Dakota's POV:

The sense of relief I felt when Caylee finally pulled the car off of the highway and entered the small town of Faybush, was something I couldn't even begin to describe in a million years. I mean, of course I had been free from the moment we crossed out of Washington state lines and began our cross country trek to Virginia, but now that we had actually arrived at our destination, it was like the weight of everything I was running from was now truly lifted from my shoulders. Now that I was here, the things that I had left behind, the things I had fled from, back in Stonesage couldn't hurt me anymore. It was a feeling that I had never experienced before, and it had been well worth the wait.

We had been planning for this for three years now, Caylee, Devon, and I, one thousand and ninety five days. The moment we had all turned fifteen and were legally able to get jobs, we had applied at out local diner and taken as many hours as we could possibly handle without failing our classes at school. And we hadn't spent a dime of it on anything frivolous as most teenage girls would, no we had saved every single dime of it in a jar we had hidden at Devon's house. This money was too important to us, we needed it to escape this town, so that Caylee and I could get away from the things we needed to.

As we drove now through Faybush, I looked at both of my best friends, Caylee in the driver's seat next to me, and Devon sprawled out in the back seat half asleep. These girls and I had been best friends since Kindergarten, thirteen long years. We had met in Ms. Fairweather's Kindergarten class, and had immediately latched on to one another for life. Devon was the only one of us who had never had anything to escape, nothing to run from, but that didn't matter to her, she wanted out of the city we grew up in as much as Caylee and I did. The three of us were different in many ways, both physically and personality wise, but we fit together like three interlocked puzzle pieces. My life would have been a hell of a lot harder without them, they were my rocks, the only thing that had kept me going for much of the time. And when things had gotten too hard and I had pretty much lost the will to go on, they had pulled me up and made me fight to live again.

And now here we were, finally reaching the goal we had worked so hard for, college in a new place, thousands of miles from where we had started, a true fresh start, a new life. It had taken us about 4 days to get here in all. The first two nights we had stopped and slept at motels, but the last 2 nights we had just kept going, only stopping to eat or go to the bathroom. It was nine o clock in the morning now, and we hadn't eaten since just before one, it was safe to say that the three of us were starving at this point. So instead of immediately searching for the address of the apartment we had rented just off of campus, we instead stopped at the first cafe we saw to get breakfast and something to drink.

The car had barely stopped before Devon was throwing the back door open and jumping out, her long blonde hair a complete mess and hanging every which way. It looked kind of like she hadn't brushed it in days, either that or she'd just had sex, but she clearly didn't care, she wanted food and she wanted it now. Laughing, as she pulled the key out of the ignition, Caylee turned to me.

"We should probably hurry up and get in there before she buys all the food in the place and there's nothing left for us huh?" she asked.

"Yeahhh..." I replied, "that's probably a smart idea... you know how she is with food."

Grabbing our wallets, we got out of the car, and followed Dev inside the small shop. And of course, we had been right, she seemed to be ordering enough for a small army already. The girl working at the register's eyes were wide as Devon continued to ramble on.

"Ok Devon I think that's probably enough to get you through the next week," Caylee said as she sidled up next to our friend at the counter.

I was making my way there as well, when a tall dark haired guy suddenly bumped into me on his way out of the cafe. Looking up at his face as he started to apologize, I froze. His brown curly hair was almost as long as mine, and his eyes were a shade of green that just pierced right into me. I didn't know what was wrong with me, it was like I had completely spaced out when I saw those eyes. The next thing I knew, Devon was calling me from the counter.

"You ok over there Kota? Poor guy's just apologized and asked your name and you haven't even said a word..."

I shook off my strange reaction to him, and blinked. My name? Why did he want to know my name? Should I actually answer him or just walk away? No... walking away would be rude, especially after he just apologized for walking into me. I couldn't do that.

"Sorry... thanks for apologizing, but it's all good, I know it happens sometimes. And my name is Dakota."

"Dakota. I like it." he said, with a smirk that gave me a strange feeling in my stomach, "I'm Harry. I'd love to chat with you more, but my mates are waiting in the car. But maybe we'll see each other again soon, it's a small town after all."

And with a cheeky wink, he walked past me and out the door. I stood there, unable to figure out what had just happened, for a few seconds more, before continuing to make my way to the girls at the counter.

"I'll just have a corn muffin, toasted with butter, and a large orange juice, no pulp," I said, smiling at the girl working...

Notes

Well? What did you guys think of the first chapter??? I hope you all liked it as much as I enjoyed writing it! Let me know what you think in the comments. And subscribe and vote please and thank yous!

--LalaGurlinaBox