Gallagher Girls

Joe and I Run Away, Again.

Zach's POV

I look around the square where the letter drop is. I see Joe standing by the river.

"Hey, Joe" I say

"She could be anywhere" he says not taking a chance to look at me. Joe was like my father when I had none. He kinda took me in after a while in blackthorne, a little while after that he realized who I was. Circle next generation.

"We'll find her" I say and I can't even convince myself, hoe should Joe be convinced either?

"Who's "we"" he asks.

"Whoever. Me, you, Rachel, ca-" I start but I cut myself off.

"Do you want them in this? I ask, it's rhetorical. I know he doesn't want them taking the risk.

"You do know what that is right?" I say pointing to the little dot on his arm, a centimeter deep.

"Yea, I think Rachel's thinks that I wouldn't know" he says.

"Joe, the only way to keep them safe is if we go on our own, we can track her- they'll be safe!" I say.

"I know" he says.

"If we cut the trackers out, they can't find us" I start again.

"I know" he says once again

"We will stay off the grid"

"Zach, I honestly know" he says. "So when do we leave?" he asks.

"I grab my bag from my shoulders. I find it as my run away bag. It has everything I'll need to run away and sustain my life for months.

"I have mine" he says grabbing his off his shoulders. I get a knife and dig into my skin. By cutting out the tracker and leaving it here, they can't find us. I think back to when cammie and I got married. A year ago. I promised never to let anyone hurt her, but by leaving am I? Would I hurt her more than a shot through the heart? But if she'd get shot through the heart, I'd be too late. I know she'd never forgive me. Not ever. I can't let her get hurt by Catherine. Never. So I keep doing what I'm doing. I dip my arm in the water. The blood slips in and out like little droplets. Then I get the tracker and wash it off, following the knife then handing it to Joe. I look at the tracker.

"Joe, what do we do with it?" I ask.

"Throw it into the water" he says. I follow as he says and I chuck it into the water, a good 100 feet away. He does the same but it goes a few feet closer to us then mine did. And I can't help but think, were all getting older, it's just the older ones that are old.

" We got to go" he says. I know he's right. They probably see the trackers going a odd amount of space and must know hat happened.

"Where do we go?" I ask.

"I walked here, but just drive" he says. He must have known we were going to run the whole time. I get into the car and Joe drives. I just stare out the window.

A long time ago, the first few days that cam had come home, from the summer she ran away, bex didn't trust her. She had told me that she was raged, and she couldn't even stand to look at her. I admit, I was mad. I was furious that not only did she leave, but she left without me. That's the reason she felt in the dark. Because we all ignored her. We all pretended. But I didn't. The first time I saw her see sublevel 3, I knew what she thought.

Run

Run

Run

I felt bad. I knew that she was never the same. But when she killed that man, with the gun. It was different. She was the same- same person, she just picked up and lost a few things. I remember standing by the door listening in on the conversation between her and her roommates.

"You don't get it, do you?" Macey said. "We're not mad because you left." She spat the words. I wondered if Macey or cam might here me but neither did anything. "Were mad because you didn't take us with you." I remember hearing a long pause.

"No one seems happy I'm back" cammie said.

"Your back, cam" Macey went into the bathroom and I heard the door closing. "Which means for the first time since you left, it's okay for us to be mad at you for leaving". (This is actually from OOS, OOT) I only remember one more thing.

"Leaving can't be as hard as being left"