Runaways

Chapter 7

Oliver

"You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough" - Mae West

It's only about 12 minutes until either Mary or Allie comes and gets me. I put down the T.V remote and turned off the screen.  I stared blankly out into the night sky from my cracked window, the damage has been there ever since my dad tried to fling a beer bottle at my face. Of course it missed and hit the window.

My parents usually never paid much attention to me in the past, but recently they have been on the extreme; drinking, fighting about who gets more money, hitting and punishing me if I did something wrong, and other ridiculous little complications. Even if I did get good grades for an entire semester I'd probably still get beat up by a leather belt if I was suspected of procrastination. 

My friends always thought of me as the one who specializes in technology. I fixed cars, motorcycles, laptops, etc. I usually only stay home when my mom forces and yells at me to do chores around the house, I have to mop every corner and crevice in the house while behind me my mom monitors me like a hawk with military binoculars. If I miss even one tile of granite I would be beaten with a steel ruler--quite an improvement from the leather belt. I'd then have to do an even more meaningless activity called "sorting out the trash." I'd have to dump the crap from our trashcan onto the garage floor and sort out the bottles and cans out of the junk from last night. (my parents drink A LOT of beer) 

It was time. I got up, grabbed my backpack and opened it up. The contents inside were the survival necessities that every person needed: food, a few ten dollar bills with some excess coins, a couple of lock picks, an extra pair of clothes, my toolkit, an old .45 revolver I named Catherine, a small knife, and picture of me when I was 5 with my mom and dad at a Disney park. I held back the tears that attempted to inundate my eyes.

I closed up my backpack and got ready to go outside. I quietly snaked my way out into the living room where it reeked of alcohol. "Ugh" I coughed, but I regained focus and found my way out of the living room, through the front door and onto the dry grass that shrouded my entire front yard. I stood there, hands on my knees, still feeling partly-paralyzed by the horrors of the smell in the living room, "I'll never get used to that" I groaned. 

 As my conscience recovered, I spotted a silhouette that started to form on the sidewalk. God, I hope it wasn't the police. Last year I got caught trying to steal an AC unit from one of my neighbors during the night, which caused the local police to do a checkup everyday and every night in my neighborhood. I then breathed a sigh of relief to find out that it was Mary. She pranced along the sidewalk and up to me. She tells me it's time to get up and initiate the plan. "I guess it's time to leave all my life behind" I replied.

Mary signals me to cut my palms. I took out the small but sharp knife from my backpack. I was not one that self-inflicts but I carefully slided the blade across my palm while I clamped my teeth. "God Oliver stop being such a wimp" intercepted Mary. I glowered "Shut up, I don't cut myself for pleasure." Mary gave me a look that told me to back off. We then continued with our escape. I knew that after what I just did, I would probably never come back to this place again.

We both strolled along the street, I thought Mary was paranoid until I realized my hands were shaking and sweating. We heard a few distant footsteps and we both tumbled behind a car. Mary snickered, got up and punched the window. Correspondingly, the car alarm went off and the noise echoed and blared through the neighborhood. Mary started to freak out but I was relaxed. I stood up, opened the car door, felt my way under the steering wheel and pulled out the wires that connected the alarm mechanism to the window. I turned and smirked at Mary who was still breathing hard from the car alarm.

I went in first as the driver, Mary got into the passenger seat right next to me. She eyed some money on the cup holder, she grabs the dollar bills and I took some coins from the ash tray. I inaugurated the engine and positioned the gear shift correctly. I remembered learning how to drive a car at my uncles house.

He's the only adult relative that's nice to me and isn't abusive like my parents. I then drove through our neighborhood, took a few sharp turns, and finally made it to Eagle Park. Everyone rushes to get in the car. I asked if everyone was ready to go and they all nodded in agreement. I lock the doors and pressed the gas pedal. Our destination: downtown Orlando.