The next day, we reach New York just as the sun is setting over the Empire State Building.
After leaving Prophetstown, we kept driving up I-80. Except for gas and some food, we didn’t stop anywhere. We were both paranoid, even though I knew Abel wanted to stop when he saw me falling asleep at an awkward angle.
But the risk was too much. What if they found us? What if they took me away? So, we kept running, kept driving away from the people that almost ripped us apart.
But now we’re here. In New York.
It’s exactly as Abel described. Tall buildings jutting up to the sky, crowds eating up the earth. The steam is rising from the potholes. The horns are blaring. The cars and buses are crawling over each other. And people. Dear God, I don’t think I’ve ever seen this many people together in one place. Not even in church.
As soon as we enter the city, I know I love it. It’s nothing like the town I left less than twenty-four hours before. It’s wild and untamed. It’s a little intimidating and it might take me a little bit to get used to the largeness of it, but I feel in my bones that this is where I’m supposed to be. I have a feeling that New York City has a place for everyone: the runaways, the misunderstood, the lovers, the strugglers, the drifters, the successful.
In this city, our love will grow. This is our adventure now.
This particular pocket is filled with colors and I like it immediately. Buildings are red, orange, cream. The symbols on the road signs are both in English and what I’m guessing is Chinese. The very air rings with those exotic symbols spoken aloud and the smell of peanuts.
This is where Abel’s childhood friend Ethan lives. I’ve seen Ethan before in photographs on Abel’s phone. He has agreed to let us crash in his apartment for a few days, until we find something of our own.
Abel’s truck sort of dies when he throws it in park, like it was waiting to deliver us to this city before taking its last breath. I think he might miss it since he’s been driving it around for ages. He hops out on a narrow but busy street. Without waiting for him to open my door, I jump out myself. But I stumble on my feet, already dreading the nasty fall I’ll be taking. But I should’ve known.
I should’ve known that Abel will catch me.
He grips my biceps, steadying me and bringing me flush to his body. And then, I’m standing in Abel’s city.
“Hey, Pixie,” he rumbles, bringing his arms around my waist, the place he loves the most.
I clutch his cross. “Hey.”
“You okay?”
“Yes. Remember how you saved me that day on the bus? When I was about to fall on you?”
“Yeah.” He nods, smiling. “You were a victim of my charm, I know.”
“It was the bus. It moved and threw off my balance.”
He squints his eyes as if trying to look in the past, remember that day. “Nah, I’m pretty sure it was me.”
I chuckle. “You’re crazy.”
“Only for you.”
He says it so seriously, with such gravity that all my anger comes out in the form of tears. How could they not see how much we love each other? How could they even think of tearing us apart? How could my dad do this to him?
In the light of day, his injuries look worse. His face is a study of purple, yellow and blue splotches, and I run my fingers over the swollen hills. “Does it hurt?”
“Not even a little bit.”
“You’re such a liar.”
He smiles and then presses a hard kiss on my mouth with his split lip. I move away from him, putting a hand on his bruised jaw. “Abel, not so rough. It’s going to hurt.”
“Not as much as not kissing you, Pixie. That hurts me more.”
So, he kisses me roughly, uncaring of his injuries, and I hold onto him, uncaring of the people around.
“Abel fucking Adams.”
We break apart at the call. For a second there, my heart stops beating. I’m thrown back into yesterday when the whole world was against us, and I tighten my hold on his t-shirt.
God, no.
I’m not letting him go. This time if they come, I’ll wrap myself around his body and fuse us together. In his eyes, I see the same thought.
Us against the world.
Abel leans down and places a dry, chaste peck on my lips. “It’s okay. It’s just Ethan.”
Then he puts his arm on my shoulders and hauls me to his side, completely belying his calm words.
Ethan’s striding toward us. He has brown wavy hair and smiling green eyes. His grin is easy and friendly like he’s been grinning all his life, and never had a reason to stop.
“Jesus Christ, I never thought I’d see you again.” Then he scrunches up his nose. “Though, man. What’d you do to your face?”
Abel laughs. “I took a punch like a man, instead of ducking like a girl.”
