Randy awoke as Jasmine’s warm body lifted from hers. The ends of the girl’s blonde hair swept over her breast and stomach as she pulled herself into a sitting position. It was the first time she could survey her without the pixie knowing, the first uncompromised view she’d had of how she’d be when she didn’t know she was being watched.

In her experience, those moments were more indicative of people’s true selves than anything else. It was something she would have to consider, even in this tired state, because after all this time on the run Randy now faced adding an exception: someone that would run with her. Not just for a few days or weeks.

Forever.

Jasmine flipped her hair over her shoulders and looked around the desert before focusing on something in the corner of the truck. Her ass lifted and a shadow drew over her pussy in the dim cargo light as she stretched forward. She pulled back and stood, the truck creaking over the radio as she turned around.

What was in her hands?

Randy tried not to look straight up at the blonde until she recognized it. A blanket.

The goosebumps on her arms finally registered in her brain as Jasmine shook the blanket out and draped it over her. “You get cold easy, for a yankee.”

She felt a smile come over her face and melted back into slumber with the touch of the blonde’s lips on her cheek.

A ping woke her again. How many hours had gone by, she didn’t know. Clutching the blanket to her chest, she opened her eyes and looked into the sky at the pinpricks of light that blanketed the night.

The vastness of the space called to some part of her she didn’t even know existed. It was so different than her home back in Jersey had been. No doors slammed, no kids screaming at each other in the background. Just a wide openness.

So many stars. Randy couldn’t remember a time she had seen so many crowded together. Even the dim peach hue from the cargo light couldn't block out the twinkle of their witness.

Quiet reigned, broken only by a small scratching sound a few feet away.

What was that?

Inching her body around, she caught sight of her pixie girl. Her back was to the side of the truck, still as nude as before even in the cold desert night. A Sharpie in her hand, she scribbled on the inside of her thigh. Her legs were covered in ink, words adorning her knees, her calves.

The scratching sound. What was she writing?

“She’s crazier than you are.”

“There is nothing wrong with her,” Randy mumbled.

“You think you love that girl? Think she loves you? You think love is going to save your ass now? That girl will be your downfall. Stay with her, and your past will plague her too. You both deserve it anyway.”

The cargo light flickered and turned off. Jasmine looked up from her writing at the desert around them, then up at the cab of the truck. In the faint moonlight, her eyebrows knitted together.

Randy didn’t move. Exhaustion warred with concern. The light turning off, leaving them in the vast desert of darkness, could mean a few things. Only one thing worried her.

See? Drained the battery, didn’t you? I told you she was going to get you caught. It’s bad enough that you didn’t get any common sense from your DNA, but you can’t even listen to your own mother, even after you killed her? You deserve everything you get.

Her hand curled around the blanket. They’d figure this out, the two of them. Certainly other people travelled the road. They could get a jump. Or a ride, the same way she’d been getting around before: hitchhiking.

“Jasmine.”

The blonde’s face tilted, facing her. Shadows hid her eyes.

“Come here, fairy girl.”

The sides of her face pulled up in a smile, moonlight catching on the wetness of her teeth. She capped the Sharpie and tossed it to the side of the truck with a ping, then crawled over.

Randy opened the blanket, letting her pixie under the cover. The blonde belted a leg over her own and slid her hand across her hip. As Randy curled her arm around her shoulders, the girl looked up and held her gaze. Neither of them said a word and Randy leaned forward to kiss her forehead.

“Sleep with me,” she mumbled. “We’ll figure the rest out later.”

Jasmine stretched forward to brush her lips over hers, a touch so gentle it rocked the world from its axis. She looked into her eyes once more before settling back against her body, resting her head against her breast. An exhale brushed over her nipple, and the sound of her lover’s breath soaked into her mind.

Randy would never be the same again.

She gazed at the golden head that rested on her chest, rising and falling with each breath Randy took. Jasmine’s hair was a veil across her features, brushing her skin in a teasing caress.

Drawing a finger across the smooth shoulder, she stroked the curled tendril that hung there. So soft, so tender. Just like the heart of this tough girl, her pixie.

She’d be damned if she’d ever break her.

“I could love this girl.”

“No, you think you could love her. You’re just confused.”

“No, you’re wrong this time, Mama. I’m not confused.” She cradled Jasmine close, breathing in the scent of stale cigarettes and strawberries from her hair and drifted into the greedy grasp of sleep.

