Leaving behind everything they had given me, I crept quietly down the stairs. In a way, I felt bad for leaving them like that. Well, I felt bad for leaving Finn and Rhys without saying good-bye, but Rhys would understand. Finn might not, but maybe I didn’t care what he thought anymore. Hopefully, he stopped tracking me and had tuned into Elora so he wouldn’t notice I was leaving. That would be a damper in my plans.
Once I got outside, I realized I had no way to get home and no idea how to get there. The cold night air rested heavily on me, and I knew I had to figure something out. I looked around, but I didn’t have to look far. Rhys had left his motorcycle sitting out in the driveway. Thanks to my grand theft auto a couple years back, I knew how to drive one. I looped my arms through my backpack, and popped the bike in neutral so I could coast it to end of the driveway. Just as I suspected, Rhys was the kind of guy who left his keys in the ignition. Luck was on my side tonight.
The bike sped easily through the winding streets of Förening, and I barely even noticed the houses sleeping in the trees. There was the iron gate at the end of the road to contend with, but when I got to it, it was just as I thought. They opened up as soon as they saw me approaching. They didn’t care who left; they only checked when you came in.
Once I was out of town, I topped out the bike and almost lost control a few times, but it felt worth it. I stopped at the first gas station I saw and bought a map. It was actually fairly easy to get back. It was mostly highway, and once I got to town, I’d be able to figure it out from there. I drove as fast as I could the whole way there, afraid that Finn or somebody would notice I was missing and chase after me. Even if it meant that I never got to see Finn again, I didn’t want to go back.
I might never see Finn again. That took a painful minute to sink in, and I actually started to slow the bike down. Then I reminded myself that he had no interest in me, and he’d be leaving shortly to track someone else. And even if he didn’t, I would barely see him. Since he was no longer tracking me, he would no longer be interacting with me. Fighting back tears, I pushed the bike harder and couldn’t wait to get back.
The sky had that eerie blue glow of very early morning when I pulled up in front of my house. I hadn’t even turned off the motorcycle before Matt threw open the front door and came jogging down the porch. Last time I had come home with a stolen motorcycle, he had freaked out on me and started yelling. This time, it was different. Even in the dim light, I could see how stricken he was. He threw his arms around me and held me so tightly to him, I couldn’t breathe. I didn’t care, though. I hugged him just as hard, and over his shoulder, I saw Maggie running out of the house, crying. I buried my face in his shoulder, breathing in his familiar scent and relishing the protection of his arms.
After a whirlwind few days, I was finally home.
The joy of being home lasted about ten minutes. There was hugging and crying, and that was nice. Then there was Maggie yelling at me. It was a little shocking that she was the one that went to anger first, but Matt looked too exhausted to be mad. Maggie chased me into the house, yelling shrilly about how they had thought I was dead or murdered, and I was tempted to point out that those were pretty much the same things. I sat on the couch and let her go on and on, knowing that I really deserved it. I may have left for a good reason, even though I wasn’t that sure of it anymore, I definitely hadn’t left in the right way.
Sneaking out in the middle of the night when I know that their lives revolve around me wasn’t the nicest thing I had ever done.
All the while, Maggie walked back and forth in front of me. Tissues were still wadded up in her hand, and her eyes were red from all the crying she had been doing. Matt stood off to the side, leaning against the fireplace, watching me with this drawn expression on his face. He never said a word. I only mumbled yes or no when it was appropriate, but it was mostly just Maggie talking.
“I just can’t believe you would do this!” Maggie had started winding down, and she stood in front of me, one hand on her hip and stared at me. “I mean, of all the stupid things you’ve done over the years, you’ve never done anything like this. You never ran away. What on earth possessed you to do something like this?”
“I don’t know,” I shrugged.
“Were you mad at us? Did we do something wrong?” Maggie was almost pleading with me, that sad, desperate look in her eyes. I had messed up, and she was wondering what she had done wrong.
“No, of course not.” I swallowed hard and shook my head. “It wasn’t anything you did.”
“Then why?” Maggie demanded. “Where did you go?”
“I went with Finn,” I said quietly. On the drive here, I had been trying to think of a good line to feed them, but I thought the easiest, most believable thing would be to just blame it on a boy. I actually had gone with Finn, and Matt already didn’t trust him, so that was the best way to go.
Maggie and Matt exchanged a look. That’s what he had been afraid of.
Maggie turned to look back at me, but Matt just stared out the window. She had tried a haphazard sex talk with me a few years ago, but neither of them were really prepared for me to grow up. When she looked back at me, she took a deep breath.
“Did…” She nervously played with the cross around her neck. “Did you go with him willingly? I mean… he didn’t force you or anything? Did he?”
“No, no, of course not!” I insisted.
“Did he hurt you at all?” Maggie asked carefully, and Matt tensed up.
“No! No, he didn’t do anything wrong!” The last thing I wanted was to get Finn in trouble. Things hadn’t turned out the way I wanted them to, but he had been nice to me. And I still liked him. My heart ached at the thought of him.
“Good,” Maggie sounded relieved. Matt had closed his eyes, preparing for the worst. I didn’t want to know what he would do if he found out that somebody had actually hurt me. “So then why did you go?”
