The Loner

Chapter 2

I ended up buying a blanket and camped out behind the gas station. It was a sunny day, I wasn't used to that. It felt like the sun would never go down. I checked my phone to see what time it was, it was 4 a.m but it looked like the afternoon. I was shocked, I never knew the sun doesn't go down here.

"And there's just another reason why I need to get out of here." I said. Before leaving I bought a backpack to carry all my things. I spent the whole day looking for a sign that says "You have now left this town, come back soon!" But I never found it. The days dragged on and 1 day became 2 years. It feels like I've only been here for a day, the time moves so much faster here.

I was worried about my mom, she has cancer and can't live in her own. I made it my one and only goal to take care of her. I wouldn't be the person I am today without her, she's my everything and I will not have some "town" take that away.

It wasn't easy to navigate around this town, everything looked the same. I found a bike trail that I had never seen before, since it was something I had never seen it seemed like a good sign, so I walked along the little bike trail. After about 15 minutes, it began to rain. I heard people freaking out and yelling. Turns out, it has never rained here before. Most of the young kids had never seen rain before. It was hilarious to see them freak out over water falling from the sky.

Once the rain stopped a little boy walked up to me and said "Why are your nails painted? Only girls do that." I couldn't tell him I was gay, since he was like 7 so I just said "It was a dare." And he walked away and said "ok." I couldn't help but laugh, but at the same time I was kinda mad that the family says he can't wear nail polish. But, who am I to judge? I continued on the bike trail and came upon a diner. I had about $15 left so I decided to get something small to hold me over. I got a waffle and orange juice. Once I finished the total was $20 i didn't have enough, so I decided to do a dine and dash.

As soon she left the bill and walked away I ran out the door. The weirdest thing was they never noticed or cared that I didn't pay. After about an hour of walking I got tired and needed a break. So I stopped at a nearby bus stop. After about 10 minutes a boy came to sit next to me. He looked about my age. I looked at him, realizing I recognized him. But i couldn't remember. "Got any cash loner Louis?" He asked with a smirk. "Freddy?!?" I asked shocked. "You miss me?" He laughed.

I suddenly sat back down and said "You know I don't have any money, but I will not let you hurt me anymore." I said. "I'm not here to hurt you." He answered, "I'm not here to hurt you, I'm here to confess something..." He said quietly. "Let me guess, you're here to tell me you did something horrible?" I asked. "I'm just gonna say it." He said. I sat in silence wondering what he would say next. "I-I...I am in love with you, ok?" He said. I felt an awkward silence creeping along. "You do..?" I asked. "Yes." He said.

"Well, I'm in love with you too." I responded. He looked at me, I got lost in his bright blue eyes shimmering like a thousand stars. I scooted closer to him and laid my head on his shoulder. I felt his hand grab mine. "How did you get here in the first place?" I asked.

"After you ran off I became worried since we were at the end of town. So I followed you here and have been looking for you ever since." He said while kissing my hand. I could feel myself blushing.

"I would've waited my whole life to find you." I said, then grabbed him by the shirt and kissed him. After a few weeks we decided to start going to high school here so we could blend in. We decided it would be best not to say we were gay since we didn't know anyone.

We both joined the art club since we liked to draw. We met some great people. To start off we have Jamie, the skinny, shy kid who doesn't talk much but is very funny and smart. Rae, who is the confident and really gay girl, who is single even though she is amazingly beautiful.

And finally Evelyn, the anime nerd that everyone loves to hang out with, and is beautiful but won't admit it. We all discussed our pasts. Jamie comes from an abusive family who never loved him and used him for storing drugs. Rae never really had a family and was in and out of foster care, and almost ended her own life.

Evelyn comes from a good family, but never felt like she belongs even when everyone she knows loves her, a lot more than she knows. A lot of mysterious things happen in this "town", but by far the creepiest thing to ever happen in this town is that everyone is in their 40s and never gets any older. "You do realize no one can leave this town, which is why no one gets older...because they commit suicide." Jaiden said.

I could see the wheels in Freddy's head turning, but couldn't figure out what he was thinking. After a few minutes of thinking Freddy said something. "Maybe, if we can figure out why, how, and when people commit suicide so we can try to stop them? How does that sound to you guys?"

Everyone agreed...except for Jaiden. "You know, we could do that. Ooooooor we could get to the bottom of why people commit suicide in their 40s?" As you can tell Jaiden is the brains of the friend group and usually helps us out of stressful situations. Jaiden suddenly lit up. "Maybe," he started to smile "people don't commit suicide, they get murdered." I looked around and everyone nodded, except for Freddy and me. "Why would you think it's murder?" I asked confused.