Who I Am Hates Who I've Been

“So, where do you hail from?” The guy with glasses asked me. I shook my head. He raised a brow at me. “No? You come from nowhere?” I laughed bitterly.

“No, I left and I’m not going back. It’s not worth whatever sanity I may have left,” I said quietly. He nodded slowly, seeming to be contemplating what I had said.

“Well, you can’t be too terribly sane if you would follow my brother to a hotel room. Well, you two are friends, so I guess that’s alright,” he said, adding emphasis to the word, friends. I looked at him for a moment. “So, how did you two meet, anyway?” I shifted uncomfortably. As if he felt my panic, Gerard came up behind me and gave the guy a very pointed look. “Look, Gee, I just wanna know who she is and where she came from. I have known you my whole life and I have never once even heard you talk about her. So, forgive me for not believing that this chick who appeared out of the woodwork is an old pal.”

“I ran away,” I said quietly. He just arched his brows and waited. “I took off around eight or so yesterday morning and I just walked. I didn’t have a plan, and I ended up nearly four hours from my hometown. I had a moment of panic, so I just stopped to collect my thoughts for a while. Then, your brother happened to appear and he seemed to show concern. I was tired and I was scared. In my mind, the worst thing that could’ve happened was he could have been a crazy serial killer and I was his next victim. At that point, I just really truly and honestly did not care…” The guy just looked at me with a blank expression, as though he could not process what I had said. Gerard put a hand on my back.

“I told you, I would never hurt you,” he said softly. I just shrugged. The guy just looked between Gerard and me.

“How in the hell did you know SHE wasn’t a crazed black widow type bitch? You can’t just be picking girls up off the side of the road and shit, Gee,” he finally spoke. I felt my face burn. I stood up and walked back to the room I had slept in. I picked my bags up, and as I turned around to leave, I crashed into Gerard.

“Look, don’t worry about Mikey,” he said softly. I just shook my head and tried to walk past him, but he stepped over. “Don’t go just because he was being a dick…”

“Well, I kind of have to. I can’t just stay with a bunch of guys that I don’t even know. What is this, adopt the homeless day?” I bit. His eyes widened in shock, but then sunk in disappointment. I felt bad instantly. “Look, it’s not like I don’t appreciate you letting me come and sleep in a relatively safe environment, but your brother is right. You don’t know me. I could be a runaway convict, and you are now facing prison for accessory charges…” He sighed.

“Well, are you a runaway convict? Did you break out of prison during a riot?” He asked sarcastically. I shook my head. “Well, then, that’s not our problem here. I can’t stand the idea of someone just wandering on their own, with nowhere to go…”

“I’m not your responsibility. I made my bed, and I shall lie in it,” I said, throwing a bag over my shoulder. He seemed to think for a minute.

“What if I want to make you my responsibility?”