Chapter 3: Fleeing Isn’t An Option.

Elizabeth’s POV

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‘What?’ Instinctively, my neck twists around to see someone over at the other side of the bus terminal waving her arm in the air energetically.

A girl around my age, clad in a peach coat and skinny black jeans with rectangular-rimmed glasses sitting on her small face. But her voice...why does it remind me of someone?

She begins to run over after seeing I’m no longer getting on. “Hey miss, the doors are closing,” Someone says behind me but I’m too taken by this person that’s running up to me so excitedly to care.

“Thank goodness! I ran over to the orphanage as soon as I saw the news, but no one accounted they saw you.” And she continues to ramble on, now closing the distance between us-

‘Wait a sec, oh my gosh! It’s her’. Now my eyes widen with utter disbelief as she slows into steps, her features becoming much clearer to me as my legs bring my body forward to meet her.

“Angie?” I call tentatively and watch as her eyes go wide with joy, and crease with pain, and she takes that as a cue to come to embrace me. “Beth! How much I’ve missed you!”

“Angie...my word, how much you’ve changed” My voice breaks from joy and tears as I hold her dear to me. I never imagined I could ever see her again, at least not this soon. She breaks the hug and pulls back, giggling through her glossy eyes while I smile happily.

“Why did you disappear like that without a word? Your aunt and her family were there as well- you had us all worried sick, Beth” she frowns with disapproval and smacks my arm, “And, where do you think you’re fleeing to without conveying an apology?”

“Geez...we’ve just reunited after so long and the first thing you do is regale me with scolding” I begin to tsk, shaking my head slowly and faking hurt when she laughs angrily. “Hah, you little! You never change. Come with me, we’ve got so much to catch up on”.

Angie was two years younger than me, she had a sunny personality and was always optimistic. I had clung to her unintentionally back then, and we would always play together. I would curl up on the old mattress at night when the other children would’ve fallen asleep and would reminisce in the bubbles of my past.

Angie’s smile the next day would diss all those grief away when she would be the first thing I saw upon rousing up. She was just like me, children no longer wanted and she had been at the orphanage since she was an infant. Maybe it was the pity I felt for her that got me attached or I had seen my friends in her ambiance...Angie was always nice and true to me. How much I’ve missed her.

And as usual, Angie pulls me away, ditching my plan to run away as she pulls me to a lunchroom further across the street. She gets us to a reserved booth and practically hurls me into the seat while she scurries to get into the space directly opposite me.

“So...” She eagerly places her arms over the table, “...where were you about to run off to?”

The mischievous glint in her eyes though. I sigh, lazily glancing around the establishment before meeting her curious eyes. “I wanted to give life a start over...I want to become someone who can genuinely share unreserved smiles with you and Zara someday”.

The mention of Zara robs the light on Angie’s face and her shoulders slump as does her gaze. Before I can speak though, she parts her lips, “I’ve been on the search, you know...my foster parents are even helping as well. But...” She raises her head and I see the look of disappointment on her face.

“...no trace at all, there’s been nothing. It’s almost as if she never existed. Not even a single soul who’s ever seen her before, nothing.” Angie tells, sitting back against the high backrest as she sighs, rubbing her arm slowly.

Around a year later after I had met Angie, we had gotten another child brought into the orphanage. A little scrawny girl pulled in from the countryside by some good Samaritan; Zara.

“I don’t believe she’s not out there somewhere, we just haven’t gotten to where she is yet. And meeting up with you again like this, I’m roping you into my search gang” Her expression lifts a fraction and I cross my arms over my chest with a raised brow, “Search gang?”

She adjusts her position, returning her hands to the table and speaking keenly, “Well, I made some friends at school who seemed to sympathize with me and you know how it is to live in Ewon...things are hard enough for a lonely orphan, not to imagine families barely surviving on their low income”.

She sighs heavily, making my brows furrow with confusion, “Meaning?”

