Jailbird

Chapter 1

"Guys, I don't feel good about this. If my dad finds out he'll kill me," I whine to my friends as we climb the border hill.

Maggie rolls her amber eyes, "Roxie, it was your idea to find out what was over the hill. Stop being such a sissy." She walks ahead of us.

Leo grabs hold of my hand and pulls me up further. His strong hand grips mine so tightly. Just the feeling of his hand makes me feel sick. A few weeks ago, I was looking through some papers in my dad's office. I should't have been looking at them. I saw that my partner is Leo. I didn't tell him, but just the thought of being stuck with him the rest of my life makes me want to throw up. He is my best friend. I have known him most of my life. I can't marry him. I can't imagine him even being romantic. He is more of a brother. It feels like I have to marry my brother. My dad probably wouldn't have told me until my twentieth birthday in a month or whenever Leo's birthday is. Leo examines my face and his charming smirk fades to a frown.

He asks, suddenly concerned, "Roxie, what's wrong?"

"Oh, I am just a little nervous of what we will find," I assure him. I leave out the fact I am thinking about him. He looks behind us and shouts back to my puppy, "Marco! Come on boy!" Marco scurries up the green grass toward us tripping over his overly large ears. Leo lets go of my hand and picks Marco up. Marco is a 4 month old basset hound. Most of his body is caramel brown, but he has a stripe of white fur down his nose and across his belly. Leo kisses the back of his head behind his long floppy ear. I stare down at my feet as the dewy grass wets the light brown leather on my boots making it darker. I feel a warm and wet small tongue scrape across my cheek. I look up and over and see Leo holding Marco towards my face. I push his shoulder playfully.

I giggle, "Stop!"

"Women... Ugh," Leo whispers teasingly to Marco loud enough so I can hear as he pulls him away from my face. I scoff, trying to hide my laugh, and flick Leo's ear. He chuckles and puts his hand to his ear pretending it actually hurt.

Maggie grumbles, "Guys, will you stop being flirty and playful. It is getting..." She stops mid sentence and freezes at the top of the hill. She mumbles in pure awe, "Whoa!" We join her at the top of the hill and, like her, are surprised by what we see.

The land is all dried up. The ground is dry gray sand and sprinkled every so often is large pieces of concrete and metal. What is this place and why does it look so different from our city? Almost in sync, we turn around. I gasp and my hand covers my mouth. Our perfect city that was surrounded by large gorgeous "hills" is only a hole in the ground. It is still beautiful and green, but the area around the hole is all of this dry land. The dry land is so large that we can't see where it ends. It feels never ending. Our town looks so small, even though when you are down there it feels very large. I feel so small and powerless. I grab Leo's arm and bury my head in his shoulder. I don't know why, but I always look to Leo for comfort. He is very good at making me feel better.

I mumble, "Leo, I don't like this. I want to go home." He wraps his free arm, not holding Marco, around me. I look up at him. His jaw is wide open. His green eyes wide. He looks more terrified than he does surprised, but I guess I feel the same. Our whole lives we were told we were contained in our city by hills, not that we were a hole in the ground. I told my father of my ideas of drilling through the barrier and expanding the city, but I feel stupid now. How could we? It would be impossible. He would just say, "We are fine the way we are." He didn't really lie, but he didn't tell the truth. I feel betrayed.

Leo shakes his head slightly like he is waking up from a trance, "Let's go. I don't like this either." We start to walk back down the grassy "hill" towards town. I look back and see Maggie still standing there. Her face looks just as surprised, as me and Leo.