A Thousand Ways To Run

W a r r e n

One minute I was leading Charlie down the hall to safety, the next she was gone; being lead away with a terrified look on her face that I couldn’t get out of my head. I couldn’t look away from the expression, either. I felt like running after her. The only person holding me back was a very pissed off woman with really cold hands. She wouldn’t have been able to keep me back, but I really didn’t think we had any chance at that moment.

Her cold hand was pulling on my shoulder, leading me to the opposite direction to where Charlie was going.

God, how could I have been so stupid?

I followed reluctantly, my thoughts wandering far behind me. I didn’t really care where I was going. I was dead, plain and simple. Mom and Dad already thought I was too rebellious for my own good. Taking me out of school, forcing their law school agendas on me. Charlie would be another addition to the list.

Stupid, stupid, stupid!

I didn’t know what I’d been thinking. The news station said there would be a meteor shower. I thought it would be fun. I’d take Charlie up there and watch the stars. We would have fun. I should have just told her what was going on instead of trying to act like Mr. Mysterious. Maybe she would have said something. Or, maybe if I hadn't distracted her so much, we wouldn’t have set off that damn alarm.

I wondered what my dad would say—what they would tell him. I still don’t understand how a President could be so clueless.

“Where the hell are we going?” I grumbled at her. I was being really rude, but then again, I didn’t really care.

“Don’t worry about it, Mr. Edley,” she calmly responded. Her voice sounded more snappier in my head than it probably was.

I wanted to shake her stupid grip on me off. I wanted to get everyone’s grips off me.

Why did people always refer to me as ‘Mr. Edley’? Treat me like an incompetent child on a leash and then try to fix it all by acting respectable. The idea was ridiculous to me. Everything about those so called adults was ridiculous. They were just like Charlie and I not that long ago; what was so hard to understand? Why was it so damn hard to think that maybe we were not just being stupid? As creepy as it was to think about, my dad and my mom were my age when they met. They should have known what it feels like.

“But I am worried about it,” I snapped, halting our little journey by refusing to move.

She froze and looked at me, shocked at my change in behaviour. I had been so compliant before. I was done with it.

“Warren, my name is Agent Penelope Morgan. I’m just trying to do my job. You need to come with me.” She beckoned me on, no longer pushing with those cold hands. I didn’t move an inch.

“You’re going to tell them, aren’t you?” I spit.

Something like sympathy filled her face. “We have to.”

“I don’t want to be there when you do.”

She nodded and started to lead me down the hallway again, and this time I went. “We can arrange something.”

Good. The last thing I wanted was to see their disappointed faces, their judgemental scowls. Because it didn’t really matter what everyone thought. I told myself I’d never regret what I did, and I still don’t.Breaking the rules had never felt so right.

I stayed in a room that I recognized as one of the tornado shelters, staying quiet as I waited. I spent a fair share of time staring at the grey speckled walls, blocking out the loud voices in the adjoined room. A few more people in black suits lead my parents in minutes after me. Both their gazes latched onto me immediately, playing the concerned parent act until the very end. My mom’s arms were already stretched out to envelop me in an awkward hug, giving me nose-fill of expensive perfume – the only kind she wore.