2. Nomad

Hey everyone! It's Sunday, so here's the next installment! This is a bit more setting up for the next chapter, when Edward finally comes in! *audience starts cheering*

Enjoy and please leave reviews, I love reading them! Good or bad, it really helps me as a writer. And still looking for a beta, so PM me all you grammar Nazis!

So this was life for me now. I've been on the road for two whole weeks. My days consisted of riding a bus to who-knows-where for a couple of hours, getting off and going to the bathroom and maybe getting a bite to eat from a fast food restaurant or my lunchbox, then boarding another bus. Every morning I would brush my teeth and hair in the bus station's bathroom if they had one or if not at a nearby gas station. Then I would change my clothes, trying to make them last by wearing jeans three or four days in a row and shirts two.

One day after about a week and a half of traveling I decided I needed to wash my clothes and take a shower with shampoo and things. I was in Columbus at the time, so I got off the bus at 7:30 and walked across the street to the conveniently placed Best Western. I walked in the lobby doors, and walked up to the front counter where a lady sat typing away on her computer. She looked like the typical "how may I help you" flight attendant type, with her hair neatly pinned into a French twist on her head and her make-up and uniform spotless.

She looked up from her computer with a smile.

"Hello, how may I help you?" huh. Her smile faltered as she looked at me, like so many before her.

"Hi, I was just wondering if you had a room available tonight."

"Um, we're a bit busy tonight, with early thanksgiving travelers coming through…what is your price range?"

"The cheapest you have."

"Well, in that case, I do have an opening for a one double bed and bath for $60. Will that work? I'm afraid I can't bend on the price much, but staying here will give you reward points you can cash in later, it's a good deal really."

Sixty dollars. Wow. That's like a third of all my money. Well, I NEEDED a shower and would love a soft bed to sleep in, and a clean bathroom…

"I'll take it."

I gave the lady, her name tag pronounced her to be Emily, the money and she gave me a room key telling me to enjoy my stay. I felt her eyes on the back of my head all the way out of the lobby and into the elevator.

It wasn't like Best Western was some five star hotel, but I felt as though it was as I walked down the hall to my room. I must have looked like an idiot staring at everything with wide eyes and an open mouth walking down the hallway to a passer-by, but I couldn't help it. It had been too long since I'd been in any place halfway decent. I eventually found my room, 303, and used the swipe key thing to open the door. There was nothing special about the room, standard wallpaper and T.V., a double bed with a tan comforter, and an attached bath, but like in the hallway I was elated.

I ran across the room, hearing the door shut behind me, and did a giant belly flop on the soft bed, then started laughing hysterically. It's been a long time since I'd laughed. There had been nothing funny about my situation at home and school was just as bad. I didn't have any friends, everyone had thought I was weird, an outsider. And at home I was scared that if I just started laughing for no apparent reason, my parents would get annoyed and through something at me or slap me.

After getting control of myself I went to the bathroom to start my shower. Three words for that experience. Heaven on Earth. It never felt so good to be clean, I felt like a new person. For a few glorious minutes I felt that I was not an abused teen on the run, but a normal girl living a normal, carefree life. After putting on the white, fluffy robe hanging on the door and towel drying my hair, I sat down on the foot of the bed with my brush and turned on the T.V.

As I combed through my long, blonde hair I flipped through the channels, not really caring what was on, just being happy to have the luxury of a T.V. I found a local news channel and decided to watch that.

The fake looking anchor women talked about a local robbery downtown, the economy, and a local school having an art contest before something disturbing caught my attention.

Police still on the lookout for 16 year-old Lily Waters who was kidnapped last Tuesday in Albany on her way home from school. Police have no leads but assure the public that they will find the girl and bring the person who has taken her to justice. She could be anywhere, so police are urging everyone to keep an eye out for a young girl about 5'5", blonde hair, and green eyes. Okay, now with local sports, we take you to Jed Rushing who's at Creek Pointe High school…

My heart skipped a beat in my chest. My stomach was somewhere by my feet and my lungs seems to shrink with each ragged breath I attempted to take. They went to the police. There looking for me. I started to see stars before I made myself take a deep breath. I couldn't risk passing out and having maid service find me, and ask for my name and other information. I knew that my parents would be looking for me, but it was still a hard slap in the face to actually see and hear people talking about me on television.

I laid down on the bed and practiced my breathing until I had somewhat control of myself. I then realized something, I needed to change my name and appearance, now. As if my body heard me, I then let out a big yawn, reminding me how tired I was. Well, I revised, I can wait until morning. So after putting on an oversized t-shirt and brushing my teeth, I climbed into the fluffy, warm bed and turned off the T.V. and lamp. Despite all my anxiety, or maybe because of it, I fell asleep before my head hit the pillow.

