CHAPTER FOURTEEN
When Eleanor and I were back at the campsite, Daren ran up to me, along with an officer. "Oh my God, dude! Are you okay?!" He asked without waiting for an answer to go on. "Everyone has been looking for you guys like crazy! Where the Hell did you guys go?! Why the Hell did you guys go?! WHAT THE HELL DID YOU GUYS DO?!"
"The car is gone-" and just then, I saw that a cop car was escorting Julia to the campsite as he drove. "Never mind, I see that that's fixed up. I'm happy you and Nick get that taken care of."
"Yeah, but we nearly forgot about it because of this issue." He retaliated. "What happened anyways?"
"That is the question I would like to know," the officer finally spoke now. He had been informing the others that the two runaways had been found and were fine through a walkie talkie or something like that.
I looked at Eleanor and she looked at me and then we both kinda sighed before I said, "We're teenagers and overdramatize a lot of stuff, especially when it comes to curfew during summer break." And I was staring at this guy as he stared at me in disbelief. And I was wondering why he didn't understand what it was like to be a teenager anymore; what happened for him to forget. I understood his point of view and I wasn't even an adult yet. I understood that he thought we were kinda crazy and stupid and should have thought and a lot of other responsible thoughts that went through grown ups heads when they looked at teenagers that did something that just didn't make any sense to them, but why was it he didn't understand?
Why didn't he understand that we were scared? Everyone thought that teenagers always think they know everything, but it isn't that. Yeah, maybe some of us trick ourselves into believing it. But we didn't. And we never would; not even as adults. We were scared out of our minds of everything, but it didn't stop us. Reason didn't stop us because soon our lives would go on and we would think back to that one time that moment happened and wonder what the Hell was going through our heads when we did that, but somehow have some sort of understanding when our children did the same thing and we would die off and our children would wonder what they were thinking and look at their kids and somewhat understand them too, and so on.
The thing is:
We all grow up eventually. We all shut people out as young adults because we have no idea what another adolescent is thinking. We all suddenly fall in love with someone and then suddenly fall out of love with someone. We all run away at one point in some shape or form. But we aren't grown up right now; and that is all that matters to us.
***
It was actually pretty depressing saying goodbye to everyone. It was like first meeting them and knowing them for a lifetime all at the same time. It was like we were somehow different now. We looked the same and we spoke the same, but we weren't the same. It was odd and, yet, completely normal. Of course, the road trip back was going to be a lot different all in all, though. Especially since all of a sudden feelings were now out in the open at the automatic realization that this was the end of our road trip to nowhere.
"Alright, now we'll be escorting you back to Rancho Cordova to make sure you get back safely-" he went on, but I knew it was all bullshit - the reasoning he was giving, I mean. We were being escorted because they wanted to make sure we didn't just run away again. We weren't going to; we didn't even run away this time. We just got away for a little while. For some air. But then we realized that the air nowhere was still the same as the air somewhere, and it was such a revelation that we thought there was a difference.
"Anna!" We all turned in surprise as Malik said her name. She looked see through she was so white. And then he walked up to her and he was chewing on his lip so hard I though it would bleed. But it didn't bleed, or at least I didn't see any blood, because he uncapped a pen with his teeth and she looked a little cautious as to what his next action would be, considering the first one was so "I don't have anything to write on, but-" he had a pen in hand and gestured for her hand and she looked skeptical, but held out her arm and he wrote something down on her skin. She looked rather shocked and then he smiled at her sheepishly. "I guess I should have made it more obvious, but it's better late than never." Suddenly a smile crept onto Anna's face as well and he hugged her before saying, "Call me, yeah?"
"But I thought you and Kris-" she glanced at Kris before she rolled her eyes with a smile and she looked back at Malik, a little flushed. "Oh." She then said, realizing. And it dawned on me that Kris had been trying to tell Anna that Malik liked her and I realized what Anna had been telling me only a couple of days ago. "Okay, maybe I will." She said. "But I don't know because we don't really know each other and you live so many hours away and-"
"Actually, I live in Sacramento. Well, temporarily, at least" she furrowed her brows and he elaborated with, "I'm about to be freshman at Sac State." She suddenly smiled embarrassed like and he smiled at her. "I hope your parents don't kill me since I'm older."
She started to laugh, "Are you kidding? They'd kill you even if you were younger. You're a guy." And they both laughed gently. "But, I mean, I'm already dead anyways. I went on a voyage with my friends without telling them. I'm turning eighteen in February, so...." She trailed off and he smiled wider.
"Alright, if that's all, we should be on our way now," another officer said. We all nodded and gave our last farewells before finally leaving out Cecret Kingdom. And I looked at Eleanor as I sat in the driver's seat and she took place as the passenger.
She looked out the back window, through our friends' heads, and gave one last wave goodbye. When she turned back, she looked at me and gave a small smile, which I returned back. And as I switched the radio on, static filled our silence at the moment, but it was okay because we were tired and it felt like static was possibly needed with all of our thoughts read together at the same time in this one car. I was ready for this trip back to be exceptionally different, yet completely the same. And Daren fulfilled this with the first words that came from his lips. "Believe it or not, Will here promised me double In 'N Out on our way back home. And this time, I am determined for this to happen."
***
When the radio was finally working, we all were very happy to hear our song come on and automatically started to sing along as loudly as possible until Daren became the background singer, who echoed what was said at certain points, and Eleanor became the air guitarist. We laughed and smiled as the next song began and I felt that invincibleness I had before. And this time I knew, for sure, it was completely true, regardless of what were to happen once we got home. I was invincible right now, with all of my friends singing along with me in this car.
And then we were quiet as the next song played and we all looked at each other as the chorus rang through our ears simultaneously before it went into the second verse.
Long live the pioneers / Rebels and mutineers / go forth and have no fear / come close and lend an ear / and I say hey / hey hey hey / living like we're renegades / hey hey hey / hey hey hey / living like we're renegades
YOU ARE READING
Graveyard Shift
Roman pour Adolescents"She acts like nothing can touch her; like the sky's the limit; she's able to touch the stars." He shrugged, "Maybe to her they are; maybe to her it's a possibility, man." I shook my head, "If that were true, why does she snap?" He thought for a mom...