Angie sees my face and quickly puts on nervous laughter, “Ah, don’t mind my silly gibberish- oh”. She quits her silly acts to look at the smartphone on the table, tapping on it and smiling quaintly.

I wonder who it is to draw that expression on her face. Still vested in the smartphone, she tells me with excitement, “They’ll soon be here. I’ll introduce them to you, big sis”.

My face heats up to hear the term she uses to refer to me and I speak up nervously, “Hey! Don’t tell me that’s what you told them you call me?”

Angie looks at me with an eye shut and her tongue sticking out, getting me flummoxed as I whip my hand out to bonk her lightly on the head. She breaks into laughter, inching away with a hand on her head, “What? They practically know everything about our childhood together so you have no worries about being the only one getting to feel embarrassed. I’ll shoulder it with you”.

“You naughty brat!” Angie scoots away to protect herself from my friendly attack when a hand suddenly wraps around my wrist gently, preventing my attack. “Hey”.

I look away at the sound of the unfamiliar and slightly gruff voice to meet azure orbs staring amusedly at me. He chuckles softly, letting go of my wrist to say, “I know Angie gets pretty annoying most times but just spare her for me today, okay?”

“Chris! You’re finally here” Angie’s shrill voice has me looking her way to see this tall and beautiful stranger proceeding to meet her.

She giggles when he pulls her cheek, “You love to annoy everyone you come across, don’t you? I should’ve let her hit you instead”.

I’m astonished, watching the friendly ambiance around them. I know Angie was a social butterfly but...is it jealousy? That in the time we’ve been apart and she’s started a new life, she’s gotten to know more people and made new friends as well. I feel strangely awkward and unwelcome.

Getting absorbed into my reverie, I hear Angie calling to me and flinch to see both faces staring at me worriedly. Angie asks gently, “Is something wrong? Our meals have been served and you’ve been quiet”. I shake out of it and wear a random smile, “It’s nothing, I was just recalling something”.

“That’s right, I haven’t introduced you two. Beth, this is Chris, a senior at my school” She eagerly does the intros while I nod to acknowledge him and he repays the gesture. I can’t behave in scrutiny, a friend to Angie should be treated in kind.

Angie goes on, “Chris, she’s the big sister I often bled your ears about, she’s the Elizabeth”.

Ugh, this silly girl. ‘Why put it like that?’ I frown at her who giggles but my attention is pulled to Chris when he speaks, “Nice to finally meet the only Elizabeth I’ve been forced to memorize. How did you survive with this little tyrant-

Angie flushes, throwing a palm to cover his mouth and I lift a brow to that. “I knew something was off when I didn’t see Akemi with you. Don’t say any more than necessary” She grits her teeth but he forms a defiant smile behind her hand, making her snatch her hand away protectively and glare daggers at him.

Darting from one person to another, I am left speechless to watch them as Angie clears her throat and leans forward. “This might come suddenly but, what do you plan to do now, Beth? You’re not running away either, I won’t let you”.

I shift uncomfortably in my seat, especially from the concentrated attention coming from Chris. Lowering my eyes to my hands on the table, if I choose to remain here, it’s not like I can enroll myself in school and start chasing a dream. For now, the most essential thing is to find me a roof over my head and start searching for who would hire extra hands.

“Find a job and a good place to rest my head?” But it comes out amateur to Angie who blinks and falls back, looking to be moving the gears in her head before she comes back and proffers, “Why don’t you stay with me until that’s sorted out? You could even stay as long as you want to”.

No, not at all. “I can’t impose on your family that extensively, Angie. I know you mean well but-

“I knew you would refuse. However, I won’t give in either. You can’t keep living such an independent life forever, Beth. You need to trust people and rely on them sometimes too...there’s a limit to the things you can do on your own”.

Angie lashes at me and I’m amazed to see the angry look on her face as I zip up and look away, rubbing my arm quietly. I know what she means but, how can I bring myself to accept that? Trust led me to the current position I’m in at the moment. ‘You should try to understand me better, Angie-’

“Then, how about she comes to stay with me instead?”