So Just Fly With Me

We both slept soundly through the night, awaken in the morning by a loud knock on the door. I sat up quickly, holding the sheet tightly to my chest while Craig pulled on his shorts and went to answer the door. “Wait!” I called. “What if it's...” I paused as the mental image of my father being at the door raced through my mind.

“It's Matt,” he said, turning away from the peep-hole and opening the door.

Matt barged in before the door was even all the way open. “I woke up to a voice-mail from Adam,” he said quickly as he was fumbling with the device in his hand. Adam's voice soon came through the speaker.

“It's all over the news that she's missing, and Craig is now wanted for kidnapping. The guy was at the house again, going off about seeing something on a Wal-Mart security tape. We're trying to keep him convinced we haven't seen Craig, but we don't know how long he's going to buy it. Please keep in touch and keep us informed.”

“Fuck,” Craig and myself groaned in unison. “You need to tell them to leave,” I said to Craig.

He shook his head. “They'll be fine, remember what I said. He doesn't want them, he wants me.”

“What does your dad do for a living?” Matt asked, looking at me. “I mean now he has access to security cameras at stores?”

“I have no idea. He never told me anything about his work. He worked from our basement and never let my mom or myself down there. I just eventually lost interest.” I paused for a moment before hanging my head. “I still think they should get out of town, like now. Because if any of them ended up hurt, I'd feel horrible,” I mumbled.

“I'm sure if he was going to try anything, he would've done it when he was at the house yesterday,” Craig said, still trying to be reassuring to me. “Come on, it's almost ten, we should hit the road.”

“Umm...” I looked at Craig, and then at Matt who was still standing there, his cheeks quickly tinted red.

“I see I interrupted something. I can let you finish if you want,” Matt said with a smirk before walking towards the door. “I need to get my stuff together anyways still. Just knock on my door.”

I was still a little embarrassed to want to walk around naked, so I took the sheet with me as I grabbed some clothes and went to take a fast shower to wake myself up. We were back on the road by ten-thirty and had gotten a drive-thru breakfast from McDonald's on the way out of the small town we were in.

The ride continued on in silence for a while, giving me time to think. I couldn't believe my dad would honestly think that Craig had kidnapped me. He knew how I felt about everything, so Craig kidnapping me was the last thing he should've expected. Of course, he didn't really know that I hated how I was living and wanted out of it. For all he thought, I loved being a spoiled brat, and wouldn't give it up for love.

I turned towards Craig who had his eyes glued to the road ahead of us. He looked happier and more relieved than I had ever seen him, and I knew part of that had to do with last night. It was that moment when I believed that he really did love me. I could easily see myself spending the rest of my life with him. I knew from when I first met him that he wasn't the low-life loser my dad had tried to make him out to be. I leaned back in my seat, staring out the window as I relived that day in my mind.

“Lisa, come here a second!” My dad's voice rang through the house.

I ran downstairs to meet him in the kitchen, staring out the window over the sink into the backyard. “This new guy I just hired to join our house work crew...” he paused to point at the person who was cleaning the pool with his back to us. “...I don't want you talking to him. I hired him to help him out and get him back on his feet. The only time you can talk to him is if I'm relaying a message. I don't want him getting thoughts about you, and I most certainly don't want him coming to kidnap you one night or something.”

I arched an eyebrow. “Umm, dad, I'm an adult now. I'm pretty sure I can handle myself.”

“Sweetie, as I always say, you're my only daughter, and I couldn't live with myself if something bad happened to you.”

“So when he's here, I'm not allowed outside?” I asked with a snarky tone in my voice.

“Honey, you do as you please, just leave him alone. I know guys like that, and they'll go after the first attractive girl they see.”

