Letters to Angie

Part 7: The Beach

The hours had passed fast as they waited for the sun to rise. They drove around a little bit longer before deciding the best place to go, where they wouldn't be bothered by others, was the beach. Picking a spot far from the concessions and lifeguard stands, they set up a moderate campfire to relax by.

"Is someone going to notice if you don't come back tonight?" Henry asked.  

"Who would notice?" Tegan replied smartly, leaning her back against his shoulder to keep herself upright and awake. It barely worked.

"Your family." "Yeah, they might notice."

"And?"

"They won't do anything about it. Trust me." She yawned. "They're used to me breaking curfew. They'll wait for me to show up again and then chew me out. Nothing I haven't dealt with before."

He shrugged and returned to his letter, kept alit by the soft flicker of firelight. As always, it didn't matter about the conditions or the environment. He had nothing to write anyway.

"What about you?" she said. "Should I be expecting cops to be out and about tearing the city apart in search for you?"

"The only person who would notice is my dad. If anything, he'll assume I'm up in my room. If he actually checks and finds it empty, he'll just think I went to a friend's house or something."

She rumbled with laughter. "We could go missing and no one would look for us."

"They'd look for us. It'd just take them a while to notice that we're gone."

The fire snapped and crackled as she tossed in another log from the pile they'd bought at the store. No one batted an eye when two minors came up to the cash register with lighter fluid, firewood, and a pack of lighters. They'd only asked if it would be cash or credit.

They could burn down an entire forest, and the only person to stop them would be a fictional bear wearing a ranger's hat.

"Do you ever think about it?" Tegan asked. "Running away, I mean."

"Who doesn't? As a kid, I used to do it all the time. I'd pack a bag of canned goods and books and clothes, and then I'd run away to the end of the block and camp out there for a few hours until my mom finally found me. She was always so pissed, but like, the scared kind of pissed, not the angry kind. The one that makes you feel loved and wanted."

"No, I mean, actually running away. Just dropping out of school and heading for the hills or something?"

Henry let his head fall back against her, gazed up at the star-filled sky, searching for something he couldn't quite determine.

"I don't think I'd do it. We've got less than a year left until we graduate, and I don't exactly have anywhere else to go."

"I guess." She sighed and extended her legs. "Are you making any progress on that thing?"

"You'd feel me moving if I were writing anything."

"I don't know. I thought you might be mapping it out in your head first." She shifted against him, pressing into his side. The air held a slight chill to it, kept at bay by the flames. "Henry, why did you come with me? Why'd you stick around all day?"

"Well, you were my ride," he said lightly. "I didn't really feel like walking."

"Yeah, no—yeah. But you could've ditched after that thing at my house, or you could've just stayed at school."

"I don't know. I didn't really have anything else going on," he said, holding his breath as he waited for her to respond.

"And that's the only reason?"