Run.
Run faster.
Don't look back.
Don't take a step back or regret your decision like last time.

I try to make myself understand, closing my eyes and running faster. I don't know where I'm going, but I know why I'm going with nothing, only with a long white lace gown hugging my skinny body tightly and maybe some notes of hundred dollars. I know these paper pieces are bullshit, but this is the most helpful bullshit I've ever seen.

Ouch!

I curse my dress's length under my breath after tripping over nothing and hitting my head against a cold metal surface. Rubbing my hand on the groan over my head, I find myself leaning against a black car's door. I look around and find that I've reached a less crowded area now.

"She can't go far! She must be somewhere!"

Hearing a bunch of male voices, I turn around, and my nerves start to jump ferociously under my skin, discovering my father's people searching for me.

No, I can't go back there! I need a life, a life for myself, not a life made by them!

Before thinking anything else, I find myself opening the door of the black car in front of me and shoving myself into the backseat. Thankfully the windows are closed. Curling into a ball, I cover my whole body with a blanket lying on the backseat, hoping to win this hide-and-seek game.

After a few seconds, which seems like years, someone opens the driving seat's door. I decide to continue playing my game and hide till my saviour runs the car a little far from this place.

A light jerk inside the car, and finally, I leave a satisfactory breath, realising the car is running. I feel sweats forming over my skin as an outcome of my nervousness. I utter Jesus' name repeatedly to save myself from the most vulnerable state I've faced until now.

A melodious song starts playing inside the car as I listen to the person sitting in the driving seat singing along with it. I get sure about the person's gender by his voice. His voice is not that bad. It's more like a raspy morning voice. I cover my ears with my hands when the music changes. Thankfully he changes the song in less than a few seconds and turns on another one.

Should I remove the blanket over my head now and see at least who's driving the car? Should I ask the person to help me? Why hasn't the person noticed me yet? Losing the battle of answering my own questions, I finally remove the thin blanket over my body slowly, and my eyes fall on my lap, watching the person hovering in the driving seat.

Though I'm watching him from behind, and he's wearing a black t-shirt, by his exposed skin parts, I can tell that his body is fully covered with tattoos. He's so tall and has a toned body. He has long, curly hair which bounces down his shoulders. Isn't he one of those kinds of boys my father has warned me about? Boys with tattoos and punk attitudes? He must be, and I should be afraid of him.

"What the hell!" I hear him gasp and stop the car In the middle of the road all of a sudden.

Ouch. Here I go! Miss Hurt hurts the same place again by hitting her head against the window. But this time, I feel droplets of blood on the tips of my finger. Darn! What is my skin made of?

Predicting that my presence has made Mr Punk stop the car, I prove myself wrong by watching him tapping the punctured tire randomly.

"What happened to you, babe? Any new guy sexier than me trying to make you betray me?" I try not to concentrate on his attractive voice though it's weird that he's talking to a car's wheel like this. His voice is raspy, and his slow-motion talking adds its attraction.

I'm looking at him without a blink, hanging almost half of my upper torso out of the car's window for the past few minutes, but he hasn't seen me yet, not even a single time during our forty-five minutes ride to this place. He's careless about everything around him but himself, isn't he?

Should I reveal myself now or hide for the most extended period possible?

I chose option one and open the car's door slowly. I succeed in making no sound while opening it, but I don't close the door, just in case. Tiptoeing, I walk towards him. Bending myself a little, I clear my throat to get his attention.

Flipping away his sweaty curls, he looks at me, finally. My heart falls in my stomach and starts to fly like a dragonfly watching his green eyes. I've seen people with green eyes before, but they are a bit different, a bit magical.

"Yes?" He asks with the same raspy voice, causing the dragonflies in my stomach to dance with their firing tails.

"Erm....I......you.....I mean your car......what happened to your car?" Finally, I make a complete sentence. What has happened to me? Is Miss Hurt nervous or distracted by Mr Punk?

Nervous, I remind myself.

He looks around before standing up and looking at me, tugging his hands in his pocket.

