Runaways

Nathan

"Mother please come with me. He treats you horribly! You can't stay here!"

"My son," she says as she grabs my cheeks between the palms of her hands. "I can't go with you. If he finds both of us gone, he'll track us down and kill us."

"He'll kill you even if you do stay," I tell her.

She takes her hands off my face and smiles at me sadly. "You've grown up so much Nathan," she says as she stares at me.

"Mother," I try one last time. "Do you want to feel beautiful?"

She nods at me.

"Then come with me. We can go somewhere far away from this monster where he can't find us. You can even find another man," I reason.

"Nathan, leave me here. If you ever need someone to be there for you, just know I'm always here. You can come back to me whenever you want. I will always love you my son," she finishes off and kisses me on the forehead.

She looks at the clock and tells me to leave quickly because my excuse of a father is coming back home soon. I hug her one last time, tell her I love her, and then regretfully leave my house without the one person in my family who I actually care about. With a heavy backpack on my shoulders, I trudge onto the streets.

I think about how much I'm going to miss my mom and my best mate Kota. They've made my living hell of a life better. I remember all the good times we've had and I can't help the tears that brim in my eyes as I think about how much I'm going to miss them. I quickly wipe away my tears. I can't cry. My father's words remind me of that....

*Flashback

He slapped me one more time and I fell to the floor. My body was aching all over and I started to cry.

"Why are you crying kid! Only wimps cry! Stop being a disgrace to our family. This family is not for wimps. Know what!? You shouldn't even be in it considering you are one!"

Shuddering from the memories, I'm brought back to the present. Refusing to cry anymore, I push all my feelings down and focus on where I'm going to go. When I look forward, I see someone who looks really similar to Kota. Oh wait! That is Kota!

"Hey Kota, wait up!," I yell as I run towards him. He turns around and smiles at me.

As soon as I reach him, I ask him where he's going. But then, I look at his back and see a heavy bag on it. It was filled to the brim, exactly like mine. I looked at him in confusion and then I came up with a, what I thought, highly incorrect answer.

"Are you running away?"

He looked down, shuffled his feet, and responded with a barely audible yeah.

I don't think I've ever been this happy before! I have someone to run away with! We can be running away buddies! We can- Stop it Nathan! Be manly! Clearing my throat, I say..

"Well that's cool, I'm also running away."

At that sentence, Kota whipped his head up so fast that I'm surprised he didn't get whiplash. He then stared at me in shock. His shocked expression then merged into a happy one with relief as
he hugged me.

"Thank god! I thought I was going to go alone," he says.

I pat his back and say, "Don't worry bro. I've got your back."

And with that, the two of us continued down the street.

"So, where are we going?" I ask him.

"Well you see," he says as he brings his arm back and rubs the back of his neck, "I kind of don't know. I was just going to go wherever fate takes me."

"Really Kota, that's the plan you had," I tell him deadpanned with disbelief.

"Oh, well where were you going to go Nathan?," he says as he glares at me.

Oh shoot! I realize that I just fell right into his trap. I don't have an answer! "Well, I, er um...."

Kota smirks at me and looks forward saying, "That's what I thought."

Damn it Kota! Why you gotta be so smart!