Hollow

Chapter 18

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"Sebastian, we aren't supposed to leave school campus."

He pulled me down the hallway, ignoring my constant questioning. He steered me towards the back exit of the school, and I shook my head.

"We can't leave, class is going to start soon." I told him anxiously. I knew there was only a few minutes left of lunch and leaving campus now was definitely not what we were supposed to be doing.

"Bella, calm down for a second." He said with a small laugh. "This is your introduction to the world of normal teenagers. Sometimes we don't go to class. Don't worry, I'll have you back before the end of school."

I stopped mid-step and forced him to face me. "This isn't right, Sebastian. What will happen if we are seen?"

"If we're caught, I promise I'll take all of the blame. You have a perfect record, anyway, they'd just let you off with a warning." He said calmly, though my nerves didn't lessen much. "It won't get that far, though, I promise. We won't get caught."

His hands rested gently on my shoulders and he stared down at me. His encouraging gaze was only slightly comforting. I was still feeling hesitant about leaving, but I couldn't deny that his plan was intriguing. My "introduction to the world of normal teenagers," he had called it. Maybe this would be helpful.

I breathed in deeply before letting out a long breath. With a nod, I looked up at him. "Okay."

He grinned and gestured for me to walk towards the back doors of the school. We made it to the steel double doors and Sebastian slowly opened one of them and stuck his head out. A part of me had been preparing for alarms to go off the second the door was pushed open, but everything remained silent. There were no other students in these hallways, as most of them were likely still in the cafeteria or the school yard.

Sebastian leaned back and nodded to me. "Come on, it's all clear."

He grabbed my hand and pulled me through the door. Outside, the sun was shining brightly, though there was a cool breeze that nipped at my clothing. With my hand still in his, Sebastian led me through the parking lot and to a silver Toyota Corolla.

I glanced around the lot, confused that no one had seen us. I would have thought there would have been more school staff around to prevent these things from happening. Sebastian and I had no trouble leaving. He opened the passenger door for me and I slipped inside, placing my backpack at my feet. The car's interior was beautiful and clean. I leaned back into the soft fabric of the seat and tried to calm my erratically beating heart.

Sebastian got into the driver's seat of the car and started up the engine. He looked over at me with eyes shining in amusement.

"So far, so good." He said.

"How did you know that no one would be out here?" I asked him.

"This isn't exactly my first time skipping class, Bella. Like I said, it's something we normal teenagers do." He shrugged.

My eyebrows furrowed as I took in his words. "Do your parents know about this?"

He snorted out a laugh. "No, and I suggest you don't tell yours either."

"Oh." This was all a lot to take. This spur of the moment decision had sent my head spinning. I tried to keep up with everything, the rules and guidelines to being normal, but there was so much to follow.

Breaking the rules, sneaking around, hiding things from my parents. None of this seemed like a good idea. Did Angela do things like this? Not that I knew of. Then again, Angela wasn't very involved when it came to my knowledge of the real world.