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She blinks back. Grins. Then throws her head back and laughs as if I just told her the funniest thing she’s ever heard.
“Oh, honey. God, I am such a bitch. You look beautiful, don’t listen to a word I said, though it’s too bad youaren’tselling Amish things, their bread’s the best I’ve ever had.”
I still wish I could somehow become invisible, but when she beckons me to come into the bus station with her, my heartbeat begins to slow.
I’ve left behind everything that I know. I’ve left behind a world of misery and fear, and now that I’m on my own, I have to face reality. There are many things I have no knowledge about, and I’m probably not going to be able to hide it.
“Where you heading?” she asks as we walk into the station.
I want to change the subject. I don’t want to talk aboutmeany more than I want anyone looking at me.
“North,” I say vaguely, becauseas far away from here as my money will take mesounds a bit dramatic. “You?”
She grins. “Same. Out of this hellhole, that’s for sure. I’m Quinn. You?”
“Eden.”
“Eden. Well, that’s a new one.”
I watch as a line of people forms in front of me, and I realize I have no idea how to buy a ticket. I have a wad of dollar bills and there’s a sign on the wall that has the names of cities I’ve never heard of before. I’m assuming the higher the price of the ticket, the further it’ll take me.
As the people begin, one by one, to purchase tickets, panic rises in my chest.
No one has money with them.
Everyone uses a credit card or a phone, but I have neither. Seth always said that cell phones were the device of the devil, and I was never allowed to have one. All credit cards, of course, were in his name. All I have is this wad of bills.
“Girl,” Quinn whispers, snorting under her breath. “Stack of bills like that, I’d think you got tips pole dancing at a strip club, but for some reason, you don’t strike me as the type.”
I’m starting to warm up to her. My lips tip up again. “What gave that away? Was it the glasses or the full-length skirt?”
Quinn snorts.
“Girl, I am dying to know your story, but I don’t pry.”
“You don’t pry,” I repeat, “Why do I have a hard time believing that?”
We’re only two people away from the ticket counter now.
“Ooh, so she not only doesn’t sell me Amish butter and scones, she likes to critique me, eh?” Quinn winks at me. “I don’t prymuch,but I am wondering what a girl like you is doing in a place like this and how you got that money. You flash your ankles to a bunch of hard-up church boys?”
I wink at her. “Close.”
She hoots with laughter, and for some reason it makes me feel like I’m ten feet tall.
I blow out a breath and clear my throat. “And you don’t have to think too hard about it. I’m here for the same reason as you.”
The person in front of me steps aside. It’s just me and the uniformed ticket seller.
“May I help you?”
My hands tremble as I place the cash on the silver counter in front of me. “I’d like a ticket as far as this money will take me.”
The attendant grows quiet. Eyes me suspiciously. Picks up the stack of cash and counts it once, then twice, then glances at the schedule on the wall.
“One way or round trip?”
My heart beats faster.
