Jillian's POV

I was running through rainy streets. It looked like my neighborhood, but somehow it wasn't. Suddenly, it thundered. And then it began to rain…hamburgers. And mashed potatoes…..and spaghetti…..and French fries….and ice cream. Without thinking, I began to take handfuls of the food falling from the sky and I shove them in my mouth. I ran through the streets and began stuffing my face with anything I could get my hands on. And then, I began to feel a pain in the pit of my stomach, followed by feelings of regret and horror. I ran over to a little trash can sitting in the middle of the street and hovered over it. I stuck my index finger in my mouth and poked around in the back of my throat, until I hit my gag reflex. Next thing I know, everything I had eaten is upchucking itself from my body and out my mouth. Except the vomit is rainbow for some reason. It was actually kinda beautiful. I stuck my finger in the back of my throat again and began to throw up more of that beautiful rainbow vomit. The more I threw up, the more beautiful the rainbow color of my vomit got. I was actually kinda happy at first. But then, I looked up. There holding the trash can, staring back at me, was that god awful freckle face that I haven't seen since 8th grade. That ugly ginger monster that started all of this. And she stood there and laughed…and laughed…..and laughed…

I woke up in the back of my silver convertible. I looked around. It was dark out which probably meant that it was night time. I checked the time on my cellphone:

1:12 am

It's been like eleventeen days since I ventured off on my own. This was the first sleep I've gotten in a while. My stomach growled. Ever since I ran away, I hadn't really been eating much at all. Most of my time is spent trying to figure out where the hell I am. I had driven as far away from home as I thought I could get, but now I was thinking that I was kinda lost. Whatever. I needed something to eat. I lifted myself up and reached up front to get money out of the glove compartment. I knew that right down the street, just outside of this alleyway where I was parked, that there was a Seven Eleven or something that was open. I fumbled around to find my hoodie. I grabbed it off the floor and put it on, making sure it was zipped all the way up with the hood pulled down. That's one of the things that Vince taught me to do so I wouldn't be recognized. Vince was this guy who I met on the first or second day I was out. He first spotted me when I was parking my convertible out on the street somewhere right by The Dot:

It was early in the morning and I had absolutely no clue where I was going or what I was doing. I already saw a bunch of posters of me hung up:

MISSING: JILLIAN HANNAH GOLDSWORTHY

I drove by The Dot and saw that it wasn't open yet. I decided to pull into the parking lot, just so I could stop for a second and think about what I was doing. Just as I pulled in, I saw a dark-skinned boy wearing sunglasses. He was sitting at one of the outside tables. He slowly removed his shades and took a good look at me.

"Whoah…." He called to me with a smirk, "Hey there, angel-face." I ignored him and continued to sit there and think about what I should do. I considered going back home and turning myself in. It was a pathetic idea, but maybe I wasn't cut out for this whole running away thing. No. I couldn't go back home. They didn't want me there. My parents wanted to send me away to rehab anyway. I guess they couldn't even put up with one year of having me home during the school year. Their second idea was probably to just send me back to boarding school. The boy sitting at the table got up and walked over to my car. He leaned up against the door, "What brings you here, baby?"

I looked up at him annoyed, "Look, dude, I don't have time for this! I'm in the middle of a very sticky situation here!" As I continued to sit there, the boy paced around. He went and leaned up against the telephone pole. This telephone pole just so happened to have my poster hanging up on it. "Uh-oh…" I thought. Sure enough, this guy began to read the poster. He tore it off the pole and continued to pace back and forth as he read it. He glimpsed at me and then looked back at the poster. He stopped pacing and his eyebrows knitted together. He looked back and stared at me and then looked back down at the poster.

"This you?" He asked me, "Jillian Hannah Goldsworthy?"

"No!" I immediately defended.

But he wasn't convinced and he smirked at me, "Oh….this IS you!" He looked at me shocked, "Oh you that girl that gone missin' a day ago!"

"Shhh!" I hissed, "Yes! It's me! That's my problem!" I stepped out of the convertible and slammed the door behind me, "And now you need to die, because I can't get caught."

I went at him, but he grabbed my arms, "Whoah, angel-face! Relax! I ain't gonna rat on you!"