…

The next morning I woke up at what the alarm clock on the bedside table said to be 9:00. I sat still for a minute, laying wrapped up in the warm blankets on the soft mattress then sighed and got up. I yawned and stretched on my way to the bathroom and thought about what I was going to do with myself. After last night's scare I knew I needed to change my appearance, and for that I needed some money. That was a problem, considering I was running out at an alarming rate. I knew that what I had left couldn't pay for too many more bus rides and no food or hotels. The only thing left in my lunchbox was a fruit cup.

As I was brushing my teeth, I came to realize that I had only one option. I needed a job. Nothing permanent, just something to give me enough money to get to the next city, and I would get another there to get me to the next, and so on. I was a little scared about going and putting myself out there to the public. Who am I kidding, I was down-right terrified, but what else could I do? I was desperately in need of food, clothing, transportation, and shelter; and I was not even going to consider stealing. But before I try to get a job I needed clean clothes. So I threw on some sweats with the t-shirt I was already wearing and separated my clothes into the laundry baskets I found in the closet. I had seen the sign for the hotel's laundry mat on the way to my room, and made a mental note to put it to good use.

I entered the laundry mat and was relieved that I was alone. The last thing I needed was someone staring at me thinking that I looked familiar…

I loaded up my pants in one washer and got it running, my mediums in another, and my whites in a third. I leaned against the wall facing the entrance waiting for the clothes to be done.

After drying and folding them, I put all my now clean, warm clothes back in the basket and made my way up to my room again. I got dressed in the nicest things I brought, a navy blue long-sleeved blouse and kakis. Unfortunately I didn't bring any other shoes except for my old tennis shoes, so I reluctantly put them on making another mental note to buy some flats when I could afford them.

I left my hair down, wavy from where I had gone to bed with it wet, and washed my face with Luke warm water. I looked at myself in the mirror, trying out different smiles for a couple minutes before giving up and going to get my things.

I tried to look older as I walk into the hotel lobby, scared silly that someone would find me suspicious. I asked the lady at the desk whether it would be okay of I stayed another night or two, and she said it would be no problem. As she was taking almost the last of my money I caught the scent of the most mouth-watering, jaw-dropping, stomach-rumbling thing on earth.

Food.

But not greasy, fast-food food, or freezer-burned-past-the-expiration-date food, real, hot, steamy, fresh food coming from the left of me! I just about took off running at the scent, which I now realized was coming from the hotels Complementary breakfast bar, but forced myself to stay until the hotel employee wished me a nice day and I could casually stroll over to the line.

I took one of everything, so excited that I couldn't even remember what I liked and what I didn't. I also when no one was looking stuffed as much as I could into my suitcase for later. After enjoying the best meal I'd had in possibly years, I stood up and stretched, going back upstairs to put my suitcase back in my room. Then I made my way to the bus station, but this time getting on one that would take me downtown and hopefully my future job.

I really had no idea what kind of job to get, or even who was hiring, so luckily they had a free stack of local newspapers at the bus station which I gladly helped myself to before boarding the bus. I sat down and flipped to the "Help Wanted" section and started looking through the ads, filtering out the ones that paid monthly and even weekly and ones that required some sort of degree. That pretty much eliminated most of them.

As the bus pulled to a stop, I had it narrowed down to a few, and had circled them with a pen I had taken from the hotel room. A dog walker, $5 per dog, a car washer for this guy at a local car wash for $5 a car, and a hair dresser which made $10 a person. My mom never took me to a hair dresser when I was growing up, and she never did anything with me, so I had learned to cut and style my own hair. It couldn't be that much harder…

I decided to check out the car washing job first, as it probably paid the best. I walked around a little bit until I found the place, Carl's Car Wash, right on a busy corner. I took a deep breath before walking in and going up to the front desk, where a rather greasy young man stood behind the counter.

"Um, hello. I was wondering if the job opening here was still available."

The man looked at me dumbfounded for a second before recovering and saying, "Uh, yeah. It's still open. Why? Are you interested?"

"Yes."

"Oh, uh, okay. Let me go get my boss for you. I'll be back in a second."

"Okay, thank you." My stomach was somewhere by my knees by now, and I was almost positive the employee could hear my heart beating from where he was a few seconds ago. This was completely different from interviewing for my old job at the restaurant, I had to lie about practically anything this man asked me now. At least I could use my real name then.

The greasy employee came back with an overweight, balding man in his mid-forties with a cheesy, tweed suit on that matched his cheesy, over the top smile. I could only assume that this was the infamous Carl from the sign.