*** 
Jasmine awoke to the heat of sun on her naked body, the clicking of a gearshift, and the cheer of a stationary engine. She opened her eyes and saw Randy’s brown eyes looking back. Their naked bodies embraced, her leg thrown over the other girl’s thigh, the blanket dangling from her foot as if it had been carelessly thrown.

Gravel crunched in the sound of footsteps. A masculine throat cleared somewhere near the end of the truck bed.

Randy didn’t blink, didn’t move. Just stared into her eyes.

Wishing she could hear what the other girl was thinking, Jasmine tensed. She gritted her teeth and slid her hands down the smooth arch of her back to rest just underneath her arms. She untangled her leg from across her body and waited.

Her lover’s mouth remained shut, but her fingers traced behind the shell of Jasmine’s ear.

Another throat clearing from the end of the truck.

Ripping her gaze from Randy, she propped herself up on her palms.

A cop stood in front of them. He glanced at her nude tits before meeting her eyes. “I’m assuming you two have a good reason for being out here when a truck could’ve plowed into you both.”

She sat up straighter, pulling her legs up as her hands curled into loose fists. He can’t be here.

A tire iron crept into her memory, a rusted thing she’d seen near the front of the bed. An orange tinged hammer next to it. Weapons. To protect Randy. Both were just underneath the thick blanket they lay on. It might be easy.

The other girl’s fingers wrapped around her wrist. A warning.

Jasmine’s chest jumped, breath catching in her throat. She glanced back at her.

“As you can see, no truck plowed into us.” Randy turned over, her bubble ass quaking with her movement. She snatched the button down shirt next to her, giving the cop a quick glimpse at the lips of her pussy before sitting up and covering her lap with it. Modestly.

It wasn’t like the girl she knew, this little peep show. The callous way she let him see her body.

“But if they did, maybe we wouldn’t mind. Sometimes truck drivers can plow in ways no one expects.”

When those brown eyes met hers, Jasmine smiled. Remembered every detail of last night.

Message heard, she wanted to say.

Jasmine turned back to the cop. “Not a lot of cars back here. Privacy’s a good thing sometimes.”

A warm hand rubbed her arm, slipped over her shoulder and flicked her nipple.

She giggled, glancing at Randy before training her eyes back on the cop in front of them.

“It’s not safe.” His attention was on her breast, then Randy’s.

“Nothing’s safe,” Randy said.

The cop looked down at Jasmine’s shoes, her calves. While Randy slept last night, Jasmine was writing down poem after poem. Thought after thought. She’d been restless. Awake. If she was any kind of artist, she’d have painted a portrait of her lover, but words had to do.

He raised an eyebrow. “You okay?”

“Want to taste me and find out?” Jasmine spread her legs, just enough for him to see a glimpse of her pussy.

Licking his lips, his gaze rolled over her naked body, from her pussy to her tits, then he looked behind her. At Randy.

She cringed as he checked out her lover. Last night replayed in her head, the opposition Randy had had with men. The way all her defenses fell when she’d drifted into sleep, and began speaking to someone Jasmine couldn’t see. It was a side she knew the girl had never shared, one that she hid every day, and no doubt now too. The only thing Jasmine wanted her to do was sit back and watch as she distracted the cop. Randy didn’t belong to him--she was hers.

“You don’t want to come out and play?”

Jasmine opened her mouth to tell him to shut the fuck up, but the other girl pinched her nipple hard.

“What game do you want to play?” The brunette’s playful voice rang out in her ear.

Just another man, her tone seemed to say.

“I’m running your plates anyway, but if you’re very, very good, I’ll let you off with a warning.” The cop lifted his sunglasses off his head and shoved them in his shirt pocket as he squinted at them. “What do you say, girls? Want to play suck off the cop or do you want a ticket?”

Randy combed her hair from her ear, and leaned forward until her breasts pillowed against Jasmine’s back and her breath shocked her ear. “His car is still running. Make him come and we run for it.”

The whispered words were clear.

“Together.”

“Yes.” Those lips pressed against her neck.

“This isn’t the U.N., ladies. No discussion and no negotiating. Suck my fucking cock or I do my job.”

Jasmine heaved herself up and glanced back at her lover, who was pulling their clothes together.

The cop hitched his jaw in Randy’s direction. “That mean you’re out?”

“No.” She stood, their clothes wavering over her folded forearms as she followed Jasmine to the tailgate. “It means we’re not common whores. If we’re going to be on our knees, we’re going to give you the blow job you’ve always wanted. We’ll suck you for as long as it takes, baby, but not if we’re picking the rocks out of our skin.”

