Chapter 8

"What do you think's going to happen?" Chris asked Mark. "Rollie's gonna tell your dad, right?"

"Oh yeah," Mark nodded and we were all eating slowly, not feeling so hungry as before, but knowing we needed the food.

"If he tells my dad what happened to me, I mean, that I was ... You know." I didn't like the word.

"He'll go pretty crazy," Mark nodded. "My pop too. He always figured you were his daughter, kind of."

"Yeah." I smiled a little, knowing it was true.

"I think him and my mom even plan on it. I mean, us getting married someday," Mark said. He was smiling and marriage was something we'd never talked about, not until tonight. We were always too young for that.

"I know," I said with a nod. "Your mom kinda talked around it a few times."

"Talked around it?" Mark wondered.

"Yeah. I mean, she talked about us being married without really saying it, just ... Talking around it," I shrugged and ate some more fries.

"I never knew that." Mark scratched his head. "They talked to me about it, but I never figured they'd say anything to you."

"They did?" I widened my eyes at that and Mark actually blushed just a little.

I think Mark was a little embarrassed by it actually, but he shouldn't have been. Everyone knew we were in love and everyone was happy for us, and parents make all kinds of plans for the future, especially practical people like our families. My mom thought I'd marry Mark, I knew that, but my dad wouldn't ever admit it if he did. He wasn't going to let himself imagine me being anything other than his little girl until it became unavoidable to think of me as some other man's wife. And then I'd still be his little girl, forever and ever.

My dad was going to be upset though, real upset, and he might even come looking for us, I thought, but maybe not. I'd have to call him soon, just so he wouldn't. He'd never find us, for one thing. We didn't even know where we were going. But if Daddy couldn't bring me back, he'd want to take it out on somebody. When he found out I'd been raped, cause Rollie had believed us and they'd believe him, once my dad heard that? If Georgie wasn't already dead, he might start wishing he was.

I didn't know what was going to happen. I didn't know if the police were looking for us or not. I didn't know if Georgie was dead or what Wendy had told the sheriff. It could have been we were running away from nothing at all. Or it could have been we were doing exactly what we had to. I didn't know and neither did my two boyfriends and life is like that. You do what you think you have to and then later you can look back and tell if it was smart or dumb, or somewhere in between, like most decisions are.

"Do you think Rollie is going to tell your parents about us?" Chris looked at Mark and I watched the two boys sitting together across from me.

"No, not Rollie," Mark said. "But even if he does, I don't care."

Mark kissed him then, not like deep or long, but it was a real kiss on the lips, in the middle of the truck stop diner and it surprised all of us, even Mark maybe. Chris looked like someone had just hit him with a cattle prod, except he was smiling because for some reason that cattle prod had felt good. And Mark's big brown eyes were wide as he realized what he'd just done and he licked his lips and smiled, like he knew he couldn't take it back, even if he wanted to, which I don't think he did. And I just went...

"Wow!" I giggled and smiled and "Wow! That's so cool."

"You're my boyfriend, right?" Mark was looking at Chris.

"Yeah," Chris nodded.

"Then..." Mark shrugged, " ... I'm tired of hiding it. Secrets just get us in trouble anyway."

"Okay." Chris blinked his pretty blue eyes and brushed some long blonde hair back, so I knew he was nervous, but he looked happy too.

"No more secrets." I smiled at that. "I like it."

It probably wasn't a good idea for Chris and Mark to start making out in a truck stop though. I mean, some of those guys looked pretty rough around the edges. I'm sure most truck drivers are really nice guys, they have wives and kids and dogs, and they just want to make some money and get home safe like any other guy. But still, they were truck drivers and two boys kissing might get some unwanted attention. I was already getting enough attention all by myself anyway.

It probably shouldn't have been surprising how many men were checking me out. A sixteen year old beauty queen wearing a cheerleader outfit at a truck stop? It was like I was on the menu or something! I'd been a little self-conscious about it all night, but there wasn't much I could do about it either. I wasn't going to say anything to Mark or Chris. I wasn't the kind of girl that I had to have my boyfriends looking for trouble just because someone was looking at me. Some girls are like that, but they have their own problems. My only real thought was that when we got to New York, I needed to buy some real clothes.

We'd left the truck unlocked, since we weren't really used to locking stuff up, although out at the truck stop that might not have been too smart. But the only thing worth stealing was my book bag, if you were into trigonometry, I mean. That's all we wanted to get out of it, or I wanted to get anyway.

"You're bringing your homework?" Chris grinned at me, since he'd been expecting me to empty it out.

"What?" I shrugged. "I'm bringing everything. It's mine."

"You say so, Steph." Chris just laughed and Mark shrugged.

"Get the KY Jelly out of the glove compartment too," Mark told me and I looked over my shoulder at him.

