The Failure and the Runaway

Chapter Four

Alec quickly, and quietly, packed up some of his stuff. We threw our suitcases in the trunk of his car, and then we drove off. We had no idea what we were doing, or where we were going, but we did it anyways. It was scary, but it was sure as hell exciting too.

"So, where exactly are we going?" Alec asked as we drove out of his neighborhood.

"I have no idea." I shrugged. "But let's stop at the store first, I don't think either of us packed food, and I'm already starving. "

"When are you not starving?" Alec laughed.

"Never." I replied.

We stopped at a supermarket, where we bought enough chips to feed ten people, along with candy and cookies. Healthy, right?

We walked by the beer section, and I couldn't help but stop. Alec shot me an annoyed glance, but I ignored him, pulling out my fake ID.

Me and Alec had both gotten fake IDs months ago, not with any intention to run away, just for fun. But it's probably a pretty good thing we got them, they could come in handy. It's also pretty good that we got fake names on them. I was Avery King, and Alec was Mason Williams. My parents definitely would not be looking for me, but there was a chance that Alec's would look for him, and getting tracked down because we used an ID with our real names on them would suck.

"Carson." Alec sighed, rolling his eyes at me. "Is that really a good idea right now?"

I knew he was right. I knew there was a time and a place to do stupid, irresponsible things like that, and that moment was not one of them, but I didn't care. I could finally have fun without my parents lecturing me, and I wasn't going to let anything get in the way of that. Not even my probably right best friend.

But it wasn't all about having fun. I was hurting, and I was hurting pretty bad. My own parents didn't want me. I thought I felt rejected when my only real crush, Luke Foster, didn't like me back, but that was nothing compared to my parents telling me that I was a failure and they didn't want to deal with me anymore. Part of me was glad I finally had an excuse to leave, but a bigger part of me wanted to cry and drink until I couldn't feel a thing.

"Come on, Alec!" I said in a carefree way. I didn't want him to know how I actually felt. I never wanted anybody to know. Nobody ever really knew that there was more to me, that there was a deeper, more emotional side, to the reckless, carefree girl who loved to start trouble and party. Nobody knew that I was actually pretty miserable deep down.

"Carson, shouldn't we figure out what we're doing before we get drunk? I mean we have no plans at all..." Alec tried to reason with me, and he was right. He didn't seem angry or annoyed, he sounded pretty sympathetic, maybe he understood my intentions a little bit. 

"Alec! We're finally free, no more idiotic adults can , tell us what to do, let's have some fun!" I exclaimed, my voice full of both excitement and urgency.

"Fine." He gave in, smiling at me. "I guess we should have a little fun to celebrate..."

I knew Alec wanted to have fun, too, but he was trying to be as responsible as he could. We checked out, and just like always nobody questioned my fake ID. I didn't think I looked anywhere near 21, I was only 16, but I wasn't complaining. 

We put all our groceries in the back seat and continued on with our road trip. I was glad Alec had a fairly big car, I would hate being stuck in a tiny car for who knows how long.

"So, where are we gonna go?" I asked as we drove off.

"I don't know." Alec shrugged. "You're the one who wanted to run away."

"Actually, I was kinda forced to." I informed him. "But why don't we just drive around until we find somewhere we like?"

"Sounds good to me." Alec replied with a smile. 

And then we drove away, with no idea what our runaway adventure would bring, or where we'd end up. We didn't know, but that didn't mean we weren't ready.