I stepped back and raised an eyebrow at him, "You're not?"

"No." He smiled, "As a matter of fact, I think I can help you out."

And he did. As it turned out, Vince was a bit of a criminal. He was about my age and he was a part of a gang and he had all these tricks and secrets on how to not get caught or get into trouble. I had to say, for a criminal, he was a pretty nice guy. After talking to him for a bit, we got to know each other a little better. He helped me out a lot:

"Alright, angel-face," He told me, "first of all, these have to go." He walked over to the license plate on the back of my car, "The police are trackin' you, hun, and the first thing they're gonna be lookin' for is your license plate." Without further ado, Vince grabbed hold of the license plate and gave it a good tug. It eventually came off and he threw it in the alleyway. He then walked over to the front of the car and went at the other license plate. I helped him this time. He did the same thing with this one and chucked that one into the alleyway as well.

"Um…." I cocked my head to the side, "I don't know much about law or the Justine system, whatever that is, but I'm pretty sure it's bad to ride in a car without any license plates."

Vince began to crack up, except I wasn't sure why. But then he went to the trunk of his car, "I was getting to that. I have a bunch of stolen license plates in the back of my truck here. We just put these on your car and as long as a cop don't pull you over or nothin', you should be fine." After Vince helped me put on the license plates, he continued to give me some more tips, "Ok, so this is the next thing you need to do….." He walked over to my car again, "You can NOT have the top down on your convertible like it is now."

"Why not?" I asked him.

"Well first of all," He explained to me, "It's not safe. If you driving at night and you decide to pull over and take a nap, someone gonna come into your car and rob you or assault you."

I laughed, "Oh I don't have to worry about that. I always lock the doors."

Vince just stared at me for a few seconds, then began to laugh, "You really not that smart, are ya angel-face? Man it is a good thing you beautiful." I was confused, except for the part about me being beautiful of course. I just took that comment and didn't say anything else. "Look, you just gotta keep the hood up cause if you driving around, someone could recognize you and turn you in to the cops. And lastly, if you need to go into a store to buy food or somethin' you obviously can't walk in just like that."

"Tell me about it!" I agreed, "I didn't even bother brushing my hair when I left! Plus, I'm not even wearing enough makeup now!"

"Oh….you crack me up, angel-face." Vince began laughing once more, "What you need to do is cover yourself up."

"Well gee…." I said taken aback a bit, "I didn't know I looked THAT bad."

Vince continued to laughed, "Nah, girl…..what I mean is you don't wanna be recognized, and with that pretty face of yours, it gonna be very easy for you to be recognized. Do you have like a hoodie or somethin'?"

"Yeah," I told him, "I packed one with me."

"Good." He said, "You gonna need it. Also, you need a pair of sunglasses."

After he was done helping me out, I thanked him and we exchanged phone numbers just in case I ever needed anymore help.

I was very lucky that I had him to help me out. Without him, I'd probably be at the police station right now, waiting for mommy to pick me up like a little four year old. Maybe one day I would call him, just to say hi. I put on a pair of dark sunglasses and slowly stepped out of the car. I would never be able to get to sleep with my stomach growling like this. I walked down the street, until I found the Seven Eleven. It was pretty empty, but there were a few people walking around still. The cashier looked like he was ready to pass out. I don't blame him. I don't think I could ever work this late. I grabbed a bagel and a bag of chips and went to the check-out counter. As the cashier was checking me out, I noticed the news on the TV hanging overhead.

And the search continues for Jillian Goldsworthy, the 17-year-old girl that went missing over a week ago. The newsman announced. I instinctively pulled down my hood and made sure my glasses were secure on my face. So far, only a little evidence has been found. Police can only hope that it's enough to find the missing girl.

"Shit, dude." The cashier called to the guy in the back, as he rang me up, "That girl's been missing for a week now. Do they think she's even alive anymore?"

"Oh hell no," The guy in the back said, "That girl's probably dead on the street by now." I almost choked right there.

"Well not necessarily," The cashier told him, "she could still be out there somewhere."

"Well…." The guy in the back shook his head, "Even if she still is out there somewhere, there's no way they're gonna find her. If they've been searching for a week now and all they have is little scraps of evidence, that girl is as good as dead."

