Runaway Cleo

Prologue

Cleo walked into her front door to the sound of her parents screaming... Again.

Not wanting them to know that she was home, she shut the door quietly and then faintly walked to her room. She laid face first on her bed as she listened to everything down the hall.

"Do you seriously expect me to believe that again??" her mom was asking.

"You obviously should considering its the truth!" was her  dad's lame response.

"OH! So you want me to understand that you cheated because of me. It's my fault?  Why is it always my fault when it comes to your mistakes!!"

That was the third time this week that Cleo heard her parents fighting over this. When would her dad get the hint that her mom was going to kick him out? When was her mom going to kick him out?

But Cleo knew the truth. In under an hour everything would go back to the normal. Everything would recede into the worst versions of their own little reality. Then she all of a sudden heard the front door slam and her father's truck engine start to run. Was he finally leaving?

She walked down stairs to see her mom silently crying and finishing cooking dinner. Cleo decided not to bother her and to just go set the table. The atmosphere was completely different tonight than it was after every other fight. As if something was missing. As if someone was missing.

They sat around the table in their regular seats but no one could avert their eyes from the empty seat at the head of the table. No one could think about when he was coming back or how he was coming back. They've seen it all before.

As her thoughts surround her, Cleo finally realized something- It wasn't the situation or the activities or the people that were different, it was her. Cleo was different.

She was tired of all of the lying and the tears. She was tired of how often the screams happened or even how quickly her family forgave. Is this how life was supposed to be? A constant hoping for something better but never knowing if it will come?

Cleo could not, and would not, take it anymore.

She excused herself from the table and gave her unknowing, worrisome mother her last kiss she would get for a while. She walked slowly down the hallway and opened her door which felt as if it had gained 300 pounds.

None of this felt right. Her shoulders were sinking and her legs were dragging. The only thing keeping her going were the thoughts of a better future.

Cleo grabbed her favourite duffel from the many years that she played soft ball and filled it with lots of sweats and gym clothes, then she added a few of her favourite books. Some nice outfits and many toiletries later, she was ready. She was finally gonna leave.

She sat on her bed with her best stationary and wrote her goodbyes. Letters for her siblings, her few real friends and her parents. A small, simple goodbye, telling them that she'll be okay, she is always okay.

Then, she got out her memories box with her razors and anxiety pills in it. All of the bad things her dad had ever said to her or her family over the years was also in there. She pulled them all out and laid them around her.

Each important person in her life were accounted for and she hoped that they would understand her decisions. After grabbing her chargers, phone, laptop, money, and car keys- she opened her window and stared at the surrounding darkness.

She took one more huge look at her room and for the first time questioned her decision to leave. But nothing was going to stop her now. Cleo stood on her window sill and held onto the frame tightly. She turned her head slightly and looked at everything she was leaving behind but knew that this was it.

So she made a death grip over her many small possessions in her hands and jumped.  She grabbed her bag off the ground and hopped her fence headed towards her car. Nothing was stopping her now.

Cleo pulled out of her driveway. She drove out of her neighborhood. Across the highway nearest her house. And onto nowhere that she could guess.

After all these years. And the many renditions of these stories that I have heard. I can not help but think: Cleo, when you took the big leap, did you fear the short fall?

And now, I guess this question will be answered because I was just woken up from a knock I assumed was from my front door. I suddenly realized that it came from the window and took a peak out.

Cleo stood there in the flesh, what else was i supposed to do for the mysterious Cleopatra Lynn.

What else was I to do?

i mean, It was Cleo the Runaway after all.

•••
Pictured is what I imagined Cleo to look like.