Runaway

VI. Break the Rules

It took me until the Ohio border to be sure, but sometimes Charlie was so predictable. I shot him a firm, accusing look but he never took me seriously, just rolled his eyes. He turned to look back in order to change lanes and, just for a moment, when he didn’t think that I could see his face, he looked a little annoyed.

“Don’t give me that,” he chastised me with an amused voice but now the guilt was sinking in. “You didn’t expect that we would be able to crawl all over the east coast but not make at least one pit stop, did you?”

I still wasn’t that pleased.

He poked me on the cheek. “He’s my best friend, Bee.”

“And a total ass,” I shot back.

Charlie smirked, not denying it. “I’ve only seen him once since he moved away and we’re pretty much already there.”

“You tricked me.”

“I misled you,” he carefully corrected me.

Inevitably, I conceded, flopping against the back of the seat, crossing my arms over my chest stubbornly. “It’s not too late to turn back,” I mumbled sourly, staring harshly at the pastures as we passed them, yearning for civilization. Charlie was still chuckling over my previous statement.

“Nope!” he cried, grinning widely. “Onward to Michigan!”

I pouted, and we went onward.

~*~

Since the day that I first met him, and maybe even before then, Charlie’s best friend and I haven’t been able to get along. I think he hated me because he either thought I wasn’t good enough for his friend or he didn’t trust my intentions, and no matter which was the case, I returned it with equal contempt and distaste simply in retaliation. It had begun since before Charlie and I had our first kiss and it hadn’t changed even a little bit since then.

Charlie met him when they were in middle school—two kids with no friends around from elementary school to keep them company—and they became insufferable. Where one was, so was the other, and that was just what would soon become a statement of fact.

KC had moved to Florida the summer before middle school because of his father’s job high up in the ranks of a business that manufactured auto parts. A new factory had opened in the area so they had to pack up and leave the town they were connected to with an umbilical cord to settle in the south. From what I had gathered, even though the family of seven seemed to enjoy the year-round beach and sun, their home was still in Allegan, Michigan, and they never forgot that. The moment the factory had been deemed in good enough shape to survive, about one year ago, KC’s family was back in Michigan by the end of the week.

The only reason I hadn’t thrown a party celebrating KC’s desertion from town was because Charlie had been so devastated to see them leave. He stayed at my house all day for about a week and only left at night because no authority in my family would allow a boy to actually spend the night in my house. But he needed something to do during the day. He didn’t want to be alone.

It was for those reasons only that I barely put up a fight as we crossed the Michigan border and followed signs in the direction of Grand Rapids; I did it to watch Charlie’s smile grow the less miles left to the town, to watch his eyes light up the way they did when he was so happy. That was one of the biggest things I had learned about this relationship with Charlie: I would sacrifice if it made him happy. I would give something up in order to make him smile and if it was patience because I hated KC and the feeling was mutual, then that was that.

Charlie had visited before, so he knew exactly where to go.

The town was a small town, the boonies; nothing outrageously special. They had a little town center as the heartbeat but all of the limbs branched out into a dull and desolate countryside of green and brown and lopsided houses every half a mile. Where KC lived, there was a forest spread out behind it, pretty large in size as it disappeared into the distance. His house sat a ways away from the road and it was painted a grayish blue like a sky threatened with rain. It was built with boards and stood lasting and sturdy among the weeds at the same moment as potentially falling to pieces. The yard was big and they had to own a couple dozen acres with all of the green around. Charlie pulled into the dirt drive, past the No Trespassing sign, grinning like a kid on Christmas morning.