Hey guys! I am overwhelmed by the number of reviews, and follows. They make me so happy, you have no idea.
I'm sorry my updates are so random, but I write pretty much whenever I have time/inspiration, and this usually occurs
very very late at night. This chapter is a bit longer than the others. Keep on giving me feedback, and I hope you enjoy chapter 5! :)

"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!"

The loud, shouting voice awoke Ryder and Marley in explicit panic. Marley shot straight out of bed, and Ryder began frantically getting dressed, as if it somehow in this moment was not normal for a guy to sleep in their underwear.

"Mom! Dad! I'm so sorry, we were just talking and we fell asleep here -"

"No, Marley. This has gone too far. We were even crazy saying that this stranger could even stay the night, and you end up in the guest room, lying next to him? Wonder what you two were doing all night long -" Mr. Rose began yelling frantically, now pacing around the room.

Fuck I forgot to set the alarm. I can't believe this, it's not what they think..

"Guys! Mom, Dad! This isn't what you think! I promise you, you know I'm not that kind of girl..." Marley began pleading.

"It's my fault," Ryder began remorsefully. "I needed someone to talk to and I made Marley stay and we just fell asleep -"

Mr. Rose held up his hand, Mrs. Rose, with a look of panic and apology written all over her face, stood behind him.

"I will not tolerate this, young lady," Mr. Rose began. "We gave you our trust, and you blew it. Do you REALLY want to end up like that Jen Kelly down the street? Pregnant, at 17 years old? Do you realize she's working 3 jobs now and never got to see the city -"

"Honey," Mrs. Rose whispered to her husband apologetically.

Marley just stared at the ground, her face covered in tears. She had never been yelled at like this in her entire life. She was always such a good kid, the kid parents would brag about. And now she was getting THIS talk? They didn't do anything!

"Don't talk to her like that, she didn't do anything wrong!" Ryder screamed, looking exasperated and more sure of himself than ever. "She was being a good friend to me, and I would never disrespect you by doing anything impure in your own house -"

Mr. Rose ignored Ryder's plea, as if he wasn't even standing there.

"Marley, I have never been more disappointed in you, jepordizing your future like this. I thought you wanted Columbia. I thought you wanted to work for The New York Times and finally make it in the city and make us proud-" he began ranting, ignoring the tears spilling out of Marley's heartbroken, crystal blue eyes.

Her tears sent a look of pain so drastic on Ryder's face, that everyone stopped to stare at him, including Mr. Rose.

"We need get to school," Ryder said so quietly that Marley could barley hear, and mindlessly grabbed her hand and began heading toward the door, where Mr. Rose was now standing in front of.

"We're not done with this, Marley Rose. And you," He began pointing at Ryder. "Do not come back here."

And with that, Marley and Ryder ran downstairs, the tears escalating down her pale face.

"Look what you did," Mrs. Rose said too quietly for the two running downstairs to hear.

Mr. Rose just huffed.

Marley was wearing the same clothes as the night before. Her hair was knotted and hands were shaking. She was waiting for her mother to run downstairs, apologizing for her dad's overreaction, but that didn't happen either.

Marley was heartbroken.

They ran out of the front door, car keys in hand. Marley wordlessly ran into the car, and Ryder climbed into the passenger seat, repeatedly calling her name.

"Marley, look at me," Ryder whispered so gently, and grabbed her gently by her shoulders, allowing her body to face him.

That same look of pain spasmed across his face, seeing the tears in Marley's eyes.

"Shhh, don't cry, sweetheart, please stop crying..." Ryder pleaded, wiping away her tears in the process. When that didn't work, he pulled Marley into a tight embrace.

She let out all of her tears, not saying a word. Ryder held her there, closing his eyes.

"I'm sorry, I'm being a baby, I've just never been yelled at like that before. I can't believe he didn't believe us.." Marley began, finally beginning to slow down her tears and speak clearly.

Ryder's grip didn't loosen. "You're not being a baby, parents hurt you. People hurt you," Ryder whispered and kissed her hair. "But not me. I can promise you, I would never hurt you..." he said, each word rolling off of his tongue and hanging directly in the air above Marley, as if she needed to breathe to take it all in.

I would never hurt you.

Isn't that what Marley had always wanted to hear? Those little words with so much promise and hope for the future. For once, a friend that wouldn't hurt her or let her down.

Speaking of let downs, her cell phone chimed with a text from Kitty.

Awesome.

Marley unfortunately untangled herself from Ryder, who looked equally as disappointed, to read the text.

Kitty: Well maybe if you stopped fucking bag boy by now, you'd be in the office already helping me manage this damn paper.

Marley was dumbfounded. News spread SO fast in this town.

