-runaway Love - Alexis Love- Veronique Vega- Lindsey Meadows- Kis- -

It was the love of girls who had no one, and so became everything for each other.

Lindsey Meadows stood at the edge of the parking lot, her pink bathrobe flapping in the wind, her dyed-blonde hair a wet mop on her head. She looked less like a predator and more like a furious, wet cat. Behind her, Dwayne’s truck’s headlights blazed. It was the love of girls who had

For the first hour, no one spoke. The bus was filled with the drone of the engine and the soft rustle of other runaways, other ghosts. Veronique leaned her head on Alexis’s shoulder and finally let out a shaky breath she’d been holding for two years. Behind her, Dwayne’s truck’s headlights blazed

Kis stared out the window, watching the city lights bleed into the desert dark. She didn’t smile, but the tension in her shoulders eased. Veronique leaned her head on Alexis’s shoulder and

The "Runaway Love" wasn't a romance. It wasn't a boy with a fast car or a promise of forever. It was the fierce, desperate, unspoken love of survival. It was the way Veronique saved the last apple for Kis. It was the way Alexis taught Veronique how to hot-wire a hairpin lock. It was the way Kis threw herself in front of a swinging fist meant for Alexis.

Kis was last. She turned her head, just enough for Meadows to see the hard set of her jaw. Then she dropped a single, folded piece of paper onto the wet pavement. It was a list of every violation, every skimmed dollar, every “accidental” lock-in of the basement. A copy was already in an envelope addressed to the state licensing board, sitting in a mailbox two blocks away.

The bus doors closed with a pneumatic sigh. The engine growled to life.