Smart. Fuck, she’s smart. Jasmine hopped off the truck and turned, grabbing the clothes from her lover. She stretched a hand to help her down, but Randy ignored it and jumped off, her heavy tits swinging.

Smiling, he turned toward them, opening his belt and unzipping his fly. Jasmine dropped their clothes to either side of him and began to kneel.

The cop grabbed her arm, yanked her to him until she thudded against his chest. His clear brown eyes looked back at her, a furrow growing between them. “Kiss me first.”

She stared back at him. Randy’s breath broke against her shoulder, her lips descending on her neck as her breasts pressed against her back. Her arm brushed her hips, curling around her to rest on his pecker.

He inclined his head, releasing Jasmine’s hand and trailing his fingers over the peaks of her nipples before plunging south. His fingertips found her slit and stroked through her plump folds as Randy’s hand began to pump him.

“Nice and wet. Beautiful. You like men too, don’t you, sweet thing?” He smiled. “Kiss me, you little whore.”

Gasping, she strained to keep his gaze. Locked between the cop and the person who meant more to her than anyone in the world, she leaned into him. His lips found hers, her eyes closed, and their mouths opened.

The cop’s tongue tasted like cigarettes and peppermint, stroking alongside her own. Randy’s fingertips brushed her stomach, his pecker oozing pre-cum onto her navel with every down stroke. Her breasts pillowed her back, lips gentle on her neck, and those hips pressed hard against her ass. Sandwiched between them, Jasmine almost lost herself in the moment. Until he broke away.

Stroking her cheek, his hooded eyes looked into hers. “On your knees.”

Getaway, she reminded herself. Don’t get carried away.

The shield on his shirt caught the sun, blinding her. Squeezing her eyes shut, her hands drifted to his shirt collar. Beginning at the top, she unbuttoned all the way down and flung the tails to the sides to reveal his undershirt.

Pouting, she tugged the shirt from his pants and shoved his boxers down, his pants falling in the process.

She sank to her knees, taking over the stroking of his pecker as Randy reached out to him. Jasmine watched them kiss as she took his cock in her mouth. She sucked like their lives depended on it, until he broke the kiss with a tweak of her lover’s nipples.

“Join your little girlfriend at my dick,” he muttered, kneading her heavy breasts. “Before I change my mind and demand to fuck that tight lesbian pussy.”

Anger coursed through Jasmine’s veins and she pulled off his pecker until Randy met her gaze again and smiled. The girl shook her head slightly as if to tell her to calm down, then trailed her palms down the flat of his torso and joined Jasmine on the ground. Fondling his hanging balls, she dipped down and gave her nipples a quick suck.

Jasmine moaned and took his cock in her mouth again.

Her lover straightened up, licked down his shaft when her lips pulled back, and kissed her mouth when Jasmine pulled off for a breath.

“Never thought I’d run across any whore lesbians out here. But maybe you’re all whores, huh? Like my fucking ex.” The cop grunted, closing his eyes as both of their hands wrapped around his shaft. “Good, pretty little cocksuckers.”

Her lover’s eyes narrowed as she broke their kiss. Glanced at his face and back at her. Shook her head.

“He comes, we run,” she mouthed.

Jasmine nodded. “Together.”

They planted their lips on either side of his shaft, sucking and licking him and each other, their lips bumping as they ran their mouths up and down his slick shaft.

In preparation for their run, Jasmine eased his pants to his ankles from his knees as his moans continued.

Trip on that, motherfucker.

The only bad thing about it was that he stared down at them, more alert than he should be. Focused on Randy, but glancing back and forth from her to his collapsed belt.

The gun.

It was all Jasmine could handle not to laugh. Like they needed that gun. The time it would take to undo the extra safety and pull it out of the holster would be their undoing even if they wanted to. But it sure would be funny when he tripped on his pants trying to catch them. The weight of the weapon wouldn’t work in his favor.

She looked into Randy’s dark eyes, as if she could will a message to her.

We’ll make it.

There wasn’t a doubt in her mind.

His dick jumped.

Her lover’s eyes widened, and Jasmine knew her reaction was the same. They worked faster, up and down his pulsing organ, until she broke away, engulfing his peckerhead in her mouth. Randy worked his balls and base.

“Fuck!”

When the first shot of jizz hit her mouth, Jasmine swiped her clothes and ran. She spared one glance back, only to find Randy almost neck and neck with her as their pounding feet sprayed little rocks in their wake.

