Hey everyone! Here's chapter 2! I want to thank everyone who has read and apologize for such a late update- hectic beginning of school.

Anyways, I hope you like this chapter!


Dayton, Ohio (a few days later)

Julie came in to find James sitting leaning against the counter bleeding from the cut Eddy's ring left on his cheek. She heard them fighting. The fight was her fault James said that whatever Eddy for whatever reason Eddy was keeping Julie away from her family and her past he needed to stop. Then, Eddy beat James up.

James was startled when he heard the footsteps behind him and the faucet turn on, but he didn't even react. He was numb. It had been his whole life that Eddy had pushed him around, bullying him to do everything he wanted. Now, he was bullying some girl. If this weren't enough, he was bullying an amnesiac. But once James said anything, he flipped out, hit him, and ran off.

"James." Julie said quietly.

"I'm fine. Just go get some rest. Eddy won't bother you. He went out."

"I know, and that's thanks to you. So, please turn around. Let me just clean up the cut. It's the least I can do."

James could feel the sincerity in her voice. He knew what it was like to be made defenseless by Eddy, be taken advantage of. "Alright."

"Thank you." She said. James was surprised how quickly she found the first aid kit, but, then again, he really wasn't.

She wet the cloth and dabbed it tenderly on James's cheek. "So, you're dad told you about me?"

"Yeah. How much do you remember?"

"Only a couple weeks and even the beginning of that is hazy." She finished with James's face. "Thank you. For sticking up for me like you did. I must seem like some kind of freak show." She said sitting herself on the counter next to James.

"It's not your fault. What even happened? Do you remember anything?"

"I don't remember what happened. Sometimes I'll get these little flashes of a memory; a song, a picture, weird stuff like that, but then it goes away."

"Wow, it doesn't matter. You don't deserve this: whatever Eddy is doing."

"Well, thanks, but there's not much I can do, right? I'm kind of stuck. It's not like my dad's much better. I don't even really remember him."

An idea crossed James's mind. He wanted to leave, and Julie didn't seem eager to stay. The two of them could make it better than just one of them. He had the tips from the work he'd done in his dad's auto shop and whatever else they needed James could take from Eddy. It was perfect. Not to mention, Eddy was gone right now. It would give them a clean getaway. Sure, they didn't really know where they'd go but they could figure something out along the way. "But we don't have to be stuck." Julie looked at him, puzzled. "We can leave. You and I could run away. Why stay here and suffer through all of this? Listen, I'm not trying to be rude but you don't really have any emotional attachment especially not to here. So, why not? What do you think?"

"I'll do it."

"Ok do you need to pack?"

"Never unpacked." She smiled for the first time and James realized how unbelievably gorgeous she was.

"Okay, any ideas where to go. My older brother lives in a town in Pennsylvania called Llandview. We could go there just to, you know, get our bearings straight."

Julies's ears perked when she heard this name. Llandview?"

"Yeah, have you heard of it before?"

"Yeah, I don't know where from, though." Julie thought really hard for a moment but then relaxed. "Wait, I do."

James watched as she scavenged through her duffle bag and found a small, wooden box. She dug into the pocket and pulled out a polaroid photo. "Here it is- my only clue." She handed the photo to James. It showed a smiling Julia with her hair down in waves. She stood in front of a sign with the words "Buenos Dias Café- Llandview, PA".

"Perfect. I have a pretty good idea where this is too. I can take you here when we get to Llandview. But for now, let's get out of here before Eddy gets home." James took Julia's bag to keep her from having to carry it. As they got into the car Eddy pulled in next to them. "Damn it." James said realizing they'd lost their head start.

"James, what are we going to do?" Julia asked worry filling her blue-green eyes.

"I'm gonna drive. Don't worry, I'm an excellent driver." James pushed down hard on the accelerator in reverse and then turned hard, driving faster going forwards than backwards. "You okay?"

"Great." She smiled holding onto the handle. "Llandview, here we come."

LLANDVIEW, PENLYVANIA A LITTLE OVER A MONTH AGO

"Julia! Are you getting ready? Brody's taking you to school today, and he doesn't want to be late to work because of you!" Jess yelled up the stairs to her daughter.

"Sheesh Mom, I'm ready. Where's Brody?" Julia stood ready in front of her mother as she probably had been for quite a while. She was dressed in jeans, a pink sweater, and light brown uggs-believe it or not this was about as dressy as Julia got for school. She wrapped a scarf around her neck and put a black north face fleece over.

"You ready Kid?" Brody asked sipping his coffee out of a mug. Brody was Julia's mother Jessica's boyfriend who might as well have been her husband. Jess had two children, both girls, Julia who was turning seventeen in January and Bree who was four. Both had different fathers. Bree's father-Jess's late husband named Nash- died two years ago in a freak accident that briefly tore the family apart. Julia never met her father; Jess told Julia that he'd never had an interest in having children and ran when Jess got pregnant in of high school. Brody loved them as if they were his own kids. Bree who was very upset by her father's death immediately clicked with Brody laughing at his jokes and taking in his absolute kindness. Julia was a little more of a challenge. She was fairly skeptical of her mother's relationship at first and only referred to Brody as "him", "he", and "that guy" for the first three weeks of the relationship. Brody learned as Julia and he got closer and respected that this was Julia's way of showing her loyalty to her family and protecting them. He knew that for much of her life Julia had watched as Jess dated new men very frequently. Julia was trying to do her best to block Brody out because if she got close to him she would have an attachment if he and her mother ever split.

"Yeah," Julia said getting her backpack zipped and mouthing "Buenos Dias"-the local café in town with the best breakfast- to Brody.

"Listen Jess, she's ready early and so am I, so why don't I just take her to Buenos Dias to get breakfast and you can go back to bed until Bree gets up." Brody said. Julia and he did this frequently- go to breakfast before she had school and he had to go to work at the police department.

"Yeah, that's fine. But Julia, you owe Brody a huge thank you for this, you understand?" Jess replied. "Do not give him any trouble."

"I'm never any trouble, but I'll be extra well-behaved for him today." She smiled and kissed her mom on the cheek and ran out to the driveway. "Let's go Brody; they're gonna give away the good muffins."

"I'm coming," he yelled back. "I'm sure there will be plenty of muffins left when we get there.

"I'm going to hold you to that one." Julia smiled as she slid into Brody's car throwing her backpack on the backseat.

They drove a few minutes to the café. When they got to the restaurant, Julia grabbed her backpack suddenly remembering a piece of her homework she forgot. "Shit, I need a picture with this camera." She pulled out the Polaroid camera she'd gotten from the photography class she was taking at school.

"Okay, I have to say it, please watch your language." Brody definitely found it hard to try to act disciplinary towards Julia when he usually treated her like a friend.

"Now is not the time to worry about my mature vocabulary, Brody. If I have another incomplete in this class, the teacher's going to flip an S-H-I-T." She spelled the word out to please Brody. "Is that better?"

"Not much kid. What do you need a picture of?"

"Ummmmm," Julia looked around and found a flower outside of the car and took a picture of it. "Here Brod-", Julia handed him the camera as the photo developed in her hands.

The picture was just starting to form when Brody interrupted Julia's focus. "Smile for the camera kiddo." Julia looked up and smiled as quickly and eagerly as she could. The camera clicked and Julia lunged for the camera and photo.

She glanced at them eagerly. "That's a quality picture, Brody." Julia stuffed the photo of herself in her bag and gingerly placed the other in a folder.

"Yeah, takes quality to be treated like that. Come on, I don't want you to be late." So Brody and Julia walked into Buenos Dias Julia's wavy hair bouncing as she walked.