The cashier turned to me, "Would you like this in a bag?"

"Uh….uh….sure." I picked up a couple of those mini bottles of vodka off the little shelf on the counter, "And these too." The cashier took the bottles and rung them up too. He didn't even care to check my age or anything. I usually get away with this, mostly because I already look old enough. And just in case, I always make sure the cashier is a guy when I buy liquor, just in case I need to persuade him another way. After I paid the guy, I ran right back out to my car, got in, and locked all the doors again. I made sure the top was down and all the windows were shut. I ripped open the bag of chips and began eating, and then I took a few bites of my bagel. I knew it wasn't the healthiest thing in the world, but this is the only real food I had eaten in a while. And then I remembered back to that dream I had. Suddenly, my stomach began to feel funny. I couldn't believe it. For once in three years, I had the urge to throw up again. I looked down at the food in my hand. I was already half way through the bag of chips and a few bites into the bagel. Why were all of these bad memories suddenly coming back to me? I threw the bag of chips and the bagel on the passenger's seat and decide to distract myself by driving around a bit. I figured maybe if I drove around enough, I could figure out where I am. I buckled my seat belt and hit the gas. I breezed down the road, trying to look at street signs. Of course, all I saw were a bunch of fancy names that I could read. So I decided to start looking for landmarks. I also punched "Toronto" into my GPS. I didn't wanna go home, but I just needed to know where I was in respect to home. For all I know, I could actually be too close to home and end up getting caught. As I went down the road, I reached into my bag and cracked open a few of those vodka bottles. I took nervous gulps out of them as I navigated my way around this place.

"Take a left in 700 feet." said the GPS lady.

What? How do I know when I've gotten to 700 feet?

"Now take a left."

"Oh shit!" I yelled as I took a sharp left turn. My tires screeched as I almost swerved off the road. Man that GPS is stupid. I thought, Then again, I did buy it for 2 dollars on eBay.

"Take a right now." said the GPS.

I immediately swerved the other way. I picked up another bottle of vodka and began to drink that too.

"You'll need to make a 'U' turn in 800 feet."

"Screw you!" I yelled at the GPS. I was getting a little dizzy and tired. I was also really frustrated that I had been driving around for almost an hour now and I still had no idea where the hell I was.

"Now take a 'U' turn, and then and immediate left."

"What?" I forgot what a 'U' turn was. I hit the gas and I took a sharp right turn which I guessed was the 'U' turn. Or was it? "Ugh!" I got so mad I began beating the horn for no reason. I started making random turns and cutting people off, honking my horn at all of them. There weren't that many people out here, however, since it was like 3:00 in the morning. Finally, I pulled over into another alleyway. I sighed and leaned forward so my head was leaning against the steering wheel.

"You have reached your destination." The GPS proclaimed.

"No I haven't!" I screamed back at it, "I don't know where the hell I am and I don't even know where I wanna go!" I reached over and unplugged the GPS. I thought about driving some more, when I began to feel very dizzy. I decided maybe it wasn't a good idea to keep driving. I crawled to the back of my car and lay down on the seat. I began to think about how Bullfrog, Cece, and Eli were doing. Were they worrying about me? Did Eli worry about me? I thought about how protective he usually was of me. What if Eli's hoarding was getting worse because I ran away? I imagined Eli in his messy bedroom, flipping out like he did that day in school. For a second, I felt bad for what I may have been putting him through right now...

"I can't believe that I risked my life for a stupid whore like you! I hate you!"

Wait a minute? Why was I feeling bad? Eli didn't miss me. He hated me. If he meant what he said that night, I couldn't imagine that he felt bad that I was gone. He was probably happy. Well, so was I. As I found a comfortable position in the back seat of my convertible, I became more and more dizzy…..

I awoke in the back seat of my convertible. I stirred around and slowly blinked open my eyes. As my vision swam into focus, I saw the clock on my dashboard.