Where was the city when she needed it? It was so close she could almost taste it. It was just a train ride away, not that far..

She showed Ryder the phone, who sighed and shook his head.

"Bag boy is really uncreative, don't cha think?" He said, smirking.

It made Marley laugh, and Ryder looked accomplished.

"Good, now please keep that beautiful smile on your face, and I promise I'll try to get through this day," Ryder said.

Marley tried to smile in between Ryder kissing every single tear on her face away before kissing her lips.

They arrived at school early, so Marley could deal with whatever was going on with the Baysider.

Kitty was already in the journalism classroom, just as Marley would have predicted, trying to show her up again as usual.

Ryder had decided not to come, for fear of Kitty making fun of Marley. She had insisted that she didn't care what anyone thought of them, whatever that them was anyway, but he already felt bad enough about her parents.

"I'm sorry I'm late," Marley said without much enthusiasm, and took her seat at her desk.

Kitty, of course, took the desk next to her, watching Marley read stories over her shoulder.

As Marley finally began settling into the zone of grammatical and style errors, she heard Kitty laughing.

"You think you're so great, don't you?" Kitty said, a devilish grin spreading on her face.

"What is your PROBLEM with me, Kitty? I don't understand. I'm sorry I'm not a bitchy, overconfident, somehow popular cheerleader like you! Do you even CARE about this paper, because all you seem to care about doing is undermining my authority-" Marley began shouting.

Kitty laughed harder.

"You think YOU would even have the shot of becoming someone like me? Marley, do you know what everyone even says about you? They say you're this bossy, spoiled, loser who thinks just because she knows how to edit an essay that she's better than everyone else -"

And with that Marley was out the door, and there were no tears this time. There was anger. There was rage. It was written all over her face. She had enough of being yelled at today, and the day had barely even started. She had enough of feeling that she wasn't good enough. She had enough of what people thought of her, and why they even cared.

All she wanted was Ryder, and New York City. Was that so hard?

She found Ryder in the gym, of course, interrupting his morning work out routine before he hit the showers before first period.

"Have you ever just wanted to run away?"

"You know you can't leave, Marley," Ryder said to her apologetically, as they ate their lunch. Alone, at the table in the back with that weird kid Harold cleaning his ears again, who again, was giving them judgmental looks. Typical.

"I know," Marley sighed, and took another sip of her milk, barely touching her food.

"Please eat," Ryder said, as if skipping one lunch might kill her. Somehow overprotective and cautious, as always.

Were they even dating?

Marley rolled her eyes and dug into her chicken sandwich, watching Ryder slightly smile.

"You happy now?" Marley said playfully. "If you like it so much, why don't you eat it?" she said before tossing a small piece of her bread at him.

Ryder looked shocked. He started tickling her, in the middle of lunch, at the table. He grabbed her sides so she couldn't escape.

"Am I a fucking piegon?" he said playfully, and Marley's laughter echoed through the entire cafeteria, until they began receiving looks from everyone around the cafeteria.

Marley blushed, and Ryder let her go, only with a slight kiss on the cheek. That didn't help with the blushing.

"Well now that that bit of fun is over, can we go back to talking about how everything sucks?" Marley said, half smiling.

"I told you once, and I'll tell you again. You can't let Kitty get to you," Ryder said.

"I know, I know," Marley cut him off. "She just.. thinks she's so much better than me. I just..whatever. We have bigger problems at hand. Now that you can't stay at my house, where are you going to stay? You can't go back there, Ryder..." Marley began.

It was like a wave of realization and panic crashed into Ryder, and began drowning him in the sea. This sea was an endless struggle, and couldn't be overcome alone. He felt dizzy.

"Did you seriously forget all about this?" Marley said slowly, watching reality smack the adorable boy in his face.

"I did. I was so busy worrying about you and I... whoa. What the fuck am I doing.." he began panicking.

Marley began rubbing Ryder's back slowly. "Shhh, we will figure this out. Together, okay?"

Together.

Ryder nodded in appreciation, and practically melted into Marley's touch. It was easily forgettable that they were at lunch.

The end of the day came too quickly. Marley felt sick.

She couldn't hide from this any longer. They were going to have to go to Ryder's, somehow, and get his stuff. This could end so badly..
What if his parents started getting violent? What if Ryder got hurt? Would she be strong enough to protect him? One thing's for sure - there was no way he was doing this alone, regardless of his wishes. And oh, he wished.

"Marley there is NO way in HELL you are coming in there with me, letting you drive me here is enough to make me more paranoid that I can deal with -" Ryder began ranting as Marley ignored him, and mindlessly drove the car down the already too familiar and horrifying beautiful road that led to his house.

