Don’t Cry Baby novel Chapter 15

It has been four months since we left my hometown together and became Alaska and Nate. No one has been able to find us, they continue to search. I try not to watch the search too much, seeing the agony on my parents faces as they search for me. They haven't stopped since I left and here I am living in my dream home with Ty pretending to be the perfect couple.

It was easy to make friends in this town, no one suspects that I am a teenage runaway living with her basic kidnapper. We are just the carters and everyone loves us. I volunteer down at the library, I love working with books. The smells and the feeling of the pages against my fingertips. I love escaping to the library to sort through books and recommend different authors and stories.

I work from home to add extra income to the house. I work as an emergence help hotline. People call me when they're in need, or when they have a problem they need to talk about. It takes its toll sometimes, hearing all their voices and feeling the different emotions I can hear in their voice.

"It just gets so hard sometimes, I almost can't breathe. Everything is weighing down on me, all my problems."

"What's weighing down on you hun?"

"Just everything, it's my fault she's gone."

"Who's gone?"

"That missing girl Ashley, she was my best friend." My breath gets caught in my throat and I go silent. I haven't heard anuone talk about me ...to me in a long time.

"Hello? I called for help not silence." His voice on the other end is so raspy like all he's been doing is crying. I hang up the phone as quickly as I can before getting up and racing to the bathroom. I stare at myself in the mirror, my short black air and bright green eyes. I've lost weight since we moved here causing my cheeks to poke out even farther. My collarbones protrude dramatically out of my skin. He wouldn't recognize me if he saw me, not at first. They won't find me, they can't. I won't let them bring me back, he will just hurt me or them. He'll hurt Damien or even worse...he'll kill them. I sit down on the bathroom floor and bring my knees up to my chest, I hold them tightly against me needing to feel the pressure.

I take a deep breath to clam myself and stand up so that I can get back to work. I sit on my chair and stare at the phone, I see the flashing light of an incoming call and I press the accept button once my headset is placed where I like it to be.

"Hello, help hotline. How can I support you?"

"Ashley? Is that you." My breath hitches, I can hear the hope in his voice. I have to crush it, I feel a small tear roll down my cheek as I wish I could tell him its me. It hurts me to hurt him in this way.