“I don’t know,” I sighed. “Finn… Just to get away. I thought it’d be fun.”
“Where did you go?” Maggie asked.
“Um, just… a cabin. His friends’ cabin.” I looked down, afraid she could read the lie on my face.
“Where did the motorcycle come from?” Maggie pointed out the window to the bike, and I realized that I hadn’t really thought this plan through at all.
“It’s his friends.” Almost truth. Rhys was kind of his friend. I think.
“Wendy, you can’t go stealing other people’s stuff!” Maggie rubbed her temple and exhaled tiredly. “I’m gonna have to call the police and have them impound the bike. Oh, and I need to call them and let them know that you came home. I’ll feel like such an idiot too. They kept insisting that you’d just run away, but I kept saying, ‘No, Wendy isn’t like that.’”
“I’m sorry,” I mumbled.
“I have to make phone calls.” She shook her head and walked into the kitchen, preparing for the arduous task of explaining to everyone that I was home safe and that she was a fool.
Maggie left us alone in the living room, and Matt continued staring out of the window for a minute. I twisted my thumb ring around my finger and waited for him to say something. From the kitchen, I could overhear Maggie making apologies to someone that kept cutting her off.
“You can’t do that, Wendy,” Matt said finally. His voice was low and quiet, but it made far more of an impact than all of Maggie’s shouting. I suddenly felt like crying and I stared down at my lap. “If you’re unhappy here, or if you want to see a boy, we can work with that. But you can’t just leave like that.” He exhaled shakily. “I don’t know what I would do if something happened to you. I can’t even…” He shook his head. “You can’t ever leave like that again.”
“I won’t. I’m sorry.” I blinked back tears and looked up at him. He was chewing the inside of his cheek, the way he did sometimes when he was trying not to let on how upset he was. “I am so sorry, Matt. I know I screwed up. I promise it won’t ever happen again.” He looked over at me, appearing more haggard than he ever had before.
“Have you slept?” Matt asked, and I shook my head. “Why don’t you get some rest? We can talk more later.”
I had to go past him on my way to the steps, and I paused next to him.
He looked at me curiously, and without thinking, I threw my arms around him and hugged him. At first, he didn’t do anything, but he was probably in shock. I could count the times I had initiated a hug in my entire life on one hand. Then he hugged me back and kissed the top of my head.
“Don’t scare me like that again,” Matt murmured into my hair.
When I went to my room, I realized that no place had ever looked better. We hadn’t lived here long enough for this pace to really feel familiar, but my stuff was my stuff. Besides, every house we’d lived in had the same “house” feel, which was a sharp distinction from the “don’t touch” quality of Elora’s mansion. I flopped back in my bed, burying myself in the blankets, and promising myself that I’ll never, ever leave again. I didn’t care what more was out in the world. Nothing beat the comfort and safety of home, and nobody in the world loved me as much as Matt and Maggie. Hell, nobody else in the world loved me at all.
Matt roused me a few hours later to ask if I wanted lunch, but I declined. He looked better, but he probably hadn’t slept yet. Only he could go without sleep for over a day and wouldn’t even consider a nap. I laid in bed awake for awhile after that. I was probably grounded from everything anyway, so this made sense for me to stay up here. Maggie came in a little while later to check on me, and then informed me she was heading down to the police station to take care of the motorcycle. I realized they’d probably be checking on me every hour or so from now on to make sure I hadn’t skipped out.
I had no intention of ever leaving again. When Finn had told me that I was Trylle, and things had started fitting together, I had been excited by the prospect of having somewhere to belong. But I didn’t belong there. Maybe I didn’t belong anywhere, but at least I was wanted here. No matter how much money Matt and Maggie might have, or I guess technically, I might have, there was no way I would ever give Elora any of it. She seemed to be living well enough without needing me to steal from my family. Maybe her legacy would die then, but so what? If it meant that much to her, then maybe she wouldn’t have dumped me off.
My room felt too quiet, so I went over to my iPod and started scrawling through songs to listen to. A light tapping sound startled out me from my search, and my heart skipped a beat. I set down my iPod and walked over to my window. Sure enough, when I pulled back the curtain, there was Finn, crouched on the roof outside of it. For a second, I considered closing the curtain and ignoring him, but his dark brown eyes were too much. Besides, this would give me a chance to say a proper goodbye.
“What are you doing here?” Finn asked as I soon as I opened the window. He stayed out on the roof, but I hadn’t moved back so he could come in.
“What are you doing here?” I countered, crossing my arms on my chest.
“I came here to get you, obviously.” He glanced behind him at a man walking his dog on the sidewalk, then looked at me. “Mind if I come in so we can finish this conversation?”
“Whatever.”
I took a step back and tried to seem as indifferent as possible, but when he slid in the window past me, my heartbeat sped up. He stood right in front of me, looking down in my eyes, and he made the rest of the world disappear. I shook my head and stepped away from him, so I wouldn’t let myself get mesmerized by him anymore.
“Why did you come in the window?” I asked.
“I couldn’t very well come to the door. That guy would never let me in here to see you,” Finn reasoned, and he was definitely right. Matt would probably deck him if he saw him again.