A Vida Barco

【8】

【8】

I drove into the car park. It was dark and the wide area was lightened up by two poor lamps.
My heart was bumping in my chest.
I tightened the grip on the steering wheel and pressed myself into the driver's seat. I glanced at the little envelope on the passenger's seat.

'please be here', I thought.
And there he was.
A rather small person, wearing a dark hoodie and sunglasses, even though the lighting was so poor.
He wore baggy jeans and I noticed his Nike trainers.
Was he the one I was supposed to meet?

He stood on one of the empty parking lots, and I stopped at his level. As he made a step towards my car, I let down my window.
"You're Chase?" , he asked in a raspy voice.
I nodded.
He walked around my car, I took the envelope.
I was so damn nervous. He opened the door and let himself fall into the passenger's seat. Immediately, the smell of alcohol and cheap fragrance spread in my car.

He fished around in his pocket before he finally held it up. An ID.
I took it, looking at it.
It had a photo of me on it, however, there was a different name. Not completely different. Clyde Elliot. With one T. Not to make it obvious.
A wrong birthday, a wrong town. A completely different state.
I swallowed. It was perfect.

"My money", his voice made me snap back to reality.
I handed him the envelope.
"Hundred, two hundred...", he counted.
Nervously, I had a look into my rear mirror.
"Perfect. Good business with you", he grinned.
Before I could reply something, he jumped out of the car.

***

"The last call for flight 534"

I snapped back to reality. I stood in my line, waiting for the boarding. Fiddling with my passport in my hands.

Finally, it was off week, and officially, I was about to travel to Mexico for some days off. Alone.
However, I stood in my line, lining up to catch my flight to Koh Lipe, Thailand.
I had checked the countries that I could imagine living in.
And Koh Lipe was the most beautiful place I'd ever seen. At least in the pictures. It was a beach region of Thailand, with the clearest water and the whitest sand.
Most of the people living there were rich people who had a holiday home there.

The line moved a bit.
My heart started to bump faster.

The past few weeks, I had barely contact with anyone. My dad never called or texted me. Neither did my mum. I guess my dad did twist things around a little bit so that she was angry with me, as well.
Ryan was, too.
I had never heard from him again. Only gotten death glares during autograph sessions as I appeared bored as hell - even more than I used to.

Since my plan, I started to act even weirder, but this time on purpose.
My suicide needed to make sense, so weird behaviour weeks before that should underline that decision.
I barely talked to anyone, and if I did, I used as fewer words as possible. I barely smiled and I barely did anything. I skipped most of the events - at least those that I could skip.

Again, the line moved a bit.
My hands started getting sweaty, fiddling with the fake passport.

The only problem with my plan was the money. I had opened up another bank account - in Mexico.
I had started to transfer rather small sums on that account. I knew that this wasn't the best idea. If people checked my financial actions, they probably would suspect something.
However, that was why I opened up the account in Mexico. To have a backup. In case they would find out, they'd suspecting me there and not in Thailand.

I planned on to take my money from that account then. For sure, if people did even further research, they'd find out about the money going to Thailand. But honestly, it'd be pretty hard for the average person to control my financial actions from there on. Plus, with a little bit of extra money, the bank employees were willing to blur out a few of my acts.

To be honest, Mexico was the most obvious country an American could flee to. But who would guess Thailand to be my new home? Especially Koh Lipe. It seemed to be kind of an insider thing.

"Ticket and passport, please."

I looked up at the friendly smiling woman from the airport. It was my turn, and only the little gate did stop me from boarding on the flight to Koh Lipe.
I nodded quietly, as my heart was racing faster than it ever did and my hands were super sweaty.

This was the rehearsal. If I could get through today, I could get through whenever. What if they saw that this was a fake passport? My plan would be ruined. Plus I might be sued. And then my whole career would be over. Technically, I could really kill myself then.

"Sir?"

My heart dropped.
"Sorry", I mumbled.

Look confident. Don't act suspicious, I told myself.

I handed her my ticket. And my passport.

I straightened my posture and looked her straight in the eyes as she looked at me, up and down at the picture on my passport.

To me, it felt like hours.

"Got a new haircut?", she asked me smirking.
My heart dropped. But in a good way.
She handed me my ticket and the passport back.
Before I could figure to say anything, she opened the gate for me.

"Enjoy your flight", she said.
I felt a huge smile coming up. It got bigger and bigger.

For months, I hadn't smiled. And now I had the widest grin ever on my face and I couldn't wipe it away as relief and some kind of superior feeling rose in me.

I just managed to board a plane to Koh Lipe with a fake passport.

The most complicated part of my plan was done. Now I needed a home. And I was about to find that in Thailand.
Sure, I'd fly back to the USA afterward. But at that moment, it felt like I never would.

.

I'm sorry for the delay. Here's chapter 8. I'll be trying to upload more often in the future.
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