I'm in it for the Long Run // Edge of Winter

06

The three of us rested in the back seat while Elliot sat by the steering wheel. He had tried his best to plug the hole in the cracked window by covering it. It minimized the amount of cold air entering the car, but not by much. After he had finished trying to warm up the car, we began to talk.

"There. That'll keep the cold out." He half-heartedly smiled looking back at us. "I can turn on the car here and there but, can't keep it running all night."

There was a small silence between us as the situation dawned down. We were all happy that nobody had been hurt or anything, but the only one who seemed to be happy out in the wild was Elliot. It reminded me of the talk he had with Caleb when we arrived to the lot. He had explained what it would be like to live off the land, and Caleb seemed to be all for it. Speaking of the devil, Caleb had to open his mouth.

"How come you left mom?" He blurted out of nowhere.

"Caleb!" Bradley and I both scolded him simultaneously.

"Haha, no it's ok." Elliot tried to laugh it off. "What did she say?"

"S-she said that you left because we were more mature than you." Caleb answered. His dad winced when he had heard the reason, and his face loosened.

"Well, she's not wrong." He laughed again. His laughing made me a little suspicious, and I was able to catch Bradley's gaze. He, too, was a little critical of the situation. "I was just a few years older than you guys are now. I had never thought about having kids before, I was still a kid. Mom got pregnant, and she wanted to keep it"

Bradley looked down, because he was that child. The way Elliot had explained it had made it sound like Bradley was the reason they had split up. Caleb and I both put a hand on Bradley and tried to get him to cheer up, just a little bit.

"But you see now, you guys are the best thing in my whole life. It's basically the only thing I haven't screwed up yet. That's why it's so important that-- they don't know about this. If they find out they may not let us see each other again, and I can't have that." He explained causing us all to freeze.

The big move to London, we weren't supposed to tell him about it. He didn't know that by the end of the month, we would be in another country. We all looked at each other, asking questions with our eyes. None of us dared look Elliot in the eye. Hell, I was scared to look him in the eye even if we WEREN'T hiding something. But he caught on quick.

"What? What is it? Something wrong?" He asked a little frantically as he turned farther in his seat. Caleb was on the verge of telling him, I could see his lip quivering. I gave him a slight kick in the shin, but he brushed it off and started anyway.

"We're going to--"

"Caleb we're not supposed to talk about it." Bradley interrupted, still trying to avert his eyes from his father. Once again, we all darted our eyes the other way.

"T-talk about what? What's going on?" Elliot tried to find our eyes and managed to capture Caleb's. Bradley and I knew that this what it, Elliot was going to go crazy and kill us all.

"Ted got a promotion and, we're moving to London." Caleb said simply. He hadn't gone into detail thankfully, but he just had to add in that one part about my dad. Elliot stared down each and every one of us.

"London? Well don't worry, I'll talk to them. They're not going to take you--"

"We're leaving at the end of the month." Bradley finalized. Elliot's eyes seemed like they were going to explode because they were so wide. He was on the brink of insanity.

"What? They can't do that! What are they going to do? Drag you halfway across the world and then I-I never get to see you again. That's crazy! I mean you're my kids. My kids!" He raised his voice a little and I could feel his stare penetrating through my soul.