11:30 am

I felt groggy and as my body became less tired, I felt a thrashing headache. I groaned loudly and slowly sat up. I looked around and realized that I had fallen asleep parked in another alley way. I looked through the back window, squinting at the bright sunlight that shone through. I saw many people on the road and all the stores on the street were open. I hopped off the seat and climbed up front. I pushed aside the discarded, half-eaten bag of potato chips and nibbled on bagel and crawled into the passenger's seat. I pulled down the mirror and studied myself. My eyes were tired looking and bloodshot. My face was flushed of color and my hair was all out of place. I looked like a train wreck. Whatever. I thought maybe I just needed a breath of fresh air or something. I reached behind me and grabbed my hoodie. I threw it on and zipped it up, and then put on a pair of sunglasses. I pulled the hood way up, before stepping out of the car and locking it. I stepped out of the alleyway and began to casually stroll about. I didn't realize that I was actually pretty hungry. To no surprise, what I ate last night didn't cut it. I tried looking around at places where I might get food. Suddenly, I came across a building with a big stoop. I walked up the steps and into the building. I glanced at everyone who was sitting around in tables.

Tables. I thought, This must be a place to eat.

I walked up to the lady at what was I guess the cash register. "Hello." I greeted her. She looked up at me. "Yeah, hi, I would like to order a grilled cheese, some fries, and a milkshake!"

The lady looked annoyed at me, except I wasn't sure why. Finally she explained, "This is a library, dear."

I slowly looked around the room. I suddenly realized how quiet everyone was, and they were all staring at me.

How stupid of me! I thought. "Ohhh…." I leaned in closer and then whispered, "I would like to order…." I made sure I was real quiet, "A grilled cheese….some fries….and a milkshake."

The lady continued to stare at me, as if I had three heads. "Yeah…..I think it would be best if you left." I stood there, confused. The lady waved at me, "Bye! Go away now, please."

I became angry with her, "Sure! It's because I'm Canadian, isn't it?" I yelled at her, "You stupid American fast-food jerks!"

"Hun," The librarian shook her head, "Don't make me call security on you."

"Fine!" I retorted, "Call them! I don't care! I don't wanna eat here anyway! I don't wanna be fat and lazy like the rest of you Americans! You come here to Canada and park your stupid McDonalds and shit, so we can be lard-asses just like you guys! Well I ain't buying! Good day!" With that I stormed out of the building. "Stupid racists." I muttered, as I walked down the steps. Just as I began to contemplate what I should do, I heard some really awful music playing. I realized that it was across the street at the church.

"HALLELU! HALLELU! HALLELUJAH!" They sang, "HALLELU! HALLELU! HALLELUJAH!"

I covered my ears. Man, that music was freaking depressing. I'm sure if God and Jesus, did exist, they'd be covering their ears too. I decided maybe I would go to the church, just to make fun of them. I quickly ran across the street. When I got to the front steps of the chapel, the people in the choir robes were filing out the door. "Fabulous job!" I said sarcastically, while clapping my hands, "Such good music!" Then I muttered, "Assholes." I really hated church music. I figured maybe I could get something to eat here. Churches always hand out free food, especially those flaky cookie things that are like Kit Kats except without the chocolate. At this point, anything would do. I waited until the choir filed out of the church and then I went in. I looked around. I've only been in a church one other time, when I was like 12 and one of our friends had to get their conformination thingy:

"Now repeat after me:" The priest told the girl next to him, "'The lord shall guide me, the lord shall….'"

"I'm bored!" I loudly proclaimed, "Bible fight!" With that, I threw one of those story books at the old lady in front of me, and then one at the little kid next to me.

"Jillian!" Cece hissed.

Then I threw another one at Eli. "Ow!" Eli screeched, "Jesus Christ!"

"Eli!" Bullfrog hissed.

"What?" Eli huffed.

"You can't say Jesus Christ like that when you're in church." I explained at a normal voice volume, "You'll insult Jesus and then he'll come back to life just so he can commit suicide by re-nailing himself to the cross."

"Jillian!" All three of them yelled at me.

"What?" I defended, "I'm just speaking the truth. After all, the reason he was born in the first place was because Mother Mary gave God a blowjob and her saliva impregnated God, because she was a virgin and couldn't get pregnant. Then nine months later, Jesus came out of God's penis." Silence filled the chapel and everyone stared at me shocked, except for Cece and Eli who were hiding their faces in their hands. Bullfrog cracked a smile and began to chuckle. Cece looked up and gave him a dirty look and he immediately looked the other way.

