cuffed • g.d

41.

He had a firm grip and led me out the hospital, waiting outside was almost everyone from Janos throwing up questions and concerns about Aaron's condition. Grayson assured them he'd be okay even though he didn't know for sure himself. "Visiting hours are over guys, you guys can come back later or something." Grayson says rushed, after saying so he maneuvered through the thick crowd and lead me away from the hospital. I looked up at him but he had a blank stare ahead of him. I swallow my words unsure if I should speak or not. But I do, "Gray where are we going?" I say unsure of the directions he was taking me.

Without hesitation he responded, "Far, far from here." He says shaky not even looking at me. I just kept looking at him I couldn't say any words. We walked for about 30 minutes before the sky was getting darker. The neighborhood we had been walking through was unfamiliar and scary. The further we walked the less and less I could hear cars and people. Within the 30 minutes we walked in complete silence, the only noise that was made was the rocks being kicked beneath our feet. Then finally he spoke. "We're here." He says standing in a driveway of a nice sized home in a dead neighborhood with a car in the driveway.

"Where are w-"
"Follow me." He interrupted creeping on the side of the house, I didn't question I just followed behind. He climbed the side of the house as if he had done this before, in moments he was on the roof heading toward a window. I was on look out, looking around paranoid the people who lived in this house would see me standing here and attack me or call police for trespassing. I finally decide to follow Grayson's footsteps and follow him on the roof. Leaves and dirt surrounded my feet, the slant of it made it hard to balance. Grayson saw me struggling to make my way towards him so he comes to me and we walk together to the window.

I sit beside it and he tries to open it quietly. "Gray," I ask shy.
"Yeah?" He answered fully focused on this window.
The wind up here was strong and was making my lips dry, "I- well, where are we?" I ask licking moisture back into my lips.
He laughs dryly, "this is my house babe." He says grunting trying to lift the window, my cheeks turned red at the sound of him calling me babe it repeated in my brain like a broken record. He finally manages to lift the window up it squeaked a bit which made him nervous someone on the inside would hear.
I don't know why I never had guessed this was his house, I always just thought he lived at Janos and out always adventuring, never pictured him living in a home. "C'mon T." He says in a whisper. I follow close behind and as I entered the window a gust of pizza aroma and old clothes made its way into my nose. The room we were in was a mess you couldn't step anywhere without stepping on food or laundry.

"Is this your room Gray?" I ask tip toeing through the clothes. He nods and head for the closet grabbing a deep green duffel bag. "It's a mess." I blurt. He laughs and shrugs his shoulders, "well I haven't been here in forever and my parents aren't gonna clean it." He admits. I make my way to the bed and sit on the only part the wasn't covered in old food. I look at Grayson shoving clothes into the bag quickly as if each pile of clothes was a bomb. "What are you doing?" I say watching the bag fill up by the second. "Packing" he says stern. "We have to get out of here, it's for our safety Tay. E can't get us if he can't find us."  He confesses as he throws in a pair of old dirty converse. "Well where are we gonna go?" I ask serious helping him make more room in his duffel to fit his bright red vans.

He shrugs his shoulders and before he could respond someone burst through the door holding a dark blue baseball bat. I jumped up and Grayson ran in front of me to protect me in case anything went down. I peep over Grayson shoulder to see who it was. It was a man in nice clothes as if he had just come home from work, or church. Grayson was frozen, and so was the man. They both just stared at each other as if they had never seen each other before. I could feel Grayson breath grow quicker and quicker. "Grayson?!" The man finally broke.
"h-hey dad."