Hide and seek

CHAPTER ONE

"Stood on my chest and
kept me down,
Hated hearing my name
on the lips of a crowd"

RYAN

The crisp air chips at my confidence slowly. The silence is worse than the sounds of sirens and mumbled words from people passing by. The fall has come, the nights still empty and humid. Everything remains the same as it was previous nights. It's as though my hometown is a ghost town from 11:59pm onward, like the world has fallen dead at my feet.

The minutes tick by as my feet hit the ground and the cold air tickles my bare arms. Until the world reawakens. At the small garage of an abandoned-looking house where the boys sit, Caitlin remains as late as always.

"Ry!" Rhys alerts the rest of the boys, his shout is the first voice I've heard all day. In his hands is a cardboard coffee cup.

"Coffee?" I ask with raised brows before pulling the cup out of his hands and taking a large gulp and pouring the rest into the already-dead grass

"Ryan!" he protests

"You have enough energy in you, on the flip side: I don't" I laugh and hug him tightly before Greyson rolls his eyes and pretends to comfort Rhys.

In the corner is Noah, who has what look to be airpods in his ears, the faint sound escapes.He looks in my direction and the music that had escaped his ears come to a halt.

"Trying to make your ears bleed?" I question

"I tried that weeks ago, you should know that." He shoots back

The rest of the night is quieter. Rhys is bouncing off the walls after the small amount of coffee hits him. Greyson flashes me nervous looks and Noah shouts enough cuss words at Rhys to get him to stop, and he does, which is a first for him.

Caitlin shows up afterwards. Her arms adorned with small bracelets, a faint scar and a purple bruise. Her smirks and sarcastic comments keep us laughing until her mind wanders away from us, we let her be.

Greyson flashes me another worried look, he can read people so easily it's seriously scary. My lip starts to dully ache as I pull my teeth from it and the skin below is near drawing blood. It's a horrible and habit I developed to keep my mouth shut from witty comebacks, which only dug me deeper.

Noah has a lighter in hand as he flicks it until a small flame dances. Pushing it towards a cigarette, his personal bad habit, he watched me curiously before lighting another cigarette and gesturing me to come. I pull it from his loose grasp and take it to my lips.

Rhys is watching the stars now, he says they envelope him. His curiosity will be the death of him, that is for certain.

Greyson starts biting Noah's head off at this point.

"She's seventeen!" he practically shouts

This is the usual, it will never stop Noah, nor me from lighting another cigarette. Noah laughs and smirks at me in response. Greyson turns to me as I place a hand on his arm.

"Don't be such a mother." I drawl

"Only for you, asshole." He rolls his eyes- one thing he will never grow out of. He's been rolling his eyes since I was six, it will never end- those hazel eyes turning playfully.

Caitlin is the first to disappear, her attention is always diverted to sleeping; and fair enough- 'it's two in the damn morning' my brother would've said, if only he was still here.

Rhys is next, running home after a short call from his father. The running, he claims, will burn through some of his energy.

Greyson is next to speak "Ryan you should head home, you look like you need the sleep"

"Ah but you see, I don't want to go home yet"

Greyson furrows his brow before Noah pipes up from behind us.

"I second that" he laughs as he focuses on Greyson before turning to me "I'll walk with you.".

At that I slap him before he grabs my arm and begins the long walk to drag me home. The crisp air pushes against us as we turn into smaller neighbour hoods until he drops my arm and I rub at the tender skin.

The door to my house is shut tightly. Noah has already flocked into the shadows of the night, where he will spend his night smoking and doing god-knows-what until morning arrives.

I walk into the already unlocked front door, only to be met with the scariest man I know, my step father, Matt. His bloodshot eyes scan over me. He's easily the largest man I know, his hands and height only prove it.

He stares at me before his voices cuts through the air like blades.

"Get to your room now. You will be punished for this"

When I reach my room I stash my phone under a floorboard in the case I get myself into a dangerous situation; more dangerous than the last ones.

I hear heavy footsteps in the hall and freeze as my blood runs cold. It feels like my heart comes to a halt and my eyes squeeze shut when the door is yanked open.

Large hands grab my hair and shove me to the ground like I am some rag doll. His bloodshot eyes meet mine as I try to stand. My feet suddenly shakier than before as if I cannot walk.

His large hands meet my skin and I fall again and again. Until my eyes burn with hurt and frustration, my brother had told me how to fight back- but I was already panicked enough.

And that was the night something in me broke. The final straw.

I opened the group chat between Greyson, Caitlin, Noah and Rhys.

"Let's run away"

Opinionated question: which character is your favourite so far?
Imagination question: which colour eyes should each character have?
Foresight question: Any ships so far?

(word count-10ll)