"Hello there, missy." The man held out a hand with red, pudgy fingers out to me and I hesitated to shake it before giving in. "I here you're want'en a job here, eh? My name's Carl Lancaster II, to whom do I owe this pleasure?"

"Hi, my name's, uh, Bree Tanner. Nice to meet you too." I tried to give him an I'm-not-nervous-at-all kind of smile but it probably came out more like a grimace. I mentally high-fived myself for fabricating a name under pressure in a few seconds like that. I was trying for something very ordinary, so he'll never remember it, and my face for that matter.

"Well, nice to meet you Ms. Tanner, why don't you take this job application, fill it out, then come talk to me and we'll see if you're up for the job." And with a big smile he departed into a room that the plaque on declared it to be the manager's office. I stood there for a second, still surprised that I just asked for an actual job, when I heard someone nervously clear their throat. I looked up to see the greasy employee staring at me with a pen held out in front of him.

"I, uh, just thought that, um, you would need something to write, uh, with." He stuttered. I gave him a small smile and took the pen then walked over to the small waiting room area and looked at the short form I had to fill out. Thankfully, it wasn't very extensive, I guess they didn't really care what kind of people were operating the car wash. I filled out my "name", job I was wanting, the date, my address (which I made up), my age (I wrote 18), any physical or mental illnesses, and a short response on why I wanted the job. I took a deep breath when I finished and got up, eyes searching for the young employee.

I found him behind the service disk, listening to music.

"Hi, I just filled this out. Um…" I trailed off in question. He looked up at me, the form, then back at me before saying, "Oh yeah, sure, just go right through that door and Mr. Lancaster will help you."

"Okay, thank you."

"No problem."

I tried not to bend the paper with my shaky hands as I turned the metal doorknob and opened the door to the office. It was on the smaller side, and a bit disorderly. All kinds of paperwork and memorabilia were laid haphazardly on the metal filing cabinets surrounding the walls and on the large, wooden desk in the back of the room. Mr. Lancaster was sitting at this desk, typing something into the computer, when he looked up to see me.

"Oh! Ms. Tanner! Have you finished filling that form out?"

"Yes, sir. I, um, have it here for you." I then thrust the paper onto his desk and watched as he picked it up and started reading it. I tried to control my shaky knees. He seemed to notice me shaking because a second later he said, "Please, sit down! You look a little uncomfortable standing!"

A little uncomfortable. That was the understatement of the century, I was downright terrified. I was still getting used to socializing with people again, and the fear that my parents were going to burst into the room at any given moment with a SWAT team was ever present in my mind. I really needed to get a hold of myself. How did I expect to make it out there in the world if applying for a job at an old car wash is freaking me out this much?

Come on Marie, get ahold of yourself! You're better than this!

Mr. Lancaster, oblivious to my internal drama, looked up lazily from my application form, then smiled. "Well, Bree, you seem like a lovely young lady and should be fine for the job. If you want it it's yours."

YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! WOO! WOO! WOO!

"Thank you Mr. Lancaster, that's very nice, and I promise I won't disappoint you. When can I start?"

"Well, if you can, today would be great."

"Today works perfectly."

Mr. Lancaster then proceeded to show me how everything was ran and helped me get started, before going on his lunch break, leaving me to the growing line of cars. The work was a little physically stressful, as I wasn't used to exercising my arms that much, even standing for any length of time from all the bus riding I had been doing. But at the end of the 6 hour shift I had washed 36 cars. Mr. Lancaster was very impressed, and I rode back to the hotel proudly with my $180.

I worked at Carl's Car Wash for a week before deciding to move on, I had started to recognize all of the employees, and even a couple of the customers, and I couldn't have that. Especially with me not wearing any kind of disguise. So exactly seven days after I was hired, I turned in my resignation letter. I then went straight to Walgreens, in search of makeup.

I didn't really have any idea of what I was doing, I was a lost cause in all this beauty product stuff. I had never worn makeup before, and neither had my mother, so I was left to the sharks. Luckily, since I did have more than enough money to get me to my next city, I could afford to spend a little more on my disguise. I didn't plan on doing it, but I pretty much ended up buying one of everything. Primer, Foundation, Blush, Bronzer, Highlighter, lipstick, Mascara, eyeliner, eye shadow, you name it and I bought it. In an attempt to have some kind of guide I also purchased a fairly large book called How to Apply Flawless Makeup, which I found convenient. I also bought a bottle of brown hair dye. The cashier looked a little overwhelmed by all my products, so I told her that I had just flown in and the plane had lost my makeup bag, and that the book was a gift for a family friend a few years younger than me. I didn't say anything about the hair dye, hoping she wouldn't really notice it. She seemed to buy my story, actually she kind of gave me a look that said I'd said too much, so I just shut my mouth. The total came up to be over $100. It's all for the best, I thought as I handed her the money.