I kept looking around until I saw a booth-type thing. Curiously, I walked over to it. When I opened the door and stepped inside, I spotted a little window. You couldn't see through the window, but I heard someone on the other side rustling around. "Hello?" I called into the window.

"Yes?" said a man's voice on the other side.

"Who…..who's this?" I asked.

"I'm god." The voice snorted, "Hehe, nah I'm just here to clean up. Are you looking for the priest?"

"I'm not here for that." I explained, "I'm not even religious."

"Then why are you here?" The man behind the window asked.

"I don't know." I admitted, "I'm just kinda wandering around. I don't really have any place to go."

"So, your first choice is to come to the confession booth in a church when you're not even religious?" The man chuckled.

I shrugged, "Well….I'm kinda bored and when I heard the music….I don't know. A lot's been going on with me lately. I guess I just need someone to talk to."

"Well, the priest is off on an assignment and won't be back here until tomorrow."

"Ahhh…." I nodded, "That's ok. Talking to a priest would kinda make me feel uncomfortable anyway. Even though I'm a girl, I'm still afraid of getting molested by one of them."

The man behind the window began to laugh, "That's hilarious! I was thinking that exact same thing before I started coming here. But I'm pretty young myself and the priest has never tried anything on me."

"Haha good. So…." I twiddled my thumbs, "I know this is weird to ask but…..can I talk to you?"

There was a moment of silence on the other side of the window. Finally, I heard him chuckle, "Sure. Why not? You sound pretty cute."

"Hey, let's not get ahead of ourselves." I told him, "I'm not here for phone sex."

He laughed, "Fine."

"Ok then….." I sighed, "Well, since this is a confession booth, I guess I should start by….well….confessing."

"I'm listening." The man said.

"You CANNOT tell anyone!" I pointed out, "Seriously."

"Your secret is safe with me."

"Good." I looked down at my hands, which were folded in my lap, "Well…..more than a week ago…..I…..I sorta ran…."

Damnit, Jillian, just spit it out!

"I ran away….f-from home." Once again, silence filled the other side of the booth. "Hello? You still there?"

"Oh-oh yeah. Wow, so why did you run away?"

"It's a long story…."

"I'm here all night." He informed me.

I smiled, and then I proceeded to tell the man everything that had happened. I told him about the changes at my school and all the other problems that lead up to me running away. I told him about me drinking and about how my parents wanted to send me to rehab. I also told him about Eli.

"Wow," the man said, "you and your brother sound pretty close."

"We are….." I sighed, "But he hates me now." A tear began to blur my vision, "He's probably at home hoping that I'm dead by now. But that's ok, because he doesn't ever have to see me again."

"Aww, I'm sure that's not true. He's probably beside himself with worry, especially from what you've told me about how protective of you he is."

"He was protective of me." I wiped a tear off my cheek and fought back any more, "But he's disowned me now. He doesn't care about me anymore and to be honest I don't blame him. I mean, I used to think that him protecting me all the time was really annoying…..but now I miss that. I miss having someone caring about me like that. I miss him." At this point, I couldn't hold back anymore and I began crying.

"Ohhh, no….please don't cry." The guy said in a calming voice, "I hate to hear such a sweet girl like you crying."

I sobbed, "I-I'm s-sorry."

"It's ok. This is the home of God. You're safe here." I continued to cry my eyes out. He sighed, "Do you need a hug?"

"M-Maybe…."

I heard him step out of his side of the booth, "Come on out here."

I opened the door and stepped out as well. Before I even got a good look at his face, I threw myself into the arms of the figure in front of me. I knew it was really weird to be hugging a stranger like this, but that's how desperately I needed to be comforted right now. However, I felt the man's body freeze in my arms. Confused, I slowly pushed away from the stranger and looked up at him. Staring back at me was a face that was just as shocked as mine became when I saw him. My body froze as well and my throat felt like it was going to erupt…..

"FITZ?"

Ok, be honest. Who saw that coming? xD LOL! Reviews are much appreciated! :D