapped his cold arm around my waist and guided me towards his car. "How about we talk in my marvellous Bentley? I had to give it a paint job since you scratched such misleading words into it during my trip to see you in Sweden, but I'm glad that I did. Green suits me so much better than orange, don't you think?"
My hand slipped into my pocket and grasped the key that would unlock my house in Japan. The second we were in arms reach of the Bentley, I scraped the key against the expensive paint job. Everyone around us stopped and stared as I finished my work. I had written kidnapper in bold letters and then began to struggle away from him. He tutted sadly and turned to the observers as a muscled man with wild orange hair turned away from his car and tried to help me.
"Help, HELP! I DONT KNOW THIS MAN! HELP ME!"
"I'm sorry everyone. Little Eve here still isn't happy that I'm her step father." he lied, without flinching in the slightest. "Come on Eve, Gran is waiting for us."
Liar, Liar, LIAR! I wanted to scream but I couldn't. He had spun me around towards his car and clamped his hand around my mouth. I squirmed, but the crowd had lost interest and began to swarm in different directions. I was pushed into the backseat, and the doors clicked firmly. He slipped into the front seat while I myself as comfortable as I could in my current kidnapped state.
Why wasn't I attacking him? There was a glass divider in between the front seats and the back seats.
"I'm offended. The doors are child proof." I growled. He nodded and changed the subject.
"Do you like my glass wall? I had this marvellous man called Eustace install it in Crewe. That's in England, by the way dearest. But of course you know that – we played cat and mouse there for a bit, didn't we?" he chuckled vainly to himself for a moment before gunning the engine and shooting towards the airport exit. "You sure made it exciting too. I even made the liberty to make sure the wall was missile proof instead of just bulletproof."
"Tsukasa shut the hell up. I'm tempted to jump through the possibly missile proof windows, even though you would race after me like the annoyance you are. Back in Japan, I had the crazy delusion that you were my friend. You helped me and stood up against my father for me. Three weeks later, you're running after me after helping me get away!"
He looked slightly hurt, but I didn't care. Everything would be perfect if he hadn't interfered. After a few minutes of silence he spoke up. "Amu, I hunted you down as a sign of friendship – and take off those hair extensions, you look so uncomfortably different. Like an office lady, almost."
I sighed and began to pull out the bobby pins that held the wig up. There were seventy two in total, and I decided to pull them out slowly just to spite him. They annoyed me, but if it made him uncomfortable it was worth it. "Actually, it's a wig and you're an idiot. Friends don't hunt down other friends on behalf of their cruel father!"
Tsukasa pulled the car over and looked at me. I instantly knew something was wrong, apart from the whole lifestyle I had been living. Instead of the constant chipper smile and positive body language that seemed so natural for Tsukasa, he was expressionless.
"The sparkles that seem to radiate off you at all times have ceased. What's wrong personal stalker?" Tsukasa slammed on the brakes. I launched sidewards into the glass wall with a sickening crack and rolled onto the car floor. I didn't dare move. Not when I heard the crack that definitely came from my left side.
"Ugghhh..."
I felt Tsukasa pull the car over. I rolled sideways with the momentum of the car and my face was suddenly shoved up against the car door. I think my wig flew off. Tsukasa's car smelt like bananas and vinegar and it was suffocating my senses. "Amu? Holy...! Are you alright? I heard something snap..."
"You just catapulted me into a missile proof wall! How do you think I feel?" I slowly rose up on my knees, and carefully slid back onto the seat. Everything was blending into each other and spun wildly becoming darker and darker. Why does my side feel like it has a separate throbbing heartbeat? "Just so you know, I feel like hell. Tell me the stupid information so I can not move in the slightest in silence - and don't you dare turn the radio onto the news channel."
The blur that looked like Tsukasa disappeared and returned next to me. I rolled my head towards him in an attempt to focus in on him before saying: "You smell like an old ladies house or maybe just one that likes fabric softener...and lilacs...do you have old candies in your bag or don't you have a bag? A man bag..." I paused and giggled deliriously. It felt like I was being stabbed in the side with a hunting knife. "I bet you would have a man bag. Supplies for your sparkly...sparklyness."
"Amu, I think you broke your rib. Amu. Earth to Amu. Universe to Amu. Amu listen, I'm going to tell you everything now simply because it would be better for you directly after. Also I don't want you yelling obscure things like how sparkly I am to the nurse, or how you've supposedly been kidnapped – when you're not." Nurse? At least my rib might be treated if we are going to one. I think he glared at me, but that was nonsense. Tsukasa didn't frown, he shone. Like a star or an explosion. Do explosions shine? Probably not, but it would be pretty cool if they did. Or would it be dangerous? Actually it's good that they possibly do not shine. Then people wouldn't run away from them but would insist on staying and looking at the sparkles and videotape it and post it on YouTube. I wonder if those people at the cafe would be one of those people.
"Amu: pay attention to me for once. This is important. Do you remember how I only looked for you after three weeks? There was a reason for that."
I grinned, "To look for the perfect man bag before stalking me?"
"No. I do not own a 'man bag'. I own a Bentley and a marvellous one at that but now I can't wear green tuxedos anymore. Too much green, with the cars new coat of paint and all - but that's not the point. I'm sorry to put it so bluntly but two and a half weeks after you left, your father had a heart attack and didn't make it. I'm sorry for your loss. Please don't faint after I finish telling you everything."
"How could you think that, or anything else for that matter, would make me faint? And what are you sorry for? I disowned him ages ago and ..." I shifted uncomfortably in my seat and gasped in pain."Ohmigod. Either I can suddenly pee from my ribcage or I'm bleeding."
"Really?" I think Tsukasa poked my side, because whatever it was that touched my side it hurt. Actually hurt was a bad term for the sensation I was feeling. It burned, incinerated, and made me want to crawl in front of a speeding Mack truck to escape it all in one teeth-gritting moment. Every single breath, every individual movement made it even more painful and it was getting worse over time.
"Holy s-! ...spinach leaves. Okay let's make this quick. I haven't told you the best part. Since your father has passed away and there is no other family member to take care of you, I have been nominated by the government as your guardian and I agreed. You will go to Seiyo High, since I'm the founder, principal and now officially your guardian. And now you can't run away because of your broken rib - It's broken through your skin by the way. It's made a mess out of your blouse. Congratulations Amu, I'm now your father figure. How am I doing so far?"
He was right. I did faint.
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