Eighteen ➵ z.m. [Camp NaNoWriMo November 2015]

<15> I'll be gone by the end of the week

The insistent sound of my alarm clock rings across my room making my head spin. I groan before pulling myself up into a sitting position before wiping the sleep out of my eyes.

After stifling a yawn, I extend my arm over and hit the off button on my alarm clock. The ringing instantly ceases, and so does the slowly forming headache.

Picking up my cell phone that was laying carelessly on my window, I scan the screen. Tanner's call from last night was still ongoing.

Last night, hours after my father had left, Tanner called me. He was drunk off of his ass, but honest as ever.

In curiosity I press my face to the screen," hey Tan, you still there?"

Much to my surprise he was.

"Yeah, I'm still here," Tanner responds, his voice gruff as if he had just woken up a little while ago. "Just like old times, huh?"

I nod at his statement before realizing that he couldn't see me. Instead I hum in response as I didn't particularly love divulging into my past with Tanner.

Tanner, on the other hand, practically lived in the past and loved bringing up things that happened back then. The two of us had a long history together - we were childhood friends- and there was no shortage of embarrassing moments, and life altering decisions that Tanner could bring up.

Staying on the phone all night, barely cracked the surface of things he could bring up out our past.

At one point of time, talking on the phone until one of us feel asleep was a ritual of sorts.

"I should go soon. I have somewhere to be this morning," I say into the speaker. "Birthday plans and whatnot."

The fact that Zayn would be accompanying me was irrelevant.

"I wish I could be in town for your birthday. This year is the big 1-8," Tanner chuckles.

Almost immediately I agree. Tanner and I have never been separated for our birthdays since we met. It would be strange not kicking his ass at LaserQuest and going to Dominos afterwards on his special day. My birthday, however, Tanner and I usually went stargazing in the back of his father's pickup truck only to return the next day.

"We've always spent birthdays together," I remind him, my voice quite. As soon as the words slip past my lips, I wish I could take them back.

The last thing I wanted to do was give Tanner the wrong impression. Turns out my worst fears were rapidly on their way to becoming true, because the next words that left Tanner's mouth was a plea of sorts.

Once again he had brought up the subject of me abandoning my home, just as he did approximately five months after becoming a legal adult.

"I just can't run away Tanner," I remind him once again. I don't know how many times I would have to say it before he realized I meant business, but I sure as hell didn't want to find out either.

Tanner being Tanner, had an answer to everything- my previous statement included. "Don't think of it as running away," Tanner urges. "Think of it as moving in with your best friend."

When he put it that away it didn't sound nearly as bad; however, I knew that no matter how it was worded the outcome would remain the same. I'd be leaving with Tanner, only to spend the remainder of my life being, quite literally, hunted like a damn dog.