Far From Home

The bus lurched forward as the six men all found a place to sit around the living room. As if I weren’t uncomfortable enough being around six grown men, both Danny and Matt had chosen to sit on either sides of me, and I shrunk in shyness.

“So, Jesslynn,” Jorel began, “let’s get to know each other. Let’s start with your age.” A few of the guys shifted, anxious for the answer. These men are pedophiles aren’t they? Of course, lucky me. “It depends, what’s the date?” I said, my confidence slowly beginning to rise again.

“What? Your age depends on what day it is? Today is November twenty third,” Jorel responded, checking his phone for the date. “No, it’s just my birthday is the twenty-eighth, and I’ll be sixteen.”

“DAYUM!” Dylan exclaimed. “Girl, there ain’t no way you’re only sixteen! You’re awfully tall for your age, and you have huge t-” He was broken off mid sentence when Jorel reached over and slapped a hand over his mouth. “Don’t even go there,” he huffed, closing his eyes in frustration.

I could feel my cheeks burning red in embarrassment. “Sorry about that,” Jorel apologized, “he tends to forget his manners.” “I forget my manners? Why don’t you talk to Mr. Scene over there, I swear he committed molestation on that girl in New Orleans a few weeks ago.” “For the last time, it isn’t molestation if the girl likes it!” Jordon shouted back.

“ANYWAY,” Jorel shouted, breaking up the argument, “alright, Jesslynn, I think it’s time you answered a question that’s been on all of our minds the past few hours.” “Are you single?” Dylan whispered. I wasn’t sure if Jay didn’t hear him, or was choosing to ignore him, but he continued talking. “What were you doing lying in a ditch on the side of a highway?”

I told them the story of my kidnapping, from the chloroform, to the near death experience in the van, the two guys who beat me in the basement and how I had made friends with the kidnapper and he let me go free, and finished with me passing out in the ditch.

By the time I was finished, the boys were on the edge of their seats, staring in awe. “Wow, that’s one piss poor kidnapping job, one of the kidnappers setting the kid loose,” Jordon said, lighting up a cigarette. “Well, good thing he did, or this girl would have been a slave,” George said with concern in his voice. “I could make her MY slave,” Dylan remarked, leaning forward in laughter after receiving a punch to the stomach from Jorel.

“So where do you live, so we can find you a way home and get on with our lives,” Jordon grunted, taking a drag from his cigarette. The way he had asked that sent a pain through my chest, and my self confidence plunged again. I know I don’t belong here, but did he really want me gone this badly? Matt stroked my arm in reassurance, and I felt chills in the back of my neck.

“I’m from western Oregon,” I said, trying not to show my nervousness from Matt’s touch.

Six pairs of eyes gaped at me in shock. “Oregon? Are you serious?” asked Danny. I nodded in confusion. “What’s wrong with Oregon?” I asked. Danny turned to face me and looked me in the eye. “Jesslynn, we found you in eastern Nebraska, over fifteen hundred miles away from Oregon.”

I shook my head in disbelief. This couldn’t be true, I couldn’t be this far from home. I remembered all those times I wished I could run away from home because of my parents. Now that I had been forced away from my home, I wished to take it all back.

I glanced around the room at what I would be stuck with for a while. Danny, the sweetheart, George, the huge dude that wouldn’t hurt a fly, Jordon, the grouchy, yet somewhat caring one, Dylan, the pervert, Jorel, the all around amazing one, and Matt, the…well…the other one.

I grinned to myself, maybe I wouldn’t be eating my words after all.