“Okay.” I walked away to my room to change. After seeing how much the sun was shining, I wanted to go outside and lay by the pool. After changing, I went outside and sat in a lawn chair I set up next to the pool on the deck. I placed my iPod on the small table next to me and buried the small buds into my ears. Instead of turning on the music and zoning out, I watched the man who was cleaning the pool and got a good look at him. He couldn't have been that much older than me. I saw his shaggy, dirty blond hair, his arms covered in tattoos. When he turned towards me to walk to the side of the pool I was laying near, I saw the large tattoo across his chest. His eyes locked with mine for a split second, and I froze, captivated by the icy blue orbs. An embarrassed smile crept across his face as he turned his back again and began vacuuming the pool.

“Hi,” he said quietly, keeping his back to me.

“Hey,” I replied back, also softly. “I'm kinda not supposed to be talking to you.”

“You must be his daughter. Daddy's perfect little princess that I'm not allowed to talk to because I'll get dirty ideas about you.” The same snarky tone I used on my dad had just came out of this guy's mouth. Damn, I think I'm already in love.

“Daughter, yes. Daddy's little princess, yes-according to him. Perfect, no. I'm far from perfect.”

“I'm Craig.”

I noticed that he was strategically positioned so he could talk to me without actually displaying that he was. I had ear-buds in my ears which would make anybody think I was just listening to music and singing along. “Lisa.”

“I bet it must be awesome to have a place like this, and to have everything you want.”

“Not really. I'm twenty-four, living at home, not even allowed to have a job, because he says I don't have to work. I hate it.”

“Why not leave then?”

“Nowhere to go. Didn't go to college, so I can't really get a good job if I wanted one. He just wants me to stay here until I marry one of the rich guys he wants me to fall for. But what he doesn't know is that I'll never fall for a guy like that. I'd prefer someone more laid-back who actually lives a real life.”

He chuckled then had to move to the other side of the pool. I watched him for a bit before I ended up turning my music on and zoning out.

It was starting to bother me thinking about what my father did for a living. If he had access to security cameras at stores, then what else did he have that could lead him onto our trail? As I kept thinking about it, I was becoming more and more terrified. Matt and Craig started talking, and at the next rest stop, I switched places with Matt so they could keep on talking. I stretched out in the backseat, my arm resting across my face as I tried to fall asleep. I had fallen asleep for a while, but woke up to the voices from the front of the car. I laid still, tuning into the conversation. A little eavesdropping never hurt anybody.

“It's still pretty funny because I never expected you to fall in love with somebody, let alone a girl like her.” Matt chuckled softly. “We always figured you wouldn't settle until you were in your thirties, and definitely not for some rich, spoiled daddy's girl. Especially since you're...well...you.”

“She's not like that though. Is there a problem with it?”

“No, not at all. You can't help your heart, Craig. I know this sounds kind of gay coming from me, but it's true. We all know that you've been crazy for her for the past year or so, and we support it. We know what you've gone through the past few years, but with her, you're so much happier. Does she even know?”

“I haven't said a lot about how I used to be. Just that I've been struggling with trying to make a living. I know I should tell her, but I'm scared that I'll lose her because of it. I mean, her dad's already pegged me as a low-life to her, and I just don't want to push her away from me because I really am a low-life.”

“Dude, you're not a low-life. People battle depression, people go through things. If she really does love you, she'll understand. Like I said, you're happier, especially the past few days. It's a great thing, and I'm glad she's doing this to you, because we don't want to see you spiral down into depression again.”

“Yeah, I know. So tell me then. What do you think about her?”

“I don't know her that well, but she seems like a good person. You just need to get her to open up more, and stop being so timid. At the house, she acted like we were all gonna attack her or something.”

“Well, you did scare the shit out of her when you grabbed her.”

“All in good fun, my friend.” Matt chuckled.

Depression? I knew he had a rocky past, but I didn't know how bad it was since he never talked about it. Maybe because he didn't have much of a chance to actually talk about it with me. Of course, I wasn't going to say anything, and was going to just let him bring it up on his own. I wasn't going to think any less of my boyfriend. If anything, it made me love him even more, knowing the affect I was having on him. I smiled as I began to drift off to sleep again following the silence that filled the car.