Marley just smiled. She didn't answer.

"MARLEY! Please!" Ryder began begging.

"Ryder, you should know this by now, for the 800th time, I am not letting you do this alone," Marley said as sternly as possible.

"No."

Then Marley stopped the car.

"Do you REALLY think I'm going to sit here, helpless, and watch you go in there and basically throw yourself at danger? Please, Ryder. I'm not going to be that girl."

"What is THAT girl, exactly? The kind of girl that likes to live?" Ryder said, a bit too dramatic.

"THAT girl is the girl that doesn't let her guy go off while she waits in distress. I thought I lost you once, and I'm not letting that happen again. I don't think I would be able to live through it..." Marley began, the sadness filling each word that she said too quietly.

Ryder stopped yelling. His face beamed. He was glowing.

What?

"Her guy?" Ryder said seductively, moving himself closer to her in the car, and giving her those eyes that made Marley want to explode.

Her face turned a new shade of red. It didn't exist in the natural world, only in the world while Marley somehow lived to embarass herself in front of Mr. Charming.

"Y-y-you know what I.. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say it like that, I don't know what we are I didn't -"

And Ryder was so good at silencing Marley when she was nervously rambling. His lips, that once usually gently crushed hers in this lighthearted fashion, now took on a new edge. It was more forceful, more...

Ryder pulled her too close, hugged her too tight. And it wasn't tight enough. Their lips continued synchronizing until it was too much for Marley's sanity or self-control.

She pulled away a significant amount of time later when she felt her blood pressure rising, and when she felt herself clawing into his skin.

Ryder looked disappointed. He just sighed, half smiling at Marley, who was attempting to slow her breathing.

What kind of kiss was that? The kind of kiss that made her want to crawl into the backseat..

Bad bad bad bad don't look at the arms nope bad

Her inner monologue was interuppted again by Ryder's gentle lips this time, and then his lips were at her ear.

"We'll have time for that later, as long as you stay in the car..." Ryder whispered, trying to manipulate her at his best.

And Marley almost bought it, too.

Her smile turned to playful anger as she began hitting him. Ryder laughed, and ended up tickling her again, and then suddenly the car was shaking with the sound of synchronized, wind chimes, laughing in harmony.

"That was a nice try, but I'm still going in with you." Marley said as sweetly as she could.

Ryder sighed. "Fine, but I swear to God if I think you are in the slightest of danger you are RUNNING out of there -"

Marley got out of the car, and Ryder followed. "Let's do this," she said, grabbing his hand and squeezing it tight.

"Together."

It looked dark in the house, despite the time. It was around dinner time. Marley's parents would be wondering why she wasn't home for dinner, but that didn't matter. Most families at dinner at this hour, but not the Lynn's. It looked dead from the windows.

Maybe this would be easier than they thought.

Ryder didn't knock, and gave Marley a final look before he pressed his hand to the door knob.

"I mean it, Marley, if anything happens to you I would fucking kill them and that wouldn't end well for me -"

"Ryder," Marley breathed. "I can take care of myself."

With a final nod, Ryder added pressure to the door knob, and the door opened to the barren, dark living room.

Marley felt her heart rate accelerate, loudly. If they were hiding, this sound would give them away easily.

Ryder was the opposite. His game face was on. The adrenaline shot through his body like a rapid gunshot fire, and his fists clenched as his eyes scanned the room.

Wordlessly, Ryder directed Marley to the staircase, and Marley suddenly felt like this was going to end badly.

"What if they're up there?" Marley whispered so silently, she was sure Ryder didn't hear her. He didn't turn around.

As soon as they reached the peak of the beautiful, winding staircase, horror struck.

No.

Ryder was held against the wall by his neck, and was gasping for air. He tried to fight, but he couldn't budge.

It was so dark. Marley only heard voices. She wanted to freeze in fear. She wanted to fall to the floor and break down in hysterical tears until the 'bad guys' finally got her. She wanted to give up, she couldn't handle this.

But she had to.

Ryder.

Instinct overwhelmed Marley's body and she ran patting the various walls for a lightswitch, and flicked it on, trying her best to concentrate on the sound, or lack of sound, of Ryder's breathing.

She saw the man that she saw once in the doorway, and once in the school. Ryder's father. Was time really passing this slow? Everything felt like slow motion.

With a shift kick in the stomach, Ryder was free of his father's grip. And then all Marley heard was laughter.

"I thought we told you to never come back..." Ryder's father said slowly, sounding more and more like a creature from Marley's nightmares. "But," he had to pause to control his laughter. "You did. And you brought the friend with the navy blue Ford. Excellent."

Ryder's eyes shifted over to Marley, but it was too late to put a halt to the events that were going to occur.