“What the fuck! Get--” A thud and a grunt blew out from the cop behind them.

Jasmine quickened her pace. “I’m driving!”

Her lover crossed to the passenger’s side and they jumped into the waiting car. The static voice of the radio jumbled over the speakers as the doors slammed and Jasmine shoved the car into reverse. Throwing her arm over the passenger seat and focusing out the rear window, she hit the gas.

Mayhem.

Her pulse raced, fingers quaking and her breaths coming too quick. Shallow. Sweat prickled her skin as the car fishtailed onto the empty highway. She cranked the sedan into drive and stomped on the pedal again.

Naked in their seats with wind lashing through the car, neither one of them spoke. The road seemed to go on forever, a day that would never end.

They were five miles into the desert when thoughts twisted in Jasmine’s mind. We’re gonna get caught. Nobody fucking steals a Goddamn cop car and gets away with it.

She looked into the rearview mirror at the blank road behind them.

“BOLO for a stolen police black and white highway patrol vehicle. Two women, blonde and short hair brunette. Armed and dangerous,” the radio spat.

Perfect.

“Shut the fuck up,” Randy muttered.

Jasmine glanced at her, then back at the road. Extending her arm over the little laptop in the center console, she felt around for her lover’s hand. Then threaded her fingers through hers.

A green road sign boasted the next town was one mile away.

No way they’re not waiting for us there.

The air conditioning blasted cold even as the open desert air stole it from the windows. Randy let go of her hand and from the corner of her eye, she saw her start pulling her clothes on.

Jasmine was still naked, molested by the urging of the earth. The pull of the world in the billowing wind. The unfairness of everything she’d ever seen or tasted. The knowledge that they could, in no way, make it out of this together.

But maybe one of them could.

She felt her brow furrow. Pain sliced her chest, as if it’d cut her heart in two. She glanced in the rearview mirror at the dusty brown desert. Still nothing behind them, no one chasing them.

Without a doubt, she knew that there would be someone soon, and that the brunette was running from a past more troubled than her own, whatever it may be. Caught, and she’d never see her again.

I’m someone. For her, I’m someone.

“Randy.” Jasmine wet her lips and began rocking in the seat. “I love you.”

The girl stilled beside her.

“You don’t have to say it. I know.” She stared at the upcoming city. “But you listen to me. When I tell you, I need you to get the fuck out of the car.”

***
Randy’s lips popped open. “No.”

This wasn’t happening. After everything they’d been through, after she’d finally met the one person she actually loved, there was no way it could end like this.

“Yes. Hide. Get to Vegas. Or Mexico. Do it for me.”

“No!”

Her pixie squeezed her hand and smiled, never letting her eyes off the road. “I’ll get out of it. I already have a fucking record as being crazy as hell. Might as well use it to my advantage. I’ll get in and out. You. You’re too... You can’t be locked up. It’d destroy you.”

Images of Jasmine in prisoner’s scrubs flashed through her mind. Then a worse image. Her in a straight jacket, that pale blonde hair just a shade darker. A deadened look in her eyes.

She tightened her grip on her hand. “It wouldn’t destroy you?”

“Losing you would destroy me. Thinking of you caged and helpless.” She shook her head and glanced at the rearview mirror. “That would destroy me. The rest ain’t nothing I’ve never done before. It’s just biding time before I get out.”

Randy’s palms began to sweat. The town’s buildings took shape in the distance. A faded road sign said they had five hundred feet.

No.

“I can’t ask you to do that.”

“You don’t have to.” The blonde cleared her throat. “And Randy, fuck your mom. I don’t care what she thinks. Neither do you.”

Her body froze, her breath catching in her throat. She knew. How? Last night? Did she talk in her sleep?

Two hundred fifty feet.

“I love you.” The pixie’s voice was quiet but firm. “But get out when I tell you.”

She looked back at her lover, the most vital person she’d ever known. Sunlight grazed her collarbones and that blonde hair flew in the wind, as wild as the girl it was attached to. “Jazz.”

“Say yes.” The girl finally glanced over at her, the edges of those beautiful green eyes framed in black smudges.

Adrenaline surged through her, the memory of this fragile, brave girl burning into her mind. Offering up her life to protect her, when she’d been preparing to be the protector instead. The pixie’s plan made perfect sense, though it went against every fiber of Randy’s marrow.

“Fine.” Her answer seemed like it came from far away, as if someone else possessed her to say it.

