Grand Theft Autumn

the let down

I waited until my parents went to sleep  and took all the money I had made from stealing out of the shoebox in my closet.I didn't even think twice about going downstairs and stealing one of their two sets of car keys off the hook in the kitchen. All I could think of was seeing Pete as I backed out of the drive way and made my way out of my neighborhood. This should be simple, it's only about a five hour drive and the problem was not that I couldn't drive, it was just that I didn't have a license.

As I hit the interstate I began to get nervous. I now had to go around seventy miles an hour on a long stretch of road surrounded by other fast moving cars, at night. I was panicking pretty bad so I decided to turn on the radio which seemed to help quite a bit.

I thought to myself by the time my parents found out their car was gone, I'd already be in Illinois with Pete. However, there were complications that could happen. I could get pulled over and from there my plan would go to hell in so many directions.

I concentrated on driving for the next few hours. It felt like forever to reach Indiana state line, but once I did I felt like I was almost home free and it would only be about two more hours of driving left. I was actually surprised with myself that I had made it this far.

But the real thrill for me was when I hit downtown Chicago. I was worried about getting lost finding my way to Willamette, but once here I knew exactly how to get there. I was almost home.

As the sun was just beginning to sprout up and make the edge of the summer sky glow orange, I was pulling into the Wentz's neighborhood. I could not believe I had made it all the way here. I began to see the house come into view with almost tears of relief in my eyes. I parked the car in front of the house and jumped out. I went around to the side of the house and looked up at Pete's bedroom window. I didn't want to wake anyone else up but him by knocking on the door. I picked up a few small pebbles off the ground and tossed them at Pete's window. I did that for almost five minutes losing hope with every pebble I threw. I decided he wasn't going to wake up so I moved on to Hillary's window. It only took about a minute of trowing pebbles for her to open her window and poke her head out.

"A.J.?" She asked sleepily as she looked down at me. "I'll let you in." She said then closed the window. I went around to the front door and she pulled me inside and held a finger to her lips signaling me to be quiet. We didn't say a word until we got up to her room and closed the door.

"How did you get here?!" She asked surprised.

"I stole my parents car and drove here." I shrugged "where's Pete?" I asked.

"He's in jail." Hillary said bluntly making me lose all the hope I had built up.

"What? Why?" I asked.

"He was caught stealing again. He was trying to get money to get to you." Hillary said.

"That's what I did too." I said making Hillary shake her head.

"What is wrong with you two?" I figured her question was rhetorical so I didn't answer.

"We have to find someplace to hide you and the car you drove here with. Do you think your parents know your missing yet?" She asked.

"They don't wake up for another hour. Hide me, why?" I asked.

"This is the first place your parents will think you are." She said "you stole their car, why not drive all the way to Illinois too?"

"You're probably right." I agreed.

She picked up her cell phone off her nightstand and started dialing numbers and held it to her ear.

"Hey Patrick." She said into the phone. "You think you could do a huge me a huge favor? It's illegal. Please?" She begged to Patrick on the other end of the phone.