**** 3 chapters left, holy shit!! ****

I ended up falling asleep. It wasn't much better than being awake; I was still plagued with memories of my family.

I felt a hand on my arms lulling me gently out of my sleep. Opening my eyes, I was relieved to find myself staring into warm brown eyes rather than the frozen blue eyes of my father.

"Ronnie." I closed my eyes again, sighing and scooting closer to Ronnie.

"How are you holding up?"

That was the worst question he could probably ask, but it was also the best.

I had Ronnie with me, and my friends; I could handle a week with my family as long as he was there, they were here.

"Horribly. Can you just take me away right now? Just, for a little bit? I can't stand it in this house. There's too many memories here."

I sat up and looked at him with pleading eyes.

It was too painful in here, I had to hold myself together but I was struggling.

It didn't even take him a minute to agree, as he was already heading for the door.

"No, not there, we might run into someone."

I grabbed his hand and pulled him to the window.

As I opened the window and removed the screen, I couldn't help but feel like I was a teenager again, sneaking out and avoiding my family seeing me leaving.

Stepping onto the garage roof, I helped Ronnie through and dropped down to the ground.

I moved Leah's car so that Ronnie could pull out of the driveway, and then I left the key in the cup holder, quickly jumping into Ronnie's car.

He pulled away so fast, I'm sure the entire block knew that we left.

As soon as the house moved out of my view, I could feel the tightness in my chest slowly loosen, and I sighed in relief.

Ronnie put his hand on my thigh, and I smiled as he gave me a light squeeze.

"It's gonna be okay, it's only a week, and we can always leave whenever you feel overwhelmed."

I'll feel overwhelmed the whole time.

I smiled and nodded.

"I know it'll be fine, I don't want to talk about it."

Ronnie nodded and turned on the radio, and we drove in silence.

Once we were out of town, I felt my tight chest go away completely, and I felt myself comfortable for the first time since I found myself going back to my old home.

Ronnie pulled into a park and before I could tell myself otherwise, I found myself on the swings, competing with Ronnie to see who could swing the highest.

It was like recreating my childhood, in a better way, without the pain and loneliness of my teenage years.

After I won, and jumped off the swings, nearly breaking my ankle, Ronnie convinced me to go on the slides with him, despite the fact that even alone, both of us were too big to fit comfortably.

Still, being squished on top of Ronnie was not something I was opposed to, so I was more than willing to try it. Soon, we were stuck in the middle of the slide.

I tried to move, but we were crushed together, and the slide didn't seem to be interested in letting us go anytime soon.

The sun was setting, and I figured that we should've gone back hours ago.

I silently thanked the slide for giving me extra time away from that place.

After a few moments, Ronnie gave up trying to get us out; I hadn't even begun to try.

I slumped against Ronnie, running my thumbs across his hands.

"I wish we could stay here forever."

"I don't know, we might have to. Soon we'll start eating our hands to survive, and kids will be stepping all over us while their parents are on the phone, and some kid will spill their juice on us and we'll be all sticky and gross - "

I turned my head to look at him, smirking.

"Well, we've been sticky before, and I don't think it was too bad - "

"What a dirty mouth you have! You should be careful, this is a park, kids come here."

"It's 11 pm, if kids are out, they'll be lucky if that's all they hear."

"Well, that's probably true."

"You know it's true."

I shut him up before he could continue the conversation, pressing my lips against his.

He immediately pulled me closer, and I was glad that it was too late for kids, because it got heated quickly.

With Ronnie's help, I twisted my body to face him, and before I could even get into it, we were slipping down the slide.

I landed on the ground, Ronnie next to me, and I started laughing.

"Hell, I guess all we needed to get free was a little motivation."

I snorted, letting Ronnie pull me up and lead me back to the car.