I then headed across the street to the mall, to get some clothes. I bought whatever clothes I could find on the clearance rack. I tried to look for simple solids that looked neat and practical to work in. I did buy a nicer outfit for interviews and a dress in case I ever needed to fit in somewhere fancy. I also bought a few pairs of sunglasses, fortunately sunglass hut had a buy 1 get 2 free sale going on. Excited about my purchases, I rode the bus back to the hotel mind wondering about the future.

When I got back to my hotel room, I threw all my shopping bags down on the bed and took out bottle of hair dye. I had always liked my golden hair, it was the one thing that other people were jealous of, and so I felt my heart sinking as I looked at the mud brown color. But I sucked it up and started reading the directions.

An hour later I was brunette. I stared at my freshly washed and dried brown locks with astonishment. The dye had made my hair a bit curlier than it usually was, so it curled on the ends. I had done it correctly, and the color was right, but after 15 years of being blonde it was an unsettling sight. I took a couple of deep breaths and started going through all my makeup. With the help of the guide, 30 minutes later my face was transformed. I put on a pair of jeans with a tan tank top and a dark brown cardigan. I stared at myself in the long mirror on the back of the bathroom door. I was completely unrecognizable. I looked absolutely nothing like the girl who had run away from home two weeks ago. I smiled at myself, for God had given me a second chance, a fresh start.

I had already notified the hotel that I would be checking out this morning, so I just dropped my key off in the box by the desk on my way out. If I was being completely honest with myself, I would miss the Best Western. It had been the first place I had ever stayed longer than a night that didn't hold any painful memories. I walked over to the bus station, and boarded a bus that was said to be headed for Cleveland.

I spent the next few months living like this. I worked countless odd jobs over the weeks, everything from a dog walker to working nights at a warehouse. I wasn't proud of some of the jobs I did and I was well aware of the danger I was putting myself in sometimes, but it didn't really scare me like it should have. I was much more terrified of my parents catching me than getting abducted in the middle of the night by a stranger, as crazy as that sounds. But no matter where I was working, I always got my money and could continue buying living essentials and bus tickets to the next city.

I tried my best to stick to big cities, rather than towns. I felt like I had a better chance of blending in with the crowd in big cities than I did in small towns. By then I had been so many names that I would answer to just about anything. It was very stressful mentally, having to constantly keep track of who you are and what your name that day was. I was Amber, Jen, Jane, Sally, Jessica, Maddie, etc.… the list goes on.

I did come across my real name, on the news a couple of times. Not any big stories, but just little have you seen this girl? On the bottom of local news shows with my school picture from last year. But still, the sight frightened me to the bone. To know that they were still looking for me this hard after almost four months horrified me, to think that they were not going to stop. I know this is highly unlikely, but a part of me always hoped that because they never loved me they would give up after a few weeks and perhaps purchase a dog or something along those lines, after all I had never meant anything to them. But sadly that was not the case. I was sure that they reason they needed to find me so badly was because they were terrified that I would tell someone about them, and they would go to prison, so maybe once they realized I would keep my mouth shut, they'd let me go.

I certainly hope so.

So this was the state I was in when I rode into Chicago, Illinois. This bus trip had been especially annoying, because I was sitting next to this man who seemed to have a bottomless pit as a stomach. He was eating the whole way. I watched in horror as he scarfed down three double cheeseburgers, two medium fries, a chocolate milkshake, and a large Coke. I was about to vomit just watching him eat all that.

So needless to say, I was glad to get off that bus.

Somewhere in the past few months, I had acquired an actual suitcase, so these days I looked more like a young women traveling than a young girl running away from home. I rolled over to the hotel I spotted a few blocks away, and checked in.

I had come to the conclusion that all hotels were the essentially the same. The bathrooms, the hairdryers, the bedside lamps, the floor-length curtains, I had even come across a few with the same bed spreads. But I liked it that way. It was comforting having something be predictable in a life that was anything but. So it was no surprise when I unlocked the door to reveal yet another identical hotel room. I smiled as I laid my suitcase on the bed and headed towards the bathroom.

After freshening myself up a bit I went down to the lobby to grab a paper. It was late, around 11 o'clock, so not many people were down there. A tired looking couple was checking in at the front desk, and an old man was making some coffee at the coffee station in the corner. I planned on getting some sleep soon, but first I wanted to get a head start on the kinds of jobs here. Chicago was a big city, so I wasn't worried about finding one, I just wanted to have an idea of what was currently out there.

I must have been more tired than I thought, because barely after sitting on the bed and opening the paper, I had fallen asleep.