Lovin' on the Run

Peter and Ashley left the room, almost side by side, with Ashley slightly leading. Chloe was on the other side of the bed, and had to cross from one side of the room to the other to follow the others. As she passed Hannah though, the older blonde reached out and grabbed her wrist causing the redhead to halt in her tracks. She turned, mildly-curious, though expecting admonishment. After all the help and encouragement Hannah had given her, Chloe had thrown it back in her face, using her new found confidence as a weapon, butt-fucking Hannah as a distraction while the others all but guaranteed her future in prison.

“Chloe, listen…there’s something a need to ask you, before I can make my decision…” Hannah bit her lip, her face red. She looked shy, an expression that surprised Chloe and not just because she expected to get yelled at. She’d never seen Hannah like this. Coy, perhaps, but never struggling for words.

“Okay, if I can help,” Chloe agreed as she turned to face Hannah.

“Let’s say, for argument’s sake, that I…decided to run…” Hannah began, her throat tightening as she pushed out the words.

“That’d be crazy,” Chloe interjected, already sure of her opinion on the matter. “You should turn yourself into the police. And I’m not saying that because I’m mad about what you did, or that you lied, even to me. I owe you. It’s more than that really. I care for you, and I want you to do what best, and safest for your future.”

“Right, but let’s say, hypothetically, that I decided to be…just a little bit crazy…” Hannah raised her hand, spacing her forefinger and thumb with a paper-thin gap between them. “Would…would you be just a little bit crazy with me too?”

“Huh?” Chloe scrunched her face in confusion. There was no way she’d meant what it had sounded like. “Hannah, what are you saying?”

Hannah took a deep breath and said, in plain terms, “Chloe, I want you to run away with me.”

The redhead instantly broke away, turning her back to Hannah and walking off to a corner of the room. Her hands went to her head, the heel of her palms against her temples as if she were trying to squeeze out what she’d just heard. It couldn’t have been a real request. Hannah was messing with her. Or was messed in the head. Perhaps their plan had completely broken her.

“You have to be kidding, right?” Chloe shook her head in utter disbelief, still staring at the wall.

“What? Are you saying you could never be with me?” Hannah’s face fell, hurt.

“No, I mean…” Chloe looked over her shoulder, seeing how her previous words might have come off as insulting. “What I meant was, why would you want to run away with ME? Before this week, I don’t think we’d even spoken two words to each other and now you want to abandon everything and take off together?”

“Who cares what happened before two weeks ago,” Hannah insisted with a shrug. “When we were playing that game of ‘Never Have I Ever’ I saw a woman who was smart and funny and adventurous and that was all before you ever took off a since piece of clothing. After that, well, I think I fell in love with your tits before anything else. But your personality definitely a close second.”

Chloe tried to fight a smirk as she looked again at Hannah, the older blonde sticking out her tongue teasingly as if she were the younger of the two. Hannah continued, “I asked you on that date because I wanted to get to know you better. I felt something for you and I had to explore, for my own sake as much as anyone else’s, whether it was just physical attraction or something deeper. Then we had the most wonderful time together. I felt myself opening up to you. I felt myself wanting to let you in. And in return I saw you open up to me, becoming even more confident and assured, and all I could think to myself was that I wanted to be there for every moment in your life. I wanted to see how much more confident you would become. What else you were capable of. How you would surprise me next.”

“But you told me, when I left the next morning that you were fine with keeping it casual,” Chloe reminded her, spinning around. “If this was how you felt, why didn’t you just say something?”

“Because I thought it was selfish of me to hold on to you, and I knew that this whole girl on girl dating thing was new to you. I could tell you weren’t sure if it was what you wanted and there were still guys that you were interested in, so, I tried to give you space,” Hannah explained, bowing her head. “I guess I’m still being selfish, asking you to come with me now, since I don’t know if you’ve made up your mind. But, unfortunately, I’ve sort of run out of time on the whole space giving thing.”

“But…still…why me?” Chloe asked again, still feeling in shock because of the question. “Peter was ready to marry you. I don’t even know if I’m a bisexual or just enjoy a dick shaped object regardless of who it’s attached to. We might fall out over something minor, or disagree about something major, like where we should run, or how to make money. Relationships are a crapshoot 90% of time it seems, what’s the chances of us making it work when we’re stressed and always looking over our shoulders? At least, you know it worked with you and Peter.”

“Sure, when we were teenagers. And if I could go back in time, maybe I would do things differently. I don’t regret my answer, because what I did, I did for Taylor. But, looking back, maybe I should have listened to my heart,” Hannah said, smiling calmly and comfortingly in a situation that felt chaotic and terrifying. “What I learned from talking with Peter tonight wasn’t to try and relive the past, it was simply that: to listen to my heart. So, that’s what I’m doing. And my heart wants you. Well, my heart and other parts of me…”

Hannah’s smile deepened, becoming sultry and tantalizing Chloe to jump across the room and kiss her lips. She took a few steps towards Chloe, hoping to make that kiss a reality, but Chloe put out her hand to stop her from coming too close as she rubbed her forehead, still trying to make sense of everything. The way Hannah put it…it didn’t sound so wrong. But it was still crazy…right? It’d be absurd to actually just leave and run away with Hannah. Even if she did have feelings for her, if she was just as curious whether this relationship could actually work, there had to be another way.

“This is ridiculous because it’s the worst possible option anyway. If we run…if you run, you’ll be caught for sure, and you’ll be punished to the fullest extent of the law,” Chloe insisted, deflecting from answering about what she personally wanted to do. “If you turn yourself in, you can cooperate and maybe get a lesser sentence because you saw the error of your ways. You might get a few years of jail, possibly with time served, and definitely get out early for good behaviour. Hell, you may not even get that if I can convince my dad to defend your case. I could visit you in prison…and…and we could be together when you get out, if you still wanted it…”

She had been so absorbed, thinking of an alternative, that she hadn’t noticed Hannah draw even closer, until she was in reach to take Chloe’s outstretched hand in hers, lowering it but keeping it clasped in her warm, secure palms. Chloe looked up, staring into her eyes and the serene expression on her face.

“That’s very rational and logical of you, but I can’t imagine being cooped up for that long…unless it was cooped up with you in an apartment above a bakery in Paris. And when have I ever been on good behaviour?” Hannah chuckled, but Chloe was too tense to laugh. “I want to see Europe. I want to visit the Lourve, and stand beneath the Brandenburg Gate. I want to see Nyhavn lit up with Christmas Markets and stand in the shadow of the volcano that buried Pompeii. There are so many things in life that I haven’t experienced. I don’t want to wait two, or five years. I want to experience it all now, and I want to share it with you, if you’ll have me.”

“It’s crazy,” Chloe repeated, falling back on her first, instinctive argument as she tried to ignore the throbbing in her chest.

“And stupid, and immature, and reckless, and impulsive, and selfish, and a thousand other adjectives that are all 100% true,” Hannah’s light blue eyes stared deep into Chloe, the redhead like a deer in headlights. “But the only thing that matters, is whether you want to be crazy too?”

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