Three Days Later
I haven’t eaten much in three days. I’m scared to go out and I don’t want to have too much food delivered, because I get paranoid that Zeb might be tracking me. It’s silly, because he’s just a guy in a biker club. Not a cop. I don’t think he can track me here. Rana will be here at the end of the day after driving non-stop across the country. She doesn’t want to fly because the airports have been crazy lately, and she’s scared that might make us easier to track down.
I’ll have to offer her some explanation of what the hell happened out here, and I’m not sure if I’m ready to explain all of that yet. Everything was so much easier before I slept with Zeb. I was thinking clearly before then. My body feels this deeply uncomfortable yearning for him that started since I ran away and has only grown worse the longer I stay away from him.
But Ican’tgo back. I can’t let another situation like what happened with Rakeem play out where I give up on all my dreams just for a relationship. I’m going to get Rana to take me back to Boston, talk some sense into me, and then I’ll get into another LPN-to-RN program. I’ve had all the adventures I need for a lifetime. And to make up for the bad things I’ve had to do on this cross country road trip, I will dedicate my days to saving lives rather than ending them.
Rana texts me when she’s fifteen minutes away from the motel. Every engine noise from the highway or parking lot has me on edge the entire time until she gets there in her Hertz rental Mazda CX-5. I think every growling sound belongs toZeb’s bike and that he’s following me. But when I see Rana, I realize… he’s probably not coming after me.
Obviously. Everything he said to get into my pants was just a cheap line that guys in biker clubs say to get women into bed. It was just too perfect and scripted to be real. It’s better that I ghost him before he can ghost me. If there’s one thing I learned in my last relationship, it’s that I would much rather be the one holding the knife than the one getting their heart stomped on.
I run downstairs to meet her in the motel room lobby. The blue-haired girl at the counter barely looks up, but for a brief moment I experience a surge of suspicion, but she genuinely doesn’t seem to give a crap, so I chalk it up to the trauma I’ve experienced on the road the past few days.
“You’re alive!” Rana says with genuine excitement. She wraps me up in a big hug and then looks over her shoulder at the girl working the front desk. I’m not the only one suspicious I guess.
“Let’s go upstairs.”
“Did this Zebulon guy contact you since you left?” Rana says in a hushed tone. I briefly glance over at the front desk girl, but she hasn’t budged from her spot since Rana walked in. I’m way too paranoid.
“No. He hasn’t.”
“No bikers dragging you off. Good. But you’re right. We should talk more upstairs. I don’t think you haveanyidea of what’s been happening in Boston.”
She’s right – I don’t know what she’s talking about. We walk upstairs, leaving the girl at the front desk totally unbothered by our presence. Even if she heard any details that could be used against us, Rana and I won’t be here very long. Once we’re up in my room, Rana looks around at the small amount of packed items I have.
“That’s it?”
“I came here with nothing but the shirt on my back,” I said.
“Great,” Rana says. “We can go shopping on our way back along Route 66.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” I ask her. I don’t have enough details to make a definitive claim on the situation, but I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to stick to this highway all the way back East. Zebulon’s gang of bikers might control the entire stretch of the old highway or significant portions to the point where we might not go unnoticed.
I straight up don’t know how to confess any of this to Rana.
“Why not?”
“Well… It might be more fun if we split the driving and hit the road less traveled.”
“You’re scared about Zeb finding you.”
I bite my lower lip. It’s so much more than that. Part of me feels like if he wanted to find me by now, he would have done it.
“It’s not just that. I haven’t exactly kept my nose clean all the way down here.”
“Okay,” Rana says, nodding. “I get that. It’s all too intense, so you want to come back.”
“Yes. I mean… I can’t run away on the back of some guy’s Harley and crash out just because Rakeem cheated on me.”
“Fair enough, but what made you change your mind all the way in Texas?” Rana asks. “Not like I mind coming to get you but… I thought youlikedZeb. Did he hurt you in some way?”
I feel like an idiot. I’m the one who got scared. I’m the one who can’t handle how good it feels to let a crazy white guy spread my legs open and eat me like a seafood platter. Zeb didn’t have todoanything to me for him to accidentally tease on the gaping wound I have from my stupid cheating ex-boyfriend.
“He didn’t hurt me.”
“Okay. Wait. Did someone hurt him?”
“No. But… I’m not built for his life, Rana. I’m not built to be a biker.”