“One time, dude. One fucking time. Let that go, already. It’s been six years,” Ethan grumbles, shaking his head. Then he swings his eyes at me. “And who’s this pretty girl you haven’t let go of since the second I saw you?”
Oh shit. Abel should’ve at least offered a handshake to his long-lost friend but he hasn’t stopped touching me. I should probably nudge him forward but I hook my finger in his belt loop. I don’t think we can ever stop touching each other without an intense fear of somehow, being separated.
Abel kisses my forehead and introduces me. “This is my Pixie. My fiancée.”
My body warms up at the word fiancée. I flex the finger that holds his ring, claiming me as his. All through the drive up here, I played with the white ring, flicked the diamond. I wanted to kiss it over and over. I wanted to kiss him over and over.
I smile at Ethan. “Hey.”
“No shit,” he murmurs, completely astonished, staring at me.
“None.” I grin and decide to play the part of a fiancée and quit being needy, offering him my hand to shake.
He takes it, still watching me with curiosity. “That’s an interesting name. Pixie.”
I smirk up at Abel, who shrugs sheepishly. But before he can correct himself, I say, “Yeah. It is.”
Call it crazy, but I don’t want to correct my fiancé. I don’t want to be Evie anymore. I want to be Abel’s Pixie.
“Let her go, asshole,” Abel growls. “Unless you want me to get rid of your arm for you.”
Laughing, Ethan withdraws his hand. “Is he like this all the time?” Then, he ducks his head and stares at the ground. “Ah, okay. Not yet.”
“Not yet what?” I ask, frowning at the ground too.
“Nothing. Just wanted to check and see if he’s pissed a circle around you yet.”
I giggle, while Abel grumbles over me. “Just keep watching the space. He might one of these days.”
“Damn. I like her, dude.”
Blushing with pleasure, I look at my feet and Abel kisses my hair, murmuring, “Yeah, I like her too. A lot.”
New York is going to be awesome.
***
Ethan lives above a Chinese restaurant. The stairs leading up to his place are rickety, even more rickety and unstable than where Abel used to live until yesterday. But I’m not afraid as I should be. I know Abel won’t let me fall.
As soon as we reach the landing though, I pause, more like freeze. There are sounds emerging from one of the three red doors crammed together. Someone is moaning like they are in pain. It’s high-pitched and whiny, punctuated with grunts and squeaks. My eyes widen when I realize what they are. They are sex sounds.
Someone is having sex. Two someones. There are two sets of sounds, one masculine and the other feminine. Oh, and they are loud.
Whoa.
Shouldn’t they be like… less loud? Do they know we can hear them? Oh my God, is it coming from Ethan’s apartment?
With every question, I feel my heart racing faster. I feel my tired body waking up in so many ways. I’m a teeny tiny bit fascinated, and I’m a little bit… aroused when I hear the squeaking sound getting louder, and one moan merging into another, making it a constant needy sound.
Yesterday I was naked with my thighs wrapped around Abel’s hips, ready to give it up. Would I have sounded like that? Would the whole town have known that I was having sex with my Abel? Well, they already think that I did, didn’t they? They already think that I gave it up. That I became a whore because I spread my thighs for the guy I love.
Bastards.
I gulp as my nipples bead and a quickening starts up in my stomach. I grab the hem of Abel’s t-shirt, feeling like a lost little girl who’s nervous and turned on and angry.
He stops and looks down at me. He can tell I’m a confused mess because he puts his hand on my cheek and whispers, “You trust me?”
“Only you.”
“Then, come on.”
He takes my hand and pulls me forward.
“Loud neighbors,” Ethan confirms, unlocking the middle door and putting me more at ease that it’s not his apartment that’s noisy.
The very first thing I notice about his place is that it’s tiny and smells of seafood; I’m guessing that’s the restaurant below. But then as I walk in further, I kick myself for noticing those things. Because those aren’t the things to notice when you enter a space like this.
No, the thing to notice in Ethan’s apartment is that it’s covered in mirrors. There are mirrors everywhere, on every wall. Some small, a couple of them big and tall. Standing in the middle of the living/dining room combo, holding Abel’s hand, I look around.
