Away Read Online Free PDF

piling the bones into everybody else's. It made me sick, literally. It was a good thing Noah had managed to convince me last year to wean off the pills the doctors were feeding me by the bucketload and go to therapy instead. It helped, but sometimes the weekly sessions were enough to make me think I was a faulty piece of work.
    Noah wasn’t exactly all there either, which made me feel better. Even though I had been through a lot, I felt like he had a better reason for being broken, with his mother being dead since he was a child. But even that hadn’t changed him too much.
    I bit my lip, wondering about my uncle’s words. Marcus said I would pay, and it would be soon. But hadn’t I already suffered enough? Hadn’t my mother and I gone through enough of my father’s endless games? His disorder had gotten so bad I hadn’t seen him in over three years. Not that it mattered, because the state required that he be supervised when he saw me anyway. Long ago I had hoped the doctors and hospitals would help him to get better, but now I knew better. My father never stuck with the prescribed plan, and it was obvious he didn’t love me enough to do so to try and get better. I was done dealing with him.
    I grab the necklace Noah got for me. Whatever happened, it didn’t matter. I could get through it with Noah by my side. But how much longer would that be for? How much longer could he deal with a crazy person like me, deal with my insane family? Noah was strong, but he couldn’t carry all my baggage forever...
    “Cut it out!” I shouted to myself, and I pulled into the college parking lot. I had to stop doing that. Thinking that he was a goner, thinking he was going to leave me. It was a constant cycle of worry and pain that I didn’t need right now. I just needed to trust him. Trust that he loved me, and trust that we were strong enough to outlast anything. I slammed my hand against the steering wheel and got out of my car. I was so done with this roller coaster.
    As I began my walk to class I shook my head. Nobody and nothing was strong enough to outlast the McGowan’s. But if I loved Noah, I had to believe we could. I had to try.
     
    “Lady, I need more ice!”
    “Can we have a couple boxes?”
    “This isn’t fully cooked, we want a refund! Where’s your manager?”
    “I’ll get right on it!” I shout to all of them at once, carrying a full tray of food in one hand, dirty dishes in the other. Every table at the diner is full tonight, and there’s only two waitresses on staff...me and Kendra.
    And right now, Kendra is nowhere to be seen.
    I grit my teeth, running around to help as many tables as I can and ignoring the ones that scream at me as I run by. I feel like I’m in the throes of chaos. “Rosemary, what are you doing, this food has been waiting to go out for ages,” my boss says as I whirl in the kitchen to place another order.
    “I’m sorry, I’ll get it right out!” I tell him, grabbing four plates at once and hurrying out the door. I love my job, I really do, but Friday nights are always the worst. I glance at the silverware and realize we’re going to run out very soon, and I have no time to wrap any more. The dishes are going to take me an hour and a half to finish, if I don’t get any help. All the cooks are busy, so unless Kendra comes in...
    “Where have you been?” I ask as I watch her walk leisurely into the dining area, putting her apron on casually. “I’ve been taking care of your tables.”
    She shrugs and says, “Sorry. Who all do I have left?”
    “Just the old lady and the family of four by the window,” I tell her, my face burning. “All the rest of them left.”
    “Did you get my tips?” she asks, hand extended.
    “Yes.” Wanting to claw her eyes out but not wanting to get fired, I reach into my pocket and pull out the money I made , but that’s technically hers. She pockets about twenty dollars worth of cash and says, “Okay. I guess I can take it from