I walk and walk until my feet hurt.

I wonder how long it will be until someone came looking for me.

Colleyville is only but so big. Only a number of places for me to go.

When my feet start to hurt, I stop walking and sit on the curb on the sidewalk of McDonalds. I don't have a plan. I've ran many scenarios in my head. Go home, beg my mom to never make me go back to school. Go to Selena, demand to know what her problem is. Or just keep walking and eventually stop whenever I felt like it. None of those plans seem very good.

I feel like I need to get up from McDonalds. Madison and my dad like to come here sometimes for coffee and chicken nuggets on days where he gets off work early. I don't want to run the risk of being spotted here.

I get up and walk a little further. I still don't want to go home.

I reach in my pocket for my phone, and check the time. Three missed calls from mom. And two from Dallas. Whatever.

It's 5:32. I've really been walking for almost three hours. I got out of school at 2:50.

I just shrug.

I look up at the sky. It's clear, not a cloud in sight.

I push away the fact that my mom or my dad are both probably looking for me. Dallas is probably in trouble, because she was supposed to pick me up from school. I wonder if Selena came over and told them. Probably not.

I continue walking straight, not sure where to go.

I look both ways, then cross an intersection.

My lips still taste like metal, and I have a headache.

I think I'm hungry too.

I don't look down when I walk. I'm looking straight.

So I don't notice the water tube sticking from under the ground on the construction site in the parking lot of McDonalds.

I trip and fall, typical me.

I sit there, half wishing nobody saw me, half wishing that the fall would've killed me.

I check the damage.

I skinned elbow, two ripped up shoes, and a tear in the ugly pink shirt.

I sigh.

I bite my lip to keep the tears intact.

I look at the shoes.

Dallas is gonna kill me. They are both broken.

The sole is ripped out of the one I'd tripped in. and the strap is torn off the other one.

I gather the shoes up in my arms and walk barefoot.

If I had my purse, I would go into the Walmart across the street and buy me some cheap flip flops. But I ditched my purse at school.

I release my lip from my teeth and the tears just fall.

As if God wants to make my day a lot shittier, I hear a loud crack of thunder, and it starts pouring down raining. Bam. Just like that.

I'm sure to be sick tomorrow.

I just keep walking. Barefoot, cold and wet.

I walk in the only direction I know that'll lead me home.

Selena and I used to walk to McDonalds all the time. I know my way home from here. But the only way that I know home is through a shortcut. And the shortcut requires trudging through a cut of the woods. And I'm barefoot. I swallow my pride and cut through the thick trees.

I look down when I walk, to be sure that I don't step on rocks or anything. My bare feet squish through mud, and I step on a couple twigs.

I'm so hungry.

My stomach is not letting forget that, either. Every step I take, it growls. I'll be home in a little while, though. Once I get out of the trees, I have to cross the highway. The highway part is dangerous, even when you aren't barefoot. Selena and I used to pretend to play "frogger" while we dodged through the traffic. It was the only way we weren't absolutely scared of the oncoming traffic.

My stomach rumbles harshly as I reach the end of the woods. I step onto the wet concrete. I am freezing. The rain has picked up quite a bit. It is hailing now. This is just marvelous.

I wait until the two-ton pickup truck passes by, then walk to the first cross-block. I wait on the block until the next wave of cars pass, then bolt my way across the intersection.

All I have to do is continue straight, cut through a small meadow, then I'm home.

After I get out of the meadow, I walk past my neighbors, the Hansen's. The Hansen's are not home. I walk past the Johnson's. Not home, either. I walk past Selena's house. Mandy and Brian's car was in the driveway, but their house was so dark on the inside. The only light illuminating was coming from Selena's bedroom. I cross the street, and walk my muddy, wet, pruny feet up to my front door.

I shiver violently, then ring the doorbell.

My dad answers the door.

"DIANNA!" he yells.

I know he probably wants to spank me like he used to when I was three and did something naughty, but I don't care. I'm freezing and starving.

My mom comes to the door.

"Oh god." She says in a voice that sounds like she'd been crying for days. Her face is red and her makeup ran.

She pulls me in and hugs me tight.

"Oh god, oh god." She repeats herself.

She pulls me into the house.

"DALLAS! GO GET ME A BLANKET FROM THE CUPBOARD!" she demands.

Dallas runs straight upstairs and gets one.

I want to faint.

My mom will not stop hugging me.

I look into my living room.

On the couch, there are Mr. and Mrs. Hansen, the old couple that live across the street. On the loveseat are Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, the young couple that live next to Mr. and Mrs. Hansen. There's a short little cop standing off to the corner. And standing in the middle of the room, looking just as distraught as my parents, are Mandy and Brian and even Selena.

My teeth instinctively clutch down on my lip when I see her. She likes me better when I don't talk.

Dallas comes back with a thick blanket.

I wrap myself up in it.

I'm warm.

My dad hands me a cup of tea, but I refuse it. I just want some food.

My dad thanks everyone for being so concerned about me. My neighbors give me hugs and pats on the head before they leave.

Selena, Mandy and Brian don't leave.

The cop leaves.

"Are you hungry, Demi?" my mom asks.

I nod.

She sits me down in a chair while she gets me a bowl of chicken soup.

I shiver violently.

"I'm gonna get her out of these clothes, Dianna." Mandy says.

My mom thanks her.

Mandy pulls off the ugly pink shirt, wads it up, and puts it in a plastic bag. She removes my bra, too. She takes off my jeans and underwear, places them all in the bag, and ties it shut. I am naked. She pulls my long hair up into a wet bun.

"You're gonna be so sick tomorrow, honey…" She says to me.

Mandy's in nursing school. She knows what she's talking about.

She burritos me up in the blanket, and rubs my hair.

Selena comes in and takes a seat across from me at the kitchen table.

She says nothing to me.

I bite my lip.

My mom places the soup on the table in front of me.

I take a small bite.

"I have you know that Selena is grounded, Demi." Mandy speaks up.

"What for?!" Selena yells out, just as shocked as I am.

"Because you were supposed to stay with Demi. I told you to come home with DEMI. Not with Samantha, Selena."

"I JUST TOOK THE BUS HOME! IT WAS ONLY THE BUS!"

"You should have went home with DEMI."

"FINE! WHATEVER! it's not my fault I don't want to be with her all the time mom!" She hollers.

Selena gets up from the table and mumbles as she walks away, "She's weird anyway. She doesn't even talk anymore."

At this rate, my lips are never gonna heal.

Selena and her parents leave.

My parents and Dallas come in and sit down at the table with me.

They're probably gonna send me to a shrink.