Runaway

This Is Now

Three years passed since that summer with Charlie.

A lot of things had changed. I had finished my junior year of college, and that was okay. I was living in a house with four bedrooms I split with six, sometimes even seven, other people, and the most I had to complain about was how we needed more than two bathrooms with four girls crammed into the same place, and one boy that spent way too damn long on his hair. The house wasn’t great—it was a little old and rickety and a little small, but we were just a bunch of college kids and could barely afford real estate in such a nice historical city like Saint Augustine anyway. I had a small room, but still plenty big enough for just me, and I usually was alone, but my ex-boyfriend used to stay here a lot—now he had moved down the hall, some of the time. I had three roommates in college and they had all moved in here as well, one of them bringing her boyfriend, the other two guys that we couldn’t shake off, and then my ex-boyfriend, the other.

We were all friends, even me and my ex, and I didn’t mind that he lived here. I minded how loud it got when there was a football game on television, especially with how divided the guys were, but otherwise it was a great life, and I was okay with it all.

It was mid-August, and school was coming up soon. I had just gotten home from a week home with my family, and it was crazy to see how much my brothers were growing. I wanted them to stop growing, to stay little forever, but that wasn’t the way things worked and they got all pouty when I suggested it be that way. My dad thought it was hilarious and brought it up every chance he got, to the point I stopped asking.

I was content. I wasn’t happy, and I wasn’t sad.

That night, I was sitting Indian style on top of my bed with a book in my hand, one that I had been neglecting for a long time thanks to a busy schedule. I needed to go job hunting but I was too lazy, so I was sitting here instead, suddenly not worrying about anything.

There was a roar from the living room. Touchdown.

I still wanted to punch Lizzie so hard for getting the boys a collection of Super Bowl DVDs for Christmas. I don’t know how they could possibly watch the same game again and again without realizing exactly what was going to happen.

Unable to get a moment of peace in this house, I got a knock on my bedroom door only a moment before Allie poked her head in, smiling.

“Do you want to go down into the city with Jay, Lizzie, and me?” she asked me happily, always so kind. “Lizzie said she would appreciate someone helping her not be the awkward third wheel.”

“I intend to sleep for a week,” I told her.

She laughed. “Fair enough. Have a nice night with Mr. Riordan!”

“Don’t judge me!” I yelled at her back as she closed the door behind her, laughing her way down the hallway and down the stairs. I rolled my eyes and cracked my book open again, taking a deep breath.

And the phone rang.

“Damn,” I sighed, leaning across the bed to grab it off of my bedside table, not looking away from the page as I pressed the button on the touch screen to answer and let out a chipper, “What’s up?”

And that’s when I realized.

He called me at my favorite time at night—ten ten, a double dose of my lucky number. From the moment I picked up, I could tell something was finally right. All he told me was to pack my bags. We were skipping this town.

“Charlie?” I whispered.

But he had already hung up.

It had been three years, three long years, and I hadn’t heard a word from him. He didn’t know much about me anymore and I didn’t know if he was the same person. He must still be spontaneous, or at least a little nostalgic, but things were different now. We were adults, and there might be a mess after we leave things behind.

I bit my lip, remembering it was best not to think at all.

So I did what I always did when it came to Charlie.

I dove right in.

~*~

Twenty minutes later, Charlie pulled up.

I had given the address to KC two years ago, thinking nothing of it. I didn’t know how long we could possibly last in this house, but it had been much longer than I thought we would, and here he was. It was the same car, the same SUV, but now it looked slightly more battered; it had seen much more, and it had the scars to prove it. I could relate to that.

I dropped my backpack down to my feet and watched as Charlie got out of the front seat, walking around the hood of the car to me slowly, a small smile playing at his lips.

We stood about a foot apart, not saying anything at first. Just looking at each other and thinking about how different we looked, how much we had grown and matured over the last three years.

Charlie’s eyes looked like stars in the night sky when he smiled, and I knew he had done it. He was on medication. Charlie was getting better if he wasn’t better already. He was just a little bit taller and his hair needed to be cut but he was Charlie and he was standing in front of me, looking down at the bag I had packed without another question and trying not to show me how much he was smiling.

“I missed you,” he murmured, and I closed my eyes.

“Yeah,” I whispered. “I missed you too.”

I opened my eyes and he was still there. Standing in front of me with starlight eyes. Grinning the way I loved. It was like the last three years hadn’t happened, and we were still together, and we were still teenagers without a worry in the world.

“We’re going to be runaways, Bumble Bee,” he whispered.

And so, we ran.

This time, I knew it would be different. It was simple to see that, this time, we weren’t running away from anything.

We were running toward something.

Running toward what? I didn’t know. I didn’t have to. All I knew was that there were seven people in the house behind me and my brothers and my dad were so far away and that I had two weeks. If anyone knew what could happen in two weeks, it was me and Charlie.

He held out his hand for me, and I took it.

We would come back the same way we always did. But, for now, it was just the two of us, the road, and an open sky.

It was perfect.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wow. It’s over.

I know not many of you read this story, but I want to thank you all for reading it despite its unpopularity. I really have a soft spot for this and I hope everyone enjoyed this story as much I enjoyed writing it!

I’m going to be posting a new story today, so yay! It’s not going to be my priority but I like it so far.

Thank you all for everything.

x Riley