"NO!" Ryder shouted.

A warm hand was wrapped around Marley's neck, a knife pressed directly on her throat from behind.

"If you scream," the woman whispered. "I'll slice your fucking throat. You're the one my son loves, right?" she said.

Wait, loves?

And Marley felt like she could faint.

She felt the blackness taking over her body. She almost longed for it, the peaceful, obliviousness that was unconsciousness.

But she had to keep fighting.

"LET GO OF HER!" The exasperated sound of Ryder's raspy, voice cracking demand shot a bullet of reality back into Marley's head, as he began fighting through his father in attempt to rescue her from his mother's grip.

She was awake. She was alive, for now. And she needed to fight.

"You're the one my son loves, right?"

And then loud screams escaped Ryder's mother's lips, as Marley bit hard down on her hand, just long enough to break free of her grasp and darted for the closest bedroom, hopefully it would be Ryder's. Ryder had wrestled with his father long enough to break free and followed Marley into the room. Ryder swiftly locked the door behind them, and looked panic stricken.

"Marley, your hand" Ryder said with the most concerned look in his eyes, despite the fact that his parents were banging on the door, and fiddling with the lock. And he was worried about her fucking hand.

She hadn't even noticed until... oh God.

There was so much blood, so much blood...

"I must have cut it on the knife..." Marley appraised the gash in her palm, and instantly felt whoozy.

Right now was not the time to worry about it.

"Here, grab two of these, and I'll grab the other two," Marley whispered to Ryder, who was grabbing all of his bags. All of them were labeled. As if he had been planning this escape for quite some time.

And then the door was kicked down.

"JUMP!" Ryder exclaimed.

This had to be a snap decision. How long could Ryder hold them off? Could he hold them off alone?

Marley closed her eyes, bag in hand, and climbed out of the window, balancing herself on the edge. It wasn't too far of a drop, but enough to keep her frozen in fear. On the edge. Of this roof.

Ryder, suddenly an Olympic gymnastic, dove out the window, landing perfectly on his two feet, dragging his bags along with him. That was a good 10 foot drop he just gracefully landed, as if he had done it 100 times before.

He probably had.

"MARLEY, YOU HAVE TO JUMP, I'LL CATCH YOU!" Ryder screamed, preparing himself.

Marley closed her eyes, and stepped off the ledge, landing effortlessly in Ryder's strong arms.

And then they were running.

Wordlessly, Marley opened the car door, thankfully she had held on to her keys, and Ryder climbed in.

And they were off.

As soon as they turned off of the street, Ryder exclaimed.

"WE DID IT! YOU DID IT! I CAN'T BELIEVE-" Ryder shouted gleefully.

"Not so fast..." Marley said, her voice so fearful she thought the world was swallowing her in.

Noting the rear view mirror, Ryder turned around in his seat, and saw that his parent's Cadalliac with on their tail.

"HOLY FUCK - THEY DON'T GIVE UP DO THEY" Ryder shouted angrily.

It looked like he was having a mini argument in his head. The silence felt like 20 years, and it had been about 12 seconds.

"TURN LEFT" Ryder instructed.

"Where should we-"

"I'LL TELL YOU, KEEP GOING."

A few turns and twists later, and they were parked in front of the train station.

And Marley suddenly knew what they needed to do.

Have you ever just wanted to run away?

You're the only person that's ever been there for me.

I will never hurt you, I promise.

"Maybe if you would stop fucking bag boy"

"Everyone says that you think you're better than them just because you can edit an essay-"

"This has gone too far, Marley Rose. I thought you wanted to get out of here.."

"Do you wanna end up like Jen Kelly down the street? Pregnant at 17? I'm so disappointed in you -"

Wordlessly, thoughtless, they ran into the train station.

Ryder was certain his parents would have followed him here.

"THE 6:02 TRAIN TO NEW YORK CITY IS NOW DEPARTING" the loudspeaker announced to the station.

Ryder grabbed Marley's shoulders in that short moment.

"Do you trust me?" he said, looking her in the eyes with a look so sincere it made Marley forget the context.

And with a nod, Ryder's hand grabbed hers, amidst the bags on their backs, and they starting running.

Marley would never again be the girl that played it too safe, and pleased her mommy and daddy, and sat alone at lunch.

She would never again be afraid of exploring the world, and trying new things.

The train almost started moving as Ryder boarded, and grabbed Marley's hand to help her up.

In the distance they saw Ryder's parents nearly sprinting after the moving train.

With a sigh of exasperation, and a squeezed hand, Marley locked eyes with Ryder, and they just stared.

Their eyes watched the windows move, and watched the small town they knew disappear before them.

New York City, here we come.