She narrowed her eyes at me.
“You need to be an adult. She’s a child, just as I was. We shouldn’t have to raise you,” I said.
She continued glaring at me, her jaw twitching.
I turned around and pushed past Paxton. I walked into my room and shut the door.
“Hey, sissy, we’re gonna go stay at a friend's for a little while, okay?”
“Are they nice?” she asked, tilting her head at me.
“The nicest,” I told her.
“Okay, Zay Zay,” she said, giving me a big smile.
“Let’s pack some of the backpacks with our clothes, okay?”
“Most of my clothes are dirty,” she muttered.
“That’s okay. We’ll put the dirty ones in one backpack, and I’ll wash them,” I told her.
We packed every backpack I could find in the room. I wasn’t even sure she’d been attending school. That was something we would have to figure out later. Once we grabbed her clothing, we filled one of the plastic bins with toys. I urged her to pick quickly, only grabbing her favorites.
I ushered her out to the car, buckled her in, and then started carrying all the bags and the bin of toys to the car.
“You’re a real cunt,” Asil said.
“Yep, sure am,” I told her. “At least, I’m not the cunt who abuses people and gets them on drugs.”
I walked around the house, grabbing up some of Aspen’s essentials, like her shoes.
“Don’t even try to find me,” I said to Paxton and Asil as I walked out the door the final time.
I hoped Quinn really meant that Aspen and I could stay there. He offered, and well, I hadn’t planned to take him up on that, but we couldn’t stay in that house. I hadn’t had time to call him, plus I didn’t want anyone there to know where we were going. Was this kidnapping? Maybe, but then again, she was in danger.
Aspen chattered the entire way to Quinn’s house. Mostly asking where I was, who I was with, what happened to me, and every possible why question. I tried to answer everything as appropriately for a six-year-old as I could.
As soon as the car pulled back into the driveway, Quinn was standing on the porch, head tilted, staring at us. He walked down the stairs and to the driver’s door. Once he opened the door, I stepped out.
“Zay?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Let’s just say that I hope your offer was serious,” I said, nodding to the backseat.
“It was… I just didn’t think you would take it,” he said.
“Yeah… well, I didn’t expect to find needles lying on the ground, and every adult passed out. Dishes were piled high in the sink and on the counters. It was… bad,” I rambled.
“Let’s get her and you inside,” he said.
The air had already started to get chilly, and the sun was getting lower in the sky. I opened her car door.
“Aspen, this is my friend, Quinn,” I said. “And this is Aspen.”
“Hi, Aspen!” Quinn said, with a gentler tone.
“We are gonna stay here for a little while,” I said.
“Okay… but what about mama?” she said.