Runaway Read Online Free Page B

seat, screaming ‘go, go, go!’ as I tried to keep down an undeniable smile at the craziness of this whole thing.
    The taxi took off down the block with a screech of the tires – perhaps the driver had been a little too intimidated by Casey’s drill sergeant impression. Looking out of the window I caught a few of the waiting photographers and press members turning their heads in the direction of the noise – but all they saw was a cab turning at the nearby intersection. Although, if some of them had a keen eye, they might have noticed the flowery dress and the wide-brimmed hat dumped in a pile on the sidewalk…

Chapter Four
    We all have reasons for our actions. It used to be something that I thought about a lot more when I was younger, the reason that people get out of bed in the morning to do what they do, they reason I myself get up in front of a camera and pretend to be somebody else… The reason I do it, is… Well, I guess that I have a couple of reasons. Sometimes it’s just easier to pretend to be another person because being yourself can be so difficult. And sometimes… Well, a lot of the time… I feel like I want to work hard and get a lot done for my sister, Maria. Because she deserves that.
    But I don’t want to talk too much about that just now… Besides I had potentially just skewed my career into a direction that I wasn’t totally sure about.
    True, I had enjoyed the whole spontaneous idea of this plan, of absconding to a lakehouse hideaway for the week to relax, shop and kick back with my best friend, away from the press and the drama of this whole thing, but I was causing even more drama just by running away from it all, from Marcus…
    You freaking jerk… I thought, Why did you… No, I’m not even gonna ask myself that question. It was his fault for what he did, and not yours. Reality check, Emma.
    That said, I was still understandably messed about this whole thing. We hadn’t even been together a year, but that didn’t mean that I could just stop thinking about him, like I was flicking some kind of switch in my brain to turn off my thoughts about him… Although I wished that I could.
    We took the taxi to the airport, booking ourselves in on a last minute flight to Long Island, just a stones throw away from Watertown. we decided to hit it up first class – you only live once, right? I say this because usually I had a habit of taking economy – staying grounded was my number one rule, and it reminded me of trips with the family when I was younger. And when it comes to times like these, remembering home can be a really important thing.
    ***
    ‘Emma, do you even remember yourself where the house is?’
    ‘Hey, give me a break, I never actually anticipated myself making some kind of getaway in my life, y’know?’
    ‘All right, all right…’ It was late afternoon and we had finally touched down - now we were passing along country roads surrounded by hay fields and lone trees in the evening sun. It was a beautiful place, but we were a little caught up in figuring how to actually get to the house first.
    Casey leaned forward in her seat towards our second cab driver of the day, tapping him on the shoulder.
    ‘Excuse me,’ she asked politely, ‘How far is it to Watertown?’
    The man had a heavy city accent, clad in a cap and a worn lumberjack shirt.
    ‘You just answered your own question, Miss.’
    I watched a beleaguered expression on Casey’s face as she looked out the front window of the cab, before her eyes suddenly focused in on something and she smiled suddenly.
    ‘Hey, Emma, we’re here!’
    I looked out the front window from the backseat, seeing not your ordinary welcoming town sign – it wasn’t just a wooden marker at the side of the road, it was like something you would see on the dock of a beach carnival or fairground, a huge wooden banner that arched over the road, held up by columns on either side that framed the road. It was expertly decorated with Watertown