Contemporary Life // FILLIE

Memories

Millie's POV:

By the time the jeep arrives at my house, my tears have only consistently fallen with more muffled cries. I begged the two to stay, which it was rather easy to convince them seeing as they were willing to the second I asked. And now here we sit in my room; my mom who had asked what was wrong with me now only thinking that I was on my period and saw a dead squirrel. "I just don't know what to do." I say between the sobs that have slowly been settling. "You don't have to do anything right now, what you did couldn't have been easy." Sadie comforts as she takes my hand and gives it a caring squeeze. The red sits criss-crossed in front of me on my bed while I do the same, and of course Noah on my swivel desk chair beside the bed. "What if, and call me crazy, we just run away?" Noah suggests after being silent relatively the whole time. "W-What?" I ask with a sniffle, the confusion almost taking over the pain. He looks up at me, "What if we just grab Caleb and run away? It's a crazy idea but it could get us out of this mess." Sadie rolls her eyes, "This is no time for jokes, Noah." The boy sits up in the seat quickly.

"No, I'm serious. We're involved in the crime, we helped the murderer hide the body.. meaning we could go to jail too." He explains with raised eyebrows. By this time my crying has come to a halt, my mind being too involved in what the straight A student has brought up. "They don't even know Caleb killed anyone, there's nothing that would possibly make them think that." Sadie, once again, protests. Noah sighs in annoyance at the redhead, "Sadie, the gas station has video footage of what happened. Sooner or later the police will watch it and see what happened." My eyes widen at my next thought. "Which means they'll see Gaten clean up the scene and take the body.." I add, to which he nods in confirmation. "Exactly. They'll think we helped Caleb plan this, or rather Gaten.. but eventually we'd get dragged into it." Noah says as he snaps and points to me. He settles back in his chair afterwards, swaying in it as if everything was fine. Sadie lets out a sigh of defeat, "Okay shit. So what are we supposed to do then?" She questions, not actually expecting an answer. Noah stares at her as if it was the most obvious answer ever. "Runaway.. like I said." He remarks, causing her to yet again roll her sparking blue eyes. "Besides that." I purse my lips together in thought as I stare out my window, not caring to hear their bickering. "I know a place we could stay." I mention abruptly. My words cut off whatever they were saying, I can tell by the way that when I turn back to face them both of their faces are paused mid-movement to stare at me. "If we were to run away.. I know a place we could go, where we'd be safe while the cops would look for us." I further explain.

-

Gaten's POV:

"Alright, that should be good." I say aloud as I look at the hole, happy to be done after 2 hours of endless shoveling. "No hard feelings, right Don?" I mutter as I hoist his bagged body over my shoulder and walk to the grave. With a grunt I throw the corpse into the hole before my actions are cut off by the sound of footsteps against the frosty ground. He walks towards me with his eyes wandering and hands stuffed in his pockets. The sight of him is enough to make the anger that had dissipated in me is slowly come back. "Welcome back, asshole." I greet once he's close enough. I avoid eye-contact as I attempt to ignore him and simply start to fill the hole back up. The teenager glances around us, running a hand through his tussled hair before finally speaking hesitantly. "Listen Gaten, I'm sorry. Just.. with all that's been happening I haven't been in the right mindset and I guess I just took everything out on you. Which is a pretty fucked up thing to do," He explains whilst rubbing the back of his neck. "Tell me about it." I mumble quietly, causing him to sigh. "I'm not asking you to forgive me, I just don't want to lose you when I could really use a friend like you right about now." The dark haired boy admits. With my lips pursed, I strike my shovel into the ground to finally face him.

My features instantly soften at what I see, "Holy shit, have you been crying?!" I ask urgently as I walk up to him, reaching for his stained cheeks that compliment his puffy, bloodshot eyes. He quickly lowers my hand as he closes his eyes, "No.. no, I'm fine." Finn states though I think we all know he's lying. "What happened? It wasn't because of our fight, was it?" I question worriedly, to which he again shushes me away. "No, nothing like that. It was nothing, I'm fine now and that's all that matters." He protests. "But-" "Gaten, I'm fine. Drop it." He instructs seriously, to which I finally give into despite my caring nature. "Well.. I forgive you, but only if you help me with this." I say as I walk back to my shovel and yank it from the ground. A flicker of a smile shows on his lips as he heads to the van to grab the other shovel before returning seconds later. Soon enough we're both shoveling dirt back in the hole in a blissful silence.

-

Millie's POV:

"Guys, you know were not actually doing this, right?" Sadie rambles out quickly as Noah raises his eyebrows at me. "Really?" He asks, both of us ignoring Sadie's question. "No guys, we can't-" "Yeah. My sister, she still lives in Indiana. I'm sure she'd be willing to help if I explained our situation." I assure to which he lets out a sigh of relief. Again, we ignore Sadie. "Hellooo? Is my opinion irrelevant now or something?" The red complains as she throws her hands up in the air. "But what about our families? The cops would quickly figure out we all ran away together, after all, we are bestfriends." Noah brings up, pressing his lips together afterwards. "Which is exactly why we're not running aw-" "That's just a risk we'd have to take, Noah. We'd only be hurting them more by staying." I state firmly yet still with care laced into my words. He reluctantly nods, refusing to look at me despite knowing I'm right. "What? So we're actually running away now?" Sadie finally speaks out without being cut off. I nod, "It's what needs to be done. Got any problems with that?" She groans as she throws her head back, already I can tell she's going to agree. "Fine.. but only because I don't want Caleb stuck in that hellhole any longer." She retorts while pointing out towards my window. "About that, we have a few complications with this idea. First, Gaten and Finn aren't on very good terms at the moment- not to mention how messed up Finn is right now- and now you think we're going to somehow take Caleb from the hospital?" The hazel eyed boy questions, more curious than doubtful. Again, I nod. "Gaten and Finn won't be an issue. After my talk with him.. I think he'd be more than willing to apologize to Gaten. As for the whole Caleb thing.. we could just sign him out for a 'day out with his best buds' and leave then.

"We'll need a van." Sadie interrupts calmly, as if she had just came out of a trance. "A van?" I repeat with my brows furrowed. "We'll use the one from our hangout." She suggests, to which Noah agrees to. It's only now that I actually take in what 'running away' means; it means I'm leaving most of my family here in Cumming. I'm leaving little Ava who'd be crushed to not have me there to look up to and spend quality sister time with, Charlie who can be a real dick but I can tell he cherishes the talks we have and time we spend. My parents that only wish the best and care for me so much yet all I do is push them away. But most importantly, I'm leaving these places here that captivate my most cherished memories. I had met Sadie at Starbucks the first day I moved here, and all the boys that night just below my bay window. The lake located just down Kiger Street where I learned about Sadie and Caleb's on going love that Finn had, at the time, wished to obtain. And later on where I was taken to after school with the same wishful boy. It's at the hangout Finn built with his friends that I learned so much about him, there was something about the cackle of the fire that just made you feel like you could say anything without being judged. The list goes on and on- from peoples houses that hold memories and firsts, to the school that sheltered fights, makeouts, and dances; to even the city of Atlanta where Finn and I shared our first kiss after waiting for what seemed like forever. It's these memories that I now look back on and already miss, that already I can imagine myself there with smiles galore. So if we do runaway and leave these precious landmarks, what would become of them? Or more importantly, what would become of us?