Jasmine looked back at the road. The car roared in acceleration.

They seemed to be within city limits in seconds, and immediately began to slow.

It wasn’t long enough. There was too much to discuss, too much left unsaid. Never had Randy left things so undone.

Her body fought the push of deceleration, and she knew her pixie was easing onto the brake. Like she was conscious of leaving tire tracks behind. Evidence. On top of everything else she was, the girl was perceptive. It was both endearing and depressing.

When the first road crossed the highway, they hooked a right. Randy hooked her hand over the top of the window, clamping onto warm metal roof for balance until she jerked forward as they slowed to a stop.

“Go.”

Randy fumbled with the door handle before kicking it open. She stepped out, her hand lingering at the corner of the door as she looked at the one person she trusted and loved and wished she could freeze time. The only thing she wanted was to escape with her lover, to run off to where the world would pass them by.

“Jasmine. I... love you too.”

“I know.”

“I’ll find you.” She blinked back the tears swelling in her eyes. “Later. I will find you.”

Her pixie girl finally looked at her, staring at her like she was memorizing her features too. “You fucking better. Now get the fuck away.”

Randy stepped off, letting the door click half shut. The car sped off, Jasmine’s blonde hair whipping over the seat rest. The taillights flared, the discs in the flashers at the top of the car reflecting the sunlight as it careened back into the desert.

Her chest hitched and the wet streaks on her face felt cold in the morning air. “You don’t have to do this.”

But they were useless words. Of course she had to. They couldn’t go on like this. Jazz, well, she had to do what it was that Jazz felt she had to. She was a force of nature. Irresistible. It’s what had pulled her to the girl behind the bar, when by all rights she should have quietly passed through.

She thought about the night before, waking sometime after she’d had the blanket, and seeing Jasmine walk to the corner of the tailgate. She’d stood, dark against the star strewn sky and held her arms out as if she were accepting the world.

Randy had watched her poised there, her chest rising and falling as she breathed in the peace of the night sky until she had drifted off to sleep again. Later, she’d cradled her in her arms until sleep claimed them both, a dream she’d never allowed herself to feel.

“This one time maybe you were right after all.”

Ignoring Mama, she watched dust rise in the two tails that blew away across the desert behind her dream as it drove away. Blinded by tears, she turned, shoving her hands deep in her pockets. Her boots struck the pavement, slapping the ground with that familiar click. Each heartbreaking step took her farther and farther away when her whole being cried out for her to turn around, find her pixie, and convince her that they could make it out together.

It didn’t matter where she went now. It was never going to be the same.

Teardrops fell from her chin to splatter on her dusty toes. On she walked, replaying the events over in her head like some movie reel stuck on repeat.

Her eyes went dry after a while and she kept ever chasing the horizon, unsure where she was going or what she was doing. She knew simply that she had to get away, to find a retreat where she could go to ground. A place where she could make a home for Jazz to come to. Somewhere the world hadn’t touched, where they could be together again.

The rattle of a car behind her grew louder, drowning out her thoughts. A tan outback station wagon rolled to a stop beside her, hissing and sputtering. She glanced over at a thin woman with graying hair that gestured to her as she rolled down the passenger window.

Randy stopped and slowly walked up to the rainbow and bumper sticker covered door.

“Hun-ey.” The drawl on the hippie was as slow and mellow as winter molasses. “Ya need a ride somewhere?”

Randy shook her head and stepped back from the car, resuming her walk.

“If ya don’ mind me sayin’, ya look real bad. Maybe ya should jus’ ride for a spell. I’ll stop an’ let ya out when ya want.” A pause as Randy kept walking away. “Look, I’ll take you where ya need ta go. Ya don’ need ta tell me nothin’.”

The lady had a point. If she kept walking like this she would never find a place where she could bring Jazz. She had to get a ride with someone.

She stopped and walked back to the parked car. The grey haired lady leaned over and opened the door. Paper napkins tumbled out and the cool conditioned air hit Randy as she bent to pick them up.

“Where are you going?” It didn’t really matter, as long as it was away from here and she didn’t talk too much.

“Montana. I got a cabin in the woods.”

“Sounds good.” Randy pulled the door shut, closing out the Texas heat.

Suddenly, things began to fall into place in her head. The future. Her and Jasmine, and getting her out of jail. She needed money. They needed money.

She glanced at the old lady next to her. “How about Vegas instead?”

Smiling, the woman looked her up and down, then pulled the shifter into drive. “Don’ mind if I do.”