"You keep that stuff in your truck?" I giggled.

"Well, I got some in my locker too." Mark grinned at Chris. "I guess they'll find that though."

"People are gonna wonder when they see that," Chris giggled and I blinked as I realized they were telling me they'd fucked at school, maybe, but I had other things on my mind.

"What do you mean?" I asked, since I obviously hadn't thought of everything.

"They're gonna open our lockers, Steph," Chris nodded.

"Shoot." I frowned, thinking of my birth control pills and my boyfriends probably figured that out, since they didn't say anything more. Neither did I, but it was true, people were going to be finding out a lot of things about us.

I put the stuff we'd bought inside my book bag and handed it to Mark. He complained a little, but he carried it for me. Mark had been carrying my books for over a year, so he was used to it anyway.

"That bus should be coming pretty soon." Mark looked at his watch and I looked at mine too, little Minnie Mouse with both arms pointing straight up. It was pretty much midnight.

"You know, even if we're not in trouble?" I said, leaning against the truck. "It's still pretty fun running away with you guys."

"You're not scared?" Chris stared at me and I laughed.

"Well, yeah, sorta," I admitted with a smile. "Sad too, sure, but I don't know ... It's romantic."

"Romantic?" Mark shook his head.

"It makes my heart go thump." I bumped my hip against Mark, since I was between the two boys as we stood there.

"It is pretty cool," Chris agreed with me.

"You guys are weird." Mark looked at us like we were crazy.

"What? You don't feel excited?" I looked up at him. "You're stealing me away in the middle of the night. Come on, that is seriously romantic."

"Stealing you away?" Mark laughed and rolled his eyes. "I wanted to take you home, remember?"

"Yeah, but it wasn't very hard to make you let me come along," I teased him, but it was kinda true.

"When was the last time I ever talked you out of anything?" Mark asked.

"Besides my clothes?" I giggled.

"Yeah, besides that." Mark looked at Chris. "You know what I mean, you can't say no to her..."

"It's impossible, yeah," Chris agreed.

"Everything we do it's always what Stephy wants." Mark was grinning. "Her good girl rules and all that. Where we go and what we do..."

"Yeah," Chris was grinning too. "I tried to talk her out of having sex at lunch, but she made me do it."

"What?" I gasped, now it was getting thick.

"She violated you?" Mark nodded sympathetically.

"Oh yeah!" Chris giggled. "She didn't even ask me if I wanted to or not, she just ... Did it."

"I've been putting up with that since she was fifteen, dude." Mark clucked his tongue. "Before that even."

"You guys are such liars!" I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "I do everything you guys want to do all the time. And so what if I have rules? If it wasn't for me..."

"Bus is here," Chris said.

"We better go, I guess," Mark nodded.

"Wait! I'm not done talking!" I stared at the two boys as they started walking away.

"Are you coming, Steph?" Mark looked over his shoulder with a big grin.

"Was she saying something?" Chris asked, really rubbing it in.

"It's a long ride, you guys!" I warned them. "And you guys are in so much trouble. Wait for me! Hey!"

"See?" Mark laughed. "She's always telling us what to do."

"Homecoming Queens are like that, I think." Chris shrugged.

"Beauty Queens, for sure," Mark agreed.

"You guys better stop!" I kind of hopped up between them, putting my arms around their necks. I felt like a little kid on my way to grandma's house for Christmas. It was strange how excited I was feeling.

"Ohhh ... Hey..." Chris smiled at me as I let them go, forcing myself between them as we walked. "We love you anyway, Steph."

"I know," I giggled. "I hope that bus is big."

"It looked pretty big." Mark looked down at me. "Why?"

"Oh..." I shrugged. "No reason."

"Right!" Chris giggled. "I've heard that before."

"You know me too good now, huh?" I stuck my tongue out and it was almost true. "I've never made love on a bus."

"But you always wanted to, huh?" Chris rolled his eyes at Mark.

"She's insatiable, dude," Mark sighed and maybe I was, but so were they.

"Chris..." I gave him a smile, a shy one and bit my bottom lip, " ... come over here."

I was sitting on one side of the bus, kind of towards the back, while Mark and Chris sat on the opposite side directly across from me. It wasn't very crowded and the other passengers were all sitting ahead of us, out of sight because those bus seats had really high backs, and they reclined, which was seriously cool. They even had little reading spotlights and air conditioning vents. I'd never been on a bus before, or a big boat, or an airplane. Nothing but cars and trucks, and so this was pretty fun.

Chris and Mark had their seats all the way back, and I'd done the same thing with both of my seats, since they came in pairs. I wished they'd come in threes, but that would have been pretty cramped, I guessed. So they were sitting together and looking at me and I really wanted Chris to sit with me.