The plane was crowded and humid. I had to ask for directions to my seat because it was my first time flying and I did not know how to read the ticket.
A month went by with no word from Lee. I was giving up all hope of hearing from him again. I was worried sick, I didn’t know where he was, what he was doing, or if he was alright, until I checked the mail. A letter addressed to me in his handwriting was waiting in the mailbox; I snuck it into my room before anyone had a chance to see it. Later that night I carefully opened its paper seal.

Dear Lynn,
I apologize for leaving so suddenly. I am currently in Georgia working 2 jobs. I miss you a lot and I hope you will accept this offer. I want you to come down here with me. I’ll have a house in a few months, a very small one, but it’s still a house. Inside this envelope is a plane ticket for next month. I hope you are doing alright up there, and that this letter will actually get to you. Please be sure to destroy this as soon as you are done. I don’t want your parents to give you a hard time about it. I will be waiting at the airport in case you will accept. I’m sorry this is a short letter, but I have to go. I love you so much; please do what will make you happy.







Signed,








Lee
I opened the envelope wider and found the ticket; the date was for 2 weeks from now. Instead of burning the letter, I carefully folded it and stuck it underneath Breakfast, my kitten’s, litter box. Breakfast meowed, and I sat down to pet her. I looked at the ticket once more, folded it, and stuffed it into my back pocket. Just then my mom walked in.
After taking my seat, I pulled out my only picture of Lee, and stuck it under the tray clip on the seat in front of me. I hoped it would calm me down, my nerves were starting to make my stomach hurt. I have a bleeding ulcer, and being nervous or worried makes it worse.
“I’ll be there in 20 minutes, pack your things, I’ll be there soon,”
I hung up, not even saying goodbye. In a panic I threw a few simple necessities into a backpack and quickly typed up a note to leave behind-it did not include where I was going or with whom, it simply stated why. A few minutes later something clicked on the glass door. I went outside and saw nothing but black for a few minutes, when my eyes adjusted there was suddenly a tall dark figure dressed all in black at the door. He was holding his chains from his pants in his hands so they wouldn’t make any noise.

“Ready Beautiful?” He asked in a whisper. I nodded and walked quietly back inside to grab my things, He took my bags from my hands and we started out the door. Unfortunately, my mother had been watching us in the dark without us noticing. My eyes widened and I grabbed Lee’s arm in terror. He turned around to reassure me but his eyes met hers first.

“Hello Lee,” My mother said coldly, I could tell she knew exactly what was going on. I don’t remember what happened after that. All I remember is my mind going numb; I got so scared that I think I may have passed out.
There was no one next to me; and almost time for the plane to take off. The stewardess in the front of the plane was acting out the things that the announcer was narrating. Instead of paying attention to her, I was focusing on calming down. I wanted to see Lee so badly I was shaking in my seat.
“I should get going now.”
“Yeah…Damn woman, I hate it when you leave,” He pulled me closer to him and I could hear his heartbeat in his chest.
“I love you,” I said emotionally; a tear slid down my cheek, he brushed it away and kissed me softly where the tear was.
“I love you too; please call me when you get home so I know they don’t do anything alright?”
“I will…if I can.”
We stood in silence for a few moments in each others arms. I loved the way he smelled. Peeling myself away from him, I left as quickly as I could. I watched his figure disappear into the distance as I sped away,
The plane started moving and my head became light. I was pushed back in my seat. The rumbling shook my seat and for a second I thought something was wrong. I hoped the plane would lift off the ground before we hit the end of the runway that was coming up too quick for comfort. I felt a bump, and we were off. The announcements told us we could now use electronics and unbuckle our seatbelts. I kept mine on, but took out my old school CD player for my nerves. I was nervous about Breakfast, she was in the pets’ only part of the plane and I hoped that she was alright. I kissed the picture of Lee on the seat in front of me and clicked in a CD of songs he had made me a while back. “Never Too Late” by Three Days Grace pumped through the headphones.
“Lynn, Are you alright? You look scared to death. Have you talked to Lee lately?”

“No,” I answered quietly, trying desperately not to cry. “My mother kicked me out. I got a letter from him today; He sent me a plane ticket.”

“You’re welcome to stay in his room until you leave if you want.”

“Thanks,” I whispered as I stepped inside.

“Would you like some tea?” she asked. I didn’t hear her the first time she asked. I was thinking about Georgia. I suppose I didn’t really have a choice other than to go now. I have no place to live.

“Lynn?”

