I woke up with light streaming on my face. I could feel warm weight on top of my hips and slow, steady breathing. Ezra must have shifted and decided laying on top of me was more comfortable than the mattress. I reached my hand down and felt short, coarse hair. My eyes darted open and I looked down. Potato was laying on top of my hips, pinning me in place. He was out cold. I laughed at the silly dog that I thought was Ezra.

I looked over when the door to the room opened. Ezra was leaning against the door frame as he watched me. He pulled his ringless eyebrow up; I forgot I had taken his rings out last night. His cuts looked a little bit better, but the bruising on his chest was darker still. It would probably look worse before it got better.

"What's this Potato?" Ezra said, fighting back a smile. "I leave you two alone for five seconds and you're already trying to sleep with my girl?"

I rolled my eyes and shook my head. Potato looked over at the door and then laid his head back down on me. He was not going to move. Ezra walked in the room towards me and nudged the dog, who just looked back at him and snorted. I laughed. Potato had a mind of his own.

"Ok, fine, then I hope you two are happy together." Ezra said, laughing. He was in a better mood this morning and wasn't favoring his ribs as much. He was doing much better than he should have been after the night he had.  He had gotten into fights before and was hit as a child. He must have a really high threshold for pain by now. He sat down on the bed and reached out to pet the dog, who looked back at him and snorted again.

"Good Morning, beautiful." He leaned over and planted a kiss on my bruised cheek. Potato raised his head and growled before laying back down on me.

"You look like you're feeling better." I said turning to try to kiss him back. He pulled back from me quickly like he was avoiding me. He felt a little off this morning, but it probably was because he was too injured to touch me the way he would want to if we kissed again.

"A little, I have my moments and I'm dreading the car ride home. It's noon and we need to head out soon if you don't want us driving all night." I groaned back at him at the thought of a three and a half-hour drive today. I wanted to leave the memory of last night behind us, but I was not anxious to get back to my reality of sneaking around with Ezra behind my family's back.

"Can't we just run away somewhere tropical and warm where no one knows who we are?" I asked him, batting my eyelashes and sticking out my bottom lip.

"Let's go, baby.  Umbrella drinks on the beach and you in one of those tiny bikinis laying in the sand." He smiled at the thought.

"No bikinis." I said, flushing.

"Baby, you wearing anything other than a bikini is a crime against humanity." He gave me the look only he can give.  The one that caused my knees to buckle and my body to squirm. 

"I am just not ready to go back." I sat up and pulled my knees into my chest.

"Come on, Riley, you know we can't hide forever." He leaned in and bit my pouting lip. I felt the tingles dance all over the bottom of my stomach. I knew he was right, but I didn't want anything else we faced at home to take away from the good place we have been in.

"I know." I said, running my hands through my hair and brushing the rat's nest off my face. I went to bed with wet hair and I can only imagine how horrible the curls looked.

"Let's get dressed and we'll go say goodbye to my Mom." He said, moving his hand to push Potato again. Potato grumbled at him before standing up and climbing down off the bed.

I climbed out of bed and began stretching my hands over my head to loosen my sore muscles up. Ezra's eyes were glued to my breasts as I arched my back. My shirt rose up, exposing my belly button ring and the only coverage below my waist were my thin, light blue lace panties. He moved his hand down to his boxers and adjusted himself.

"I better get dressed." I laughed at him.

"Tiny little bikini?" He suggested.  "Please tell me it has strings on it so I can untie them with my teeth." 

"Nope, leggings and a big hoodie. You can bite the hood if you get bored." I snorted a little.

"Fuck yeah, now we're talking."  He said, licking his lips.

"You're so wrong." I shook my head, realizing he could spin anything I said into something sexual. I was going to stop now before he ended up hurting himself trying to take me on the dresser as I changed. 

It turned out getting dressed didn't help. While I was changing, he kept sneaking up behind me and pinching my butt. He reached around me to squeeze my breasts and he rubbed against me from behind. I smacked his hands every time he wouldn't let go. We were never going to make it on the road at this rate.

He finally gave up when I pulled my shoes on and grabbed the bags to carry them down the stairs. With his ribs and bruises, there was no way he was going to be able to carry them to the car. He slowly walked down the stairs behind me, sulking because he wasn't getting his way with me today.  Luanne's head popped out of the kitchen and she smiled when she saw me.

"I can't believe you two have to go already." Her face was sad and I knew how much I was going to miss her. We didn't get a lot of time together on the visit, but she had earned my respect. She was a loving and wonderful Mom to Ezra. I was glad I got to meet her.

"I know." I said, laying the bags down and running over to hug her tightly. She was warm and smelled like chocolate chip cookies again. I let go of her and she smoothed my hair. I could see little tears in the corner of her eyes. I felt so bad knowing she had to watch her only son leave and not know what he was doing or when she would see him again. I decided I was going to give them a little time. "Thank you for letting me come. I hope we can come back soon. Ezra, I am going to take the bags to the car."

I turned and walked out of the house and heard a small sob escape Luanne's throat. I closed the door to let them have their time. It didn't take me long to load the bags in the car, but I stayed out as long as I could, fiddling with the seat and mirrors.

A few minutes later, I glanced up when I heard the front door creak open. Ezra's long, lean body stepped out and Luanne was holding his hand, trying to keep him close. He hugged her one last time before walking to the car. She looked up at me to wave and I gave her one back. She wiped at her eyes as Potato came out the door and snuggled up to her leg. She patted him on the head and watched her little boy climb into the passenger seat of his car.

Ezra had tears in his eyes. I got the feeling he would have never left his childhood home if it weren't for his addiction. He had every other reason in the world to stay here with her. I was thankful he left, or he would have never found me that night I came to the house after graduation. I wasn't going to go there in the first place, but fate had decided our lives for us even if we didn't know it at the time.

I started the car and pulled down the driveway. We had a long ride ahead of us, but at least we were together and in a good place.

We made it most of the way home and ended up stopping only once when Ezra got hungry. He went into the gas station and bought every kind of snack he could find. My nose turned up when he offered me ranch corn nuts. He opened the bag waving it in my face. I took one sniff and almost lost it. They smelled awful. I forced him to close them back up and hide them until we got home. He could eat them when I went to work tomorrow.

The car ride was a quiet, peaceful one, Ezra slept most of the way home and I sat just thinking over everything I had learned about him in the last few days.  I felt like I was finally starting to unravel the mystery that was Ezra Miller.  Bit by bit, piece by piece, I was starting to understand what made him who he was. He loved the people around him so fiercely he was willing to damage himself to protect them. He held the weight of the world on his shoulders and it had broken him.

I watched him out of the corner of my eye when he stirred and repositioned his long body, trying to get more comfortable.  The bruises and cuts on his face looked like they hurt.  I wanted to find a way to take it all from him.  I reached over and put my hand on his leg.  His eyes opened and he grabbed my hand to hold it. 

"Hey beautiful, you still good?"  He asked me sleepily.  "I can drive if you want to switch. I know this is a hard, boring drive."

"I'm ok."  I smiled. "Get some rest."

"I love you."  He said before closing his eyes again.

I turned the music up a bit to drown out the silence in the car.  I was drumming on the steering wheel in my simple, somewhat on beat way and singing quietly to myself. He was asleep; he would never know how terrible my music ability was. I was always shy around him when it came to music. He was just so damn good at it. It was intimidating.

I stole another quick glance at him as he softly breathed in and out. When I got back into town, I needed to figure out how to tell my family about him.  I just hoped they would be able to forgive him like I had.