Power

Chapter Two

"Hey Journey, when's your birthday?" Jamie asks out of no where.

"I don't know," I reply, boredom obvious in my tone. We're walking along a river. My water bottles are all full, all of them clean water.

"How can't you know?" He asks. Walking closer to me.

"I just don't," I glance over at him. He's already looking at me. "I was never told my birthday. I kinda guessed at one point and New Years has been my birthday ever since."

He looks guilty for a second, looking down at him feet. I stay quiet and just focus on walking forward. I start walking ahead of him, my embarrassment getting the better of me.

"Why? Why did you never know your own birthday?" He asks. I stop and turn around. He's already stopped a ways behind me.

"Why does it matter?" I ask. If he's caught on that I'm irritated he's completely ignored it. "It just does," He answers childishly.

"It's my life. It has nothing to do with you," I reply. Before I turn around I get a glimpse of betrayal on his face. I don't know why he would feel that way, it's unsettling. I start walking again. It hurts, knowing that i'm hurting him. It'll hurt worse if I tell him what my life was like and he decides he doesn't want to be a part of my messed up life.

"I'm sorry," he whispers. I barely caught it. I immediately stop and look at him. He looks incredibly guilty. His eyebrows are lifted slightly, his mouth turned down into a frown, and his eyes seem to tell a story. This story set on a cloudy day, in a different continent, told in a different language. I can't seem to figure him out.

"It's fine, just keep walking. We need to get further away from the main cities," I explain, turning my back again. This time I here his loud footsteps behind me. We were silent, focusing on not tripping over rocks. He brought up some pretty rough memories. My family was never there for me. My mother was always out with a new man she just met, and my dad worked all day only to come home, whiskey in hand, to take his pain out on me. My brother was smart and left as soon as he could, I was 10 at the time. I never saw the day where I was free of pain. I was 17 when the riots started, and I left soon after. I never had the chance at a normal life, and it kills me when I have to think about it. Good thing no one is ever around to ask about it. I slowed down for a second. He stopped as well, looking down at me. Tears slid down my check. I violently brushed them off and continued walking faster than before.

"Are you going to tell me whats wrong?" He asks, both irritated and concerned.

"Nope," I respond. I walk faster to get away from his prying eyes. He's very intrusive, but I don't think he means any harm.

"I know you don't know me, and I also know that you're probably the kind of person that doesn't know how to talk to people. I'm here whenever you decide its too much on your shoulders," he encourages. We both walk on, me in front of him.

"Lets take a break," I say sitting down on a rock. He sits down on the grass a few feet from me. The sound of the water flowing making the afternoon seem a little cooler. It was still over 90ºF and we hadn't stopped for a drink in over three hours. I pull two water bottles out of the main pocket in my bag. I toss one over to Jamie.

"Thanks," he mumbled. He seemed to be upset that I haven't spilled my life story to him.

"How old are you?" I ask. I was trying to distract him from his pouting session.

"23," He answers. He looks at me confused. "How about you?"

"19," I say.

"You think you're 19," he corrects. I sigh in annoyance.

"Really?" I shout.

"Sorry, but will you ever open up to me?" He asks, also annoyed.

"Maybe when you give me a little time and stop being an annoying asshole!" I yell at him. He glares at me before standing up, tossing the almost full water bottle at me, and walking away. Stuck in my pride I continue to drink my water. He continues walking. God he's so stubborn! Why does he have to know about my life! It shouldn't matter anymore. Screwing the lid back on my water bottle, I stuff both bottles in my back and walk after him. I walk behind him. He's grumbling to himself, something about me i'm sure.

That night when we find a camp and settle down for the night, Jamie looks at me and whispers 'goodnight'. He seems to have gotten over his anger. I turn away from him. I'm still very mad at him. I can hear him shuffle around and soon after his snores fill the silence. We didn't build a fire tonight. We ate leftover rabbit and berries. I can't sleep at all. After a while I decide to just sit up and watch the fire.

I don't want him around, prying into my life. I don't know how to get him to leave though. He'll just follow me when I leave. I could leave right now but he'd be left to die. I have to take him somewhere to get some supplies. Maybe then I can leave. I pull out the map I keep in the side pocket of my back. Its easy to reach in case I think I'm getting too close to a city. Looking at it through the light of the fire, I see theres a small town close by. I haven't been close enough to it to see if people live there or not, but I'm so tired of Jamie that I might as well check it out.

In the morning, after a long night of watching the fire die out and then staring at the place it used to be, I start walking in the direction of the town. He doesn't ask where we're going, which is helpful because I really don't want to talk to him at the moment. He walks behind me a ways, trying to keep up with me as I'm practically running.

"Why are we moving so fast?" He asks, out of breath. I ignore him and keep speed walking. He gets the hint and follows quietly. We reach highway after about a half hour.

"Break," I say stopping finally to take a sip of water. He leans up against a tree, breathing hard. I don't comment on how out of shape he is. This was our last bottle of water so after I took a drink I tossed it over to Jamie.

I didn't wait five minutes before I roughly grabbed the bottle out of Jamie's hands, shoved it back in my bag, and continued walking on. Jamie reluctantly followed, sighing under his breath. We didn't say anything as we both stuck to our own little worlds. I started thinking about why I wanted to get rid of him so bad. He was annoying with his mindless flirts and consistent requests, though he never complained when we had to keep moving nonstop. I don't know anything about him other than the fact that his name is Jamie, he's 23, and he's very cocky. 

Knowing him he was probably internet famous in his past, or