Together in the world by Brittany Richards (books to read to increase intelligence TXT) 📖

I headed out the door, not knowing what was in my future. I had told myself would never look back, that I would keep moving forward. I wouldn’t let anything stand in front of me to get in the way of my dreams. Except for Jake, who was literally standing in front of me, causing me to run into him.
"Why are you standing there?" I asked him. He was standing in the middle of the pathway.
"Why are you running away, Roxy?" he said with a smirk on his face.
Jake was my best friend, actually he is my only friend.
Jake and I were total opposites, I mean in looks. He was your average emo. Short, straight black hair, black clothes, the works. While I had blonde hair, usually wore colorful clothes. Hell, sometimes I look like a rainbow threw up on me.
Jake's dark blue eyes peered down at my, he was at least a foot taller than me.
"You never answered my question," I whispered. It was the middle of the night.
"Talking to you. That's what I'm doing," he said jokingly. I scowled at him. "Now you answer my question. Why are you running away?"
"To get away from life! Is that ok? I can't take it anymore; I have to get out of here!" I yelled. Looking around I made sure no one stirred from their sleep to see who was yelling, but no one did.
It was true I did have a hard life. A mother that pretends you are not there. A father who left before you were born. A sister, that I'm pretty sure, is a whore.
People pretty much left me alone for the most part, except for Jake. He was the only one that would talk to me, ever.
"Now can you move?" I asked him, trying to push his to the side. "I want to leave now!"
He didn’t move at first. He just stood there, watching me.
"So you're going to leave? Leave your family? Leave me?" he asked, putting emphasis on 'me'.
I didn’t know what to say. I knew that my family wouldn't care, they never did. Jake, though, on the other hand would care. I knew it would be wrong to leave him, but I had to leave.
It took me a moment to answer, there were so many questions running threw my head.
What if my family did notice? Would they do anything? What would Jake do if I left him? Could I take him with me? If he did, how would he tell his family? What if he didn't? What if they noticed he was gone? What should I do?
I decided to ask him to come with me but when I did he just stared blankly at me.
I knew it! I knew he was going to do this!
He looked at me for a moment and then opened his mouth, as if he was going to say something, but nothing came out. So he tried it again, but this time he did say something.
"I wish I could go with you, but what about my family? What would I say? How could I tell them?" he apparently had the same questions going threw his head as I did only moments ago.
I thought about what he had said for awhile.
"What if you didn’t tell them? What if we just, left? What if we just, disappeared from the world?"
He nodded as he tried to take this all in.
"I guess, but what about food and clothes and everything else?" he asked me.
I pulled out a wad of cash that I had stolen from my mother before I left.
He just stared at me wide eyed, as if to say 'where the hell did you get that?'
Without him asking, I told him where I got it from. He just stared at me wide eyed.
"You look like you've never seen cash in your life," I laughed.
"I have, but not this much cash, Roxy!" he tried to reach for the money, but I pulled away before he could grab it.
"$500! I think that should support us." I said, "But we really should leave if we want to get out of here, and like now." I looked towards the sky, which was getting a little brighter as we spoke.

He looked up towards the sky too and whispered something that sounded like an, "oh."

Jake ran with me to the nearest gas station, which was only a couple miles down the road.
I was fine, but he seemed to be out of breath. "Now- now what?" he struggled to say.
I didn't quite know what was next; all I knew was that I was going to go with whatever life threw at me.
"I guess we need a car." I said. I was kind of saying it, kind of suggesting it.
I could go on for hours just walking, but this small run apparently already wore him out.
"Y-yeah," he was still trying to catch his breath.
"The only thing is; where do we get one? Oh I know!" I exclaimed.
A friend of the family, Derik, worked at a car dealership. I bet he would help us, and I was only a couple blocks away.
I explained this to Jake and he agreed.
We walked in silence, but suddenly Jake stopped out of nowhere.
"What is it?" I asked, a little confused. "Why did you stop?"
He didn't answer me at first; his expression told me he was thinking. He shook his head then, as if he was blowing it off. I wouldn’t let him do that. I wanted to know what was bothering him.
Steeping in front of him might have not been the best idea at the moment, but it was a spur of the moment action. HE ran into me, almost knocking me backwards, Jake caught my arm just in time though. Well that’s what I thought. Instead we both feel onto the hard sidewalk. He fell on top of me. I was laughing and so was he.
Jake rose to his feet and helped me back up.
"What was that for?" he asked while helping me to my feet.
After brushing myself off I replied to him, "You wouldn't tell me what was wrong!"
"Then why did you step out in my way? Are you crazy? You could of hit you head and then I'd have to take you to a hospital! You could have seriously been injured!"
I pushed away from him. "I'm fine!"
"I know, but you could have been hurt! It's not the smartest move you've made!"
I knew when I did it something might of happened. I didn't understand what his problem was. Then it hit me, he cares. He cares about me. I never really noticed it before. He liked me. I've had feelings for him in the past, but mostly only in a friend sort of way.
The next few hours were quiet ones, sort of awkward in a way.
We got the car quickly. Derik was a big help, which I knew he would be.
I drove down the highway towards who knows where. I was just driving. I knew I couldn't go out of the state but I could get out of the town and as far away as possible.
I couldn't take the silence anymore and looked towards Jake. I didn’t quite know what I was going to say to him. I couldn't say anything though, for when I looked over at him he was asleep, I decided it would be best to get to a hotel and sleep for a while.
The hotel wasn't a big one but it wasn't the smallest either.
"Jake, wake up!" I said pushing on his arm trying to get him to wake, but he didn’t stir. I tried it again but he didn't budge again. I decided to get a room without him and then come back for him. I open the door and he suddenly shot up.
"Oh, so now you wake up! I see how it is!" I glared at him, but he just mouthed 'What?'
"Come on, let's get a room. Apparently you need your sleep," I continued. He followed me into the hotel.
The lady at the front desk was nice and handed me a key with no questions. We got room 4.
When we got to the door, I unlocked it. There was a small problem with the room though. There was only one bed. I sighed and looked behind me where Jake was standing, but he just shrugged his shoulders.
"Come on, you look tired." he said. I would be lying if I told you that I wasn't tired.
I inspected the room as I walked over to the bed. It seemed to be fine, but there really wasn't anything I could do if I would have been bad.
When I reached the bed, Jake was already in it and pulling the covers back for me to join him. It wasn't as weird as I though, I mean sleeping in the same bed as him, but it was something new to me. I climbed into the bed, shut off the lights, and pulled the covers back over me.

I was sitting on the bed, Jake was still asleep. I couldn't sleep for some reason. I just had too many things going through my head.
I could hear the pitter-patter of the rain outside. It was calming in a way, I suppose. I could hear Jake’s steady breathing. Jake. I really did have feelings for him but I could never admit it.
I looked down at my ragged looking clothing. If you had one look at me, you might think I was through a small war. I got up and walked over to the bags of clothing we had gotten earlier today, and pulled out some pants and a simple gray t-shirt.
I