We’re reflected in every corner, Abel and me. We both look like a mess, hair in disarray, clothes wrinkled and dried and smudged with dirt after the rain from last night. But I focus on our joined hands. That looks pretty. That looks like it’s meant to be. I squeeze his hand and he squeezes back. We smile at each other’s reflections.
Then I turn to Ethan, who’s grabbing a couple of beers from the fridge. “So, you’ve got a thing for mirrors, huh?”
He laughs. “Yeah. That’s one way to put it.”
Well, that’s weird. But who am I to judge?
We put our luggage in one of the two rooms located in the back of the house, through a hallway. The room only has a mattress — no bed — a small closet and of course, a floor-length mirror. I giggle at Abel but he only gives me a smoldering look, like he’s thinking something dirty.
After taking turns showering in the world’s tiniest bathroom where you can’t fit with your arms spread wide, we order a pizza and eat it up like we’ve never eaten before. It’s not until I’m licking my fingers clean and watching Abel laugh with Ethan that I realize I didn’t say grace before eating. This is the first time I’ve missed it. It makes me think of home. Of Mom and Dad.
By now, they must know that I’m gone. They must know that I chose Abel over them. Over everything. Are they looking for me? Sky would be their first suspect. God, I didn’t even think about how this would affect her. Maybe I should call her.
“What’s the story here, then? Are you guys running from the cops, pissed off parents? Both?” Ethan jokes, sitting on the floor with Abel.
I stiffen on the couch; the pizza sits like a rock in my stomach. Abel notices my distress and chimes in, “Why, you afraid of a little trouble?”
“Shut it, asshole. I’m serious. If that’s the case, then you guys need to be careful, you get me? Pissed off parents have a lot of power, trust me. Speaking from experience.”
Abel’s jaw clenches and I’m regretting my choice of seat. I should’ve sat closer to him, where I could touch him. As it is, my words will have to be enough. “My parents can’t take me away. They’re not that powerful.”
“No one is that powerful,” Abel says, curling his fists. “Not a single person. I’ll fucking kill them first.”
For a few seconds, all I can do is watch my fiancé. All I can do is stare into his rage-filled eyes, his beaten-up face. His violence soothes me, even as it stokes my own anger. He’s right. No one can tear us apart.
I can’t let that happen. I won’t let that happen. It’s imperative that we get married as soon as possible because I won’t be able to rest easy until then. I won’t be able to rest easy until I’m completely his.
“Whoa,” Ethan breathes. “Okay, that’s settled, then. My new roommates are a bunch of murderers. So how about a beer and a little Netflix? You know, to chill out?”
The moment’s broken. The intensity is gone. And for some reason, it makes me giggle. Maybe it’s the exhaustion and the entire surreal quality of this situation that makes me laugh. I slap my hand on my mouth and Abel’s lips twitch.
“Netflix’s great,” I say once my laughter is under control.
I crawl over to Abel and tuck myself into his body, as we watch something mindless on TV. I’m only half paying attention because Abel and Ethan are chatting and making jokes together.
It makes me realize that I’ve never seen Abel this happy. He laughs with me, chuckles. But he never really had anyone back in our town. He had a few acquaintances at school but they weren’t really his friends.
Abel was trapped back there.
Because of me. He wouldn’t leave because that town was my home. I’m so glad we’re out of there. So glad that we’re done with that place.
Things are working out already. Ethan’s a photographer too, and he says that he’s going to bring Abel to his studio and try to hook him up with a job. Isn’t that wonderful?
Abel’s going to be a photographer and I’m going to look for a job of my own and try to write in my free time. Isn’t that what I wanted to do? I’ve always wanted to be a writer and now I’m in the most artsy city in the world. Imagine all the stories New York has. Imagine all the people I can meet and write about.
I twist the ring on my finger, and it catches Abel’s attention. Ethan’s still saying something but Abel’s watching me. Smiling, I mouth I love you, and he gives me his signature reply: a smirk.
Yup, New York is going to be the best adventure of our lives.