The Districts

CHAPTER 7

Once Kenny leaves the apartment after some time, Craig finally exits his room and takes a shower, needing to clean after the whole prior ordeal. When he's finished, he gets something to eat and walks over to the couch to watch some T.V. When he spots that it's getting close to Kenny's return time, he heads to his room. He still didn't want to see him again after that morning. Feeling somewhat mad and embarrassed about it all. He hears Kenny come home a short while later and expects him to go about his usual routine, to get ready for the night, but hears a knock at the door instead. He hesitates, not knowing if he should reply to it or not. When it knocks again, he decides to.

"What?" he monotones.

"Uh, hey Craig, I uh, wanted to know if you wanted to come out with me for a walk for a while? I uh, kind of want to talk to you about some things," Kenny says. When Craig doesn't reply, he adds on, "It's sort of important."

This catches Craig's interest and he finally replies.

"I'll be ready in ten."

"Kay," Kenny says.

Silence falls again as he goes to get ready. He meets Kenny out in the living room after he's done, with a somewhat annoyed expression. And despite still being peeved at Kenny, Craig still chose to wear the parka.

"You ready?" Kenny asks.

"Yeah," Craig says and heads down the hall.

Kenny follows and the two exit the apartment and make their way down the hall and eventually outside.

It's quiet for most of the walk, which Craig finds as a bit odd as Kenny was the one who asked for him to come along.

"So what did you want to talk with me about?" Craig finally decides to ask, wanting to know what's going on.

"It's about getting you back home..." Kenny replies and pauses. "We think we may have found a way to get you across."

"Wait, what?" Craig asks and stops walking.

"My team noticed something a while back, so I went in to take a look at it. There seems to be a blind spot in the border, a spot that barely gets patrolled and is away from cameras. So me and the team have been working out a plan in order to get you across," Kenny explains, "It's what I've been working on for the past some nights."

Craig's eyes widen and his earlier annoyance fades and turns into something else.

"Oh," is all he responds with.

"Yeah, so uh, whenever you're ready, we can set things in motion," Kenny tells him.

"Sounds, great," Craig says.

He should be happy right? So why wasn't he? He wanted to go home, he'd been wanting to for a long while now, so why wasn't he more happy or excited about it?

"If you want, we can get things going tomorrow for you," Kenny suggests.

"Oh, yeah, sure, sounds... terrific," Craig says, feeling distant.

"Okay, then I'll let them know," Kenny nods.

Craig tries to smile at the news, but he finds he can't. What was wrong with him? If he went home, he could go back to how his life used to be. So why...

"Did you want to go get something to eat?" Kenny asks, changing the topic. "It's on me." he winks.

"It's always on you," Craig deadpans.

"That's true," Kenny snorts.

"Sure," Craig says, after a few seconds and the two head on their way.

They come across a festival sometime later, spanning down the whole length of the street.