Where I Lay My Head

That was one of the few of my religion's rules I hadn't tried breaking, riding in a motorized vehicle. I didn't quite understand why riding in an automobile would be considered wrong, but I never had the desire to anyways. I never had any reason to venture farther than Mullica Hill until now.

The collosal bus gained on us at a staggering rate until it had came to a stop at our right, still letting it's furious engine roar obnoxiously into my ear and leak smoldering grey steam into the bottom of my dress. My father spoke loudly to me so I could just barely hear him.

"Be careful, Adeline. Remember where you're from."

I had to restrain myself from faltering to tears and clinging to him. When my older brother had left for Rumspringa there wasn't but a sense of doubt in my fathers eye that he would return the same Jonathan that we knew before he had left. But now my father's heart was heavy. My personality, just like Cecil's, was strong and needed more than just Mullica Hill to prosper. I had never been content like Jonathan had been with our incredibly conservative, simple way of living. Now as I was leaving it, all of its beauty became obvious to me.

"I love you, Daddy." I whimpered, grabbing my meager suitcase from him and taking my first step onto the bus.

The door pulled shut behind me and I gasped, whipping around and pressing my head to its small glass panel so I could see my father. His placid smile was comforting enough that I could manage to find myself a seat before the bus accelerated again.

Besides the driver, a young business-woman was the only other person joining me until the next stop, which would be our last until Toms River. I decided to seclude myself to the far back corner where a window was opened, just in case I turned out to be a victim of car-sickness. Before the bus reached the Highway I had convinced myself that it wasn't so bad. Due to Mullica Hill's hesitant speed limit we were only going 35 miles per hour, which was slow enough that I wasn't nervous but fast enough that I could enjoy this newfound speed.

Then the bus swerved onto the Highway and its speed more than doubled. I clung to the seat in front of me and buried my face into its tinselly interior so I didn't have to watch the New Jersey outdoors whizzing past at a rate that was sickening. I kept track of the time on my watch. It was 10:45 AM when the bus driver announced we were at our final stop in Toms River. It had been one hour and fourty five minutes since I had left Mullica Hill, but literally felt like days.

I stood up the best I could, my knees shaking and my head spinning. Thankfully, I was coherent enough to remember my suitcase, which held things like my hairbrush, toothbrush, elastic for my hair, underwear, a bra, socks, a razor, and most importantly $150 from my parents.

The final step I took off of the bus felt like I had just lept off of a building. My knees buckled and I fell onto the person standing in front of me. It was definetely a man, hovering nearly a foot over me at 6'2" with shoulders broard as a bulls. But his hair screamed otherwise; Beautiful stands of golden brown fell far past his shoulders and were teased to achieve ridiculous volume. My face crushed into the concrete wall you would consider his chest, cloaked in a black t-shirt decorated with a terrifying cartoon of an undead monster and spiky red letters that spelled "IRON MAIDEN".

"Addie-Priss!" the man cheered, abbreviating my first name, Adeline, and my middle name, Priscilla to become the worse nickname I had ever been given.

My face still smeared across his chest, I gasped and let my jaw drop. Only one person called me Addie-Priss, and that was Cecil.

It couldn't be...