Matched

Chapter 16

A/N: hi, i'm probably the worst updater on Wattpad in the history of Wattpad. i don't want to slam on the chapters, but i do have up to chapter 26 written. it's just the fact of me remembering to upload them that kills me. anywho, enjoy.

“Well, what if you two just leave?” Luke tapped his finger on the old diner’s table. We all got silent as we thought it over. “See, it wouldn’t cause a commotion if you just leave, ya know? No exiling, no public announcements. Sure they’ll look for you, but they’ll give up pretty fast. I mean everyone will put two and two together, but it’s better than the shame of getting exiled in front of the whole clan.”

“I… I guess that would actually work, Luke,” I said as I stirred the ice around in my glass with my straw. It would work. It was a perfect way to get out of our mess, but I really didn’t want to leave with my tail tucked between my legs like that.

“How would we leave without being noticed though?” Russel questioned. He gave my thigh a discreet squeeze and my stomach flipped over in butterflies. I put my hand over his, giving him a slight squeeze back. It felt natural to be like this with him.

“Well I figure if we get Anna in on this, we could definitely get you two out of here by next week,” Luke suggested. I lifted my eye brows. I didn’t exactly know if I could trust Anna. She was too close with Dillon. She would blab.

“I dunno about Anna, Luke,” I voiced my opinion. “Not that I don’t trust her or anything, it’s just, her and Dillon are pretty close.”

“Trust me, Spenc, Anna’s cool. She wouldn’t, especially if I asked her not to,” Luke responded.

“It’ll work, Spencer,” Russel ducked down and whispered in my ear. “Have some faith,” he looped his arm around my shoulders and kissed my temple. I blushed as he pulled away, but still laid my head on his shoulders. I puffed out my cheeks.

“I don’t know guys, this is still pretty risky. What if we get caught in the act? How would we explain it? And how are we going to get away from Angie and Dillon? We only have a week left before the council will get involved in our mating. My dad is going to push me to be with Dillon 24/7.”

“Well…” Luke’s forehead wrinkled in concentration. “Okay. Alright, Tuesday night. What time does your dad go to sleep, Spenc?”

“Usually like 10ish. Sometimes 11. You don’t really think I could sneak out of my house, do you? He’s a ridiculously light sleeper. You know that, Luke.”

“Always looking at the negative, aren’t we?” Luke sighed heavily.

“Yes!” I exclaimed. “This is serious, guys! If you don’t look at the negatives then that’s serious gaps in plans and that’s when they start to go wrong.”

“Calm down, Spencer, geesh,” Luke sighed and crossed his arms over his chest.

“She’s right, Luke. We have to be really careful about this…” Russel agreed with me.

“I know,” he sighed.

“Okay, let’s clear up what we’ve got already. Tuesday, right?” Luke nodded. I jotted Tuesday on a napkin with a crayon I picked up with we first walked in. Call it childish, but you know what, it came in handy. “Let’s say that it works. I get some clothes together and money and I sneak out. Who’s house am I going to? What’s the plan after that?”

“Wait!” Luke brainstormed. “You’re staying the night at mine! That’ll be your excuse. Just tell your dad if he wakes up that it’s a late night sleep over.”

I nodded as I wrote ‘sleep over Luke’s’.

“We’ll meet at Luke’s then,” Russel concluded. “Then we just take my truck. Anna wouldn’t be needed.”

“No, no, they’d track your truck. We’d have to either rent one, which I seriously doubt we have the money for that, or get train tickets. We’d need to get out of the state and fast. And we’d have to be very, very aware of whose territories we’d be entering.”

“Well, you’re both tigers right? What if you go to the Tiger Pack in California and ask for permission to join them?” Luke questioned.

“California?” I questioned. That was so far away…

“Luke, we don’t even know how real pack’s function. There’s a reason my father moved here, too. He obviously wanted us to be away from that.”

“Well what would you do?”

“I guess we could go to an unclaimed territory. Live with the humans for a bit,” I suggested. “It wouldn’t be hard. We’re both 18.”

“I’m actually 19,” Russel chuckled.

“Since when?” I widened my eyes at him. My father didn’t allow us to get enrolled into public schooling until we were a year behind our actual graduating class. I should have graduated this year, but I was just becoming a senior. My dad didn’t want it to be suspicious that we were faster and more developed than the other kids, so he led the teachers to believe it was because we were older.

“I failed, like, I think 1stgrade. Then we moved here, so everybody just kind of assumed I was your guys’ age. Not that it matters, but yeah. I’m older than you.”

“Okay, we’re getting off subject right now,” I shook my head. How had I not known he was 19? Great mate I am. “So we get a train to an unclaimed territory. Which, from what I remember, the closest one is in like Arizona, right?”

Luke nodded. There was maybe 3 unclaimed territories on the continent. One in Washington, the other in Canada and then in Arizona.

“Okay, we either get a train or bus to Arizona. So we’d have to get a ride to the nearest thingy or whatever. Wait,” the thought crossed my mind. “Do we even have enough money for tickets?”

“I have a couple grand in my bank account, actually,” Russel piped up. My jaw nearly hit the ground.

“Are you part of the mob?!” I questioned. He chuckled.

“I was saving up for, well, I don’t exactly know yet. I knew I’d need it eventually. And looky-here. I do. I’ve been working for like awhile now. I took a break over the summer,” he chuckled once more. I guess he was full of surprises.

“I have like $300 from my birthday and Easter,” I added almost self-consciously. Russel rubbed my back gently as I wrote some more things out. We discussed everything down to the exact timing we’d get to the bus/train station. It was my job to look up prices and times online.

“Tuesday,” Luke muttered after a moment of silence. We had our plan set down in stone. When we had first gotten here, Luke had tried to make himself part of the plan. I immediately shot him down. No way. He was not going anywhere with me. He had Anna and his mom and he was not getting dragged down with us.

“Tuesday,” I said back.

“Get a track phone when you get there. Call me first thing, okay?” Luke told me. I nodded. Then we were silent.

I suppose we were letting it sink in. We were leaving. Never to be seen again if we were lucky. Leaving our old lives behind so we could be together happily. There wasn’t much to lose, but I was losing my brother, Luke, my friends…

“Alright, who wants to go to the fair? I heard it’s at Medina right now,” Russel broke the silence. I gave him a little smile.

“Might as well,” Luke sighed and stood. He walked over to the counter to pay for the drinks we order and Russel pulled out some bills for the waitress. I sighed and snuggled my head into his neck.

“I love you,” he said to me quietly. My heart warmed up immensely.

“I better hope so or else all this planning would be waste of time,” I joked. He chuckled and kissed me.

“You’re such a brat,” he said and slid out of the booth. I followed after him, gripping his hand tightly.

There was no doubt he was worth this all, but I really couldn’t help but wonder when and if this would all blow up in our faces. Was it really as simple as it seemed?