FicWad

We drove for days, rarely stopping to eat, and only once stopping at a motel to freshen up and take a rest. My stomach growled violently, threatening to throw up food I had never eaten. It was getting to the point where my body grew so weak I could barely move. But he made me, just like he made me dye my hair, and change my name. It was like what I always saw in the movies, and I thought it would be cool to run away from home, but not under these circumstances, and not with the criminal I called my father. He wasn't a terrible father, for the most part, but I couldn't stand to look at him with what he had done.

My name became Isabelle Gonzalez, Izzy for short. I had chosen it because it was the character of my favourite book, and I had read it over and over again. My hair changed from a dirty blonde to a chestnut brown, to match the character, and with the lack of food, my weight dropped quickly. Surprisingly, I was happy with my new look. I looked older, more mature, and a little more sexy.

When "Travis" finally picked Manhattan, New York as our new home, I was content. He had pondered moving to a small town, but he had figured that living in the big apple would make it just as hard to find us, if not harder, then living in a small place. So we moved into a crappy, two bedroom apartment and set to work on creating our new identities. Travis knew people, so he said, and apparently it was the truth. He got me a new birth certificate, a drivers license, and all that jazz. He even upped my age, so instead of being 18, I was now 21, the legal age. The downside was that I missed my senior year, the year that I had planned so much with my best friends and my ex boyfriend, whom I had dumped mere days before my father and I hit the road.

After we had finished setting up our apartment, I set about trying to make a new life. I couldn't go back to high school, I was too old for that according to my paperwork. My dad suggested that I enroll myself in a local college, so I did. I had always enjoyed writing, so I enrolled myself in a journalism program. Luckily for me I registered just in time to start the fall semester and a week and a half after we moved to New York, I was attending Von Silvex College.

My first week was a mixed bag of feelings. I was excited to feel more grown up, but at the same time I was scared. I was terrified that somehow the paperwork would be looked over again and they would realize it was fake. Or perhaps someone, somehow, would find out who I really was, even though I looked far different from those pictures that had been posted everywhere.

Despite all the feelings, I really enjoyed going to college. It was so much different from high school, but mostly all in good ways. For one, there was none of that drama you get in high school. No one cares about those people they don't know. Everyone cohabits peacefully, and are courteous to one another when necessary. The other thing I really liked was that everyone was there because they wanted to be, whereas before, there were all those idiots who just made class an irritating place to be.

My dad stared a new job, and he was gone most of the day. So even when I got home, he was gone. The house was empty, and I was lonely. I needed something to do, I wasn't making very many friends at college, although there was this one girl named Olivia. I had two classes with her, and we talked, but we never hung out outside of classes. So I had nothing to do, and too much time, so I decided to look for a job, very unsuccessfully.

My third week was when I noticed a guy. Ever since my last boyfriend, who haunted my thoughts, I hadn't looked at a single guy that way. I didn't want to have feelings for anyone, I didn't want to get hurt again like my ex hurt me, but something about the guy was almost irresistible. He had dark hair, which wasn't short, but it wasn't that long either. He wasn't much taller then me, and he had a pretty little smirk that made me smile just thinking about it

One day, I was sitting outside in one of the courtyards at a table when he strode past me and took at a table just across from me. I looked down at the book infront of me, and when I was sure he was busy with something, I looked up. He was texting away on his phone, so I studied him carefully. He was young looking, but was most likely the same age as me. Well, my fake age anyway.

I forgot to be inconspicuous about looking at him, and I didn't realize when he shut his phone and put it in his back pocket, I was more focused on other parts of his anatomy that seemed to show through his tight jeans. He looked over in my direction, and caught me looking. I blushed madly as I hid my face behind my book, and my heart almost dropped when I heard his voice beside me a moment later.

"What are you reading?" he asked coolly, and I sort of waved my book at him. He chuckled. "So you got a name?"

I nodded dumbly and sat there. He raised his eyebrows at me, and I felt myself flush again. "Izzy," I replied quickly.

"Well Izzy, it's a pleasure to meet you. I hope to do more then talk to you." He winked and gave me that grin, and then he headed off in the other direction. My mouth hung open slightly, replaying what had just happened, when two other people appeared at my side. I turned to see Olivia watching my mystery man's retreating back, and when the guy beside her spoke I turned my attention to him. That was the moment "the mystery man" disappeared from my mind and the guy standing next to me became the only guy I thought about for weeks.

"You don't want to get involved with him," he said, and I was sure I wanted him.