"Well.... its tire is punctured, and I've nothing to fix it now." He chuckles and kicks on the punctured wheel, causing it to make a weird sound. It sounded like it was farting!

"What? Now, what will we do in this middle of the road?" I yell nervously, looking around me.

There's nothing around us here. If it weren't a highway road with big trees on both of its sides, I would've called it a desert.

They should put a board on the trees written their name on it, not scientific names, obviously!

"We?" He half-smiles sarcastically. "You don't have a ride with you? How did you reach here?" He asks, surprisingly looking around.

"Oh, actually, I came here by...I was in your car's backseat the whole ride." I looked down after finishing the sentence as fast as I could.

A few moments of silence take place between us. I wait to hear his reply but finally give up. I look at him and see him still looking at me, surprisingly. I wave my hands in front of him, and he rolls his eyes.

"What? You........you mean you have been hiding inside my car since I left the supermarket?" He asks, and I nod, again looking at the ground.

"Speak! Oh God! Why did you do this? Have you killed someone and hiding here now?" He asks, taking a step towards me.

I try to prepare a suitable answer but fail to do so.

"Hello, I'm talking to you?" I finally look up when he grabs me by my shoulders and jerks me.

"Yes, yes yes!" I yell, looking at his firing green eyes. "I have eloped from my wedding to go the person I love!" I feel his hands slowly slide down from my shoulders. He keeps staring at me, widening his eyes, and his lips part a little.

At the very next moment, I feel him step backwards, and he starts laughing, bending a little at the front and slamming his hands repeatedly against his knees.

"You.....you ran off of your wedding? Look at you! What's even your age? Who even gets married at this age? Who the hell does even involve in this boring contract of life? And you said what? Have you eloped all the way to find the person you love? Well, aren't you doing the exact opposite thing people do in freaky love stories? Like a jobless mad lover runs to the palace to free their love? You sure do look like you've run from a palace." He says and starts to laugh at me again.

Hearing the sarcastic words coming out from his mouth so quickly during his hard laugh, I remain speechless for some seconds, trying to figure out what to reply to. I was never good with instant replies anyway. But before my tears could burst out from my eyes, I turn around and start to walk fast to the west, where the sun is on the edge of hiding behind the hills, just like me.

"Hey....where do you think you are going?" His words start to hit my back like echoes.

"I didn't know, I don't know, and I won't know until I reach my destiny!" I reply, keeping my back to him.

"And you think you'll be able to reach your destiny by walking in the middle of an unknown road wearing a wedding gown?" Now I hear his footsteps behind me.

Oh.

I don't even know the road's name; I don't have my mobile or vehicle. I have a heart full of depression and some square-cut paper, which makes people more depressed, money. But what to do? Who will choose to stay with this green-eyed boy who loves to taunt a helpless girl and looks like the punk boys I used to be afraid of in school?

"I didn't think so, but now I'm thinking so after meeting you. Thanks." I reply softly, not turning back but looking at him, tilting my head to the side.

"You're so......just avoidable. Go wherever you wanna go, nothing I should be anxious about." Though I'm not looking at him, I can imagine the frown covering his face.

Avoidable? Anxious? I should turn around and yell at him, but I refuse to relinquish my self-control, turning on my barefoot. I wrap my cold skin with my arms and let the begging tears fall from the corner of my eyes.

These tears are not the result of those words from that strange curly hair boy; these are the droplets of losing every good thing I belonged to—a perfect group of friends, teachers who'll never fail to praise me for my best grades. And here I am again, the only girl who describes her good memories surrounded by her school and doesn't include family. Family? Huh, I could've told
some good memories if my billionaire egoistic father wasn't a part of it.

Trying to avoid thinking about the horrible memories I've been carrying with me, I look up at the sky and notice it's already dark. Cool! At least I don't have to find a place to hide when the whole world is trying to help me by turning dark.

Dark, the word reminds me of that boy, the boy who was wearing a black t-shirt and tight black jeans, who was attacking me with emotionless questions a while ago. I turn around and suck in a breath when I find myself alone on the highway.