“Huh?” I looked up at her in confusion.
“I asked if you wanted some tea.”
“Oh, yes please, I’m sorry.”
“It’s quite alright,” She reassured as she walked into the kitchen. When she returned I told her about everything that had happened and she seemed as worried about Lee as I was. I put my bags in his old bedroom, still decorated with his drawings on the walls and tattoo designs lying across the floor. He has moved out months ago, I guess his brother never bothered to pick up his things. He and his brother had shared a room; their sister had her own room. I laid down in his bed, the bottom bunk, and quickly fell asleep. Some time later the phone rang and someone woke me up.
“It’s for you,” Terrified it was my mother, I hesitated. “It’s Lee.” Said the person holding out the phone.
“Thank you,” I said to the figure in the dark as I took the phone from them. “Hello?” I said nervously softly into the phone.
“Rawr woman,” Lee said. I smiled wide.
“Rawr,” I responded. “How are you Hun?”
“Better than you are. Can you do us a favor?”
“Of course,” I said, curious about what he was going to ask.
“Can you leave tomorrow? I already talked with my mother and she said she would drive you to the airport. I checked out flight times and there is a direct flight here that leaves at 8 tomorrow morning. I already called and changed it, but I wanted to know if that was alright with you.”
“No,” I teased sarcastically, “I never want to see your stupid, ugly face again.” I smiled. I heard him laugh on the other end of the phone.
“Rawr. Please, I know I’m sexy,” He joked. I laughed. “So will I be seeing my love tomorrow?”
“Yeah, I’ll be there. I love you Hun,” I said.
“I love you too, bye.”
“Bye,” I hung up a few moments after I hear the click from the other end. I quickly fell back asleep with the phone still in my hand.
Instantly, I was calm; this was “our” song. I pressed the Repeat Track button and fell asleep.

“Welcome to Atlanta, Georgia. The weather is currently sunny with clear skies, and 72 Degrees. Please wait until the plane is at a complete stop before unfastening your seatbelts. Thank you for choosing to fly with Northwest Airlines, and have a nice day.” I did as the speaker told me, and waited until almost all the other passengers were off the plane before I got up to leave. I picked up my bag, put Lee’s picture back into my wallet, and stepped onto the platform that went into the airport building. As soon as I walked inside, I looked around for a familiar face; Nothing.
“So how was the mall?” My father asked as I handed him the car keys.
“It was fine, I met up with one of my friends from school there” I lied, “Jeremy actually, after the mall we went out for McDonalds,” I scurried back downstairs to my room.
Just as I sat down on my floor to do some drawing, my door opened-It was my mother.
“Hello Mom,” I greeted her with fake happiness, “How was work?”
“Work,” She replied tiredly, “What did you do today? I see your room is getting messy again.” Her tired expression turned into annoyance.
“I’m sorry. Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it tonight, I was at the mall with Jeremy, we went to McDonalds,” I lied again, faking sympathetic perkiness.
“You need to go to bed; it’s too late to clean your room now. You should have done it earlier. Too late now!” She said furiously as she spun on her heels to leave the room, shutting the door hard behind her.
I looked at the clock shining its green 11:30. I had made good time home, most likely from blowing through those couple yellow lights, stop signs, and taking corners at 50 mph. ‘It’s about time to call Lee, and tell him I made it home alright.’ I thought to myself. Once I was sure my parents were sleeping, I picked up the phone and dialed his roommate’s cell number. They have no house phone.
“Rawr,” Someone said sleepily, I knew it was Lee, no one else said that but him and I.
“Rawr,” I said back.
“So did they do anything?”
“No.”
“Promise?” He sounded unsure.
“Yeah.”
“Wow, that’s surprising. I was expecting a lot of crap to go down.”
“It’s fine even if they did, I’m used to it.”
“Hun, they treat you like s*** there, They force you to do s*** you don’t want to do, They treat you like a slave, not letting you have a life at all, no friends, no music, and no me. They took away your clothes; they only allow you do go from work to school. They go through your stuff, call you names, and a lot of other things, and yet you still choose to stay there instead of coming here. I just don’t understand it.”
“Hun…” I began, but was interrupted.
“No. Let me finish please. Why do you choose to stay in a place like that, instead of living here with me? Gary, Mia, and Mia’s kids want you here. It’s Mia’s house, she wants you to come here. Gary’s worried about you, the kids both miss you. Why do you constantly choose them over us? We can show you love, we can show you how a family is supposed to treat one another. We won’t call you fat, or force feed you rotten food, or take away your freedom. Your basic human rights are being violated. Please Lynn… Please just leave! Come with me, I can promise you a good life, and good future. I’ll help put you through college, we can spend forever together. I promised you that already. We can get out of here, both of us. We won’t have to deal with these people who just want to hurt us. We don’t need them. I can give you a family Lynn; we can have our own children, our own home, and our own life. You have to leave, please… Just walk to the end of your driveway, just there, I can come and get you, and we can leave. Isn’t that what you want? Don’t you want to be happy? You tell me all the time that all you want is out of there, but when it’s shoved in your face you back down and refuse to leave. I know you are scared. I was scared too when I left my house. I’m happy now though, and you can be too. Isn’t that what you want?”
“Yes…I love you Lee.”
“I love you too, but Lynn… I promise I will get you out of that house if it kills me. I swear on Kora’s grave. Lynn, prove it to me. Prove to me that you love me as much as I love you, leave tonight. Leave now. Pack your bags and leave. I can promise you a good life Love, they won’t find you, but I can’t help you unless you leave. You know you need to leave Love.”
“If I leave right now, will you smile? You never smile. Will it make you happy for once?” I asked. This is everything I had hoped for my entire life, and now it’s here. My heart was beating so fast it became hard to breathe.
“Yes. It will make me the happiest I have ever been in my life. You are everything to me. Please will you come with me? We can have a house in Georgia, hell; we will eventually have little gothlets running around the yard, terrorizing the neighborhood. You can be a stay at home mom like you have always wanted.”
“Alright, when can you pick me up?”
My heart dropped and I began looking for the bag drop off and the luggage check, where Breakfast would be. Finding them was easy, everything was close together. I found the food court, which can be seen from the sitting area of where my plane dropped me off, and waited.
“This room is a mess; I thought I told you to clean it? Well, I guess that means I will be cleaning it for you,” She said. This was bad, when she said that, it meant that she will wheel in a giant trash can, and fill it multiple times with anything lying on the ground, and anything that isn’t where it’s supposed it be. She left to get the trash can from outside; I raced to get rid of the letter. Unfortunately, I was not fast enough.

“What’s that? Are you trying to hide something? Lemme see it,” She demanded as she snatched the letter from my hands. I started to panic and think of something to say quickly, some lie, one that would save my skin.

“Get…out…of my house…” she said coldly. “How dare you do this to me, after all I’ve done for you? How dare you do this! This is like a slap in the face. Get out,” Her eyes were cold, and I did not argue. She threw the letter at me, but I didn’t even try to catch it. We both watched it fall to the floor. My mother stormed out of the room. I quickly packed my things and fled to Lee’s mother’s house. It was 20 miles away, but somehow I made it there before dark.
A long time later, I began to worry, I took out my CD player again and played pressed repeat for “Never Too Late” again, and waited some more.
When I woke up, lee was gone. My mother came downstairs and said “Lee is gone. I gave him a choice though, so don’t be angry at me; you brought this on yourself. I told him he could either leave or never contact you again, or I would call the police for breaking and entering,” She left, stomping back up the staircase. Immediately, I ran into my bedroom and snatched the phone off the nightstand. I dialed his number as fast as I could…No answer. I panicked, dreading the worst; had he tried to be the hero and refused to never talk to me again? I hoped not. I dialed again…

“Hello?” A voice said.

“Lee? Please Lee, what happened last night? Are you alright?” I panicked.

“This isn’t Lee, Lee left. This is Andy. Lee came in late last night, yelling about your mom and calling her just about every name in the book, grabbed his stuff, and left. I haven’t talked to him since. Sorry dude.”

“Call me if he calls or comes home please. I’m really worried about him.”

“I will, but don’t worry. He’s a big boy. He can take care of himself. He’s been through more and anyone ever should, and he will be fine.”

“Alright, Bye,” I hung up without waiting for an answer. ‘Great’ I thought. For all I knew he could be lying in a ditch somewhere, dead; or in prison. ‘Even better’ I thought sarcastically, ‘he’s going to get raped.’ Just then the phone rang, it was a pay phone.

“Hello?” I asked in excitement, hoping it was him.

“Hun? Don’t say anything, just listen alright? I’m fine, please don’t worry. I’m at the airport. I’m leaving for Georgia in a few hours. I’ll send for you as soon as I can. I love you so much Hun. I have to go now, please don’t cry. I can’t stand hearing you cry,” The phone cut out and that was the last I had heard from him.
I was about to go find someone to help me when I was swept off my feet. “EEK!” is what came out of my mouth. I looked up and saw that Lee was holding me in his arms. “What took you so long?” I teased. He smiled and kissed me for the first time in over a month.

“Grawr, Security took forever to get through! I had to take all the chains off my pants, take out my all of my piercings, and all my jewelry. Sorry Hun,” He hugged me tight. “I missed you.”

“I missed you too. Pfft. You and your gothicness,” I rolled my eyes. I laughed again and he put me down. “This is Breakfast,” I pointed, introducing my kitten to Lee.

“Hey there Breakfast. I look forward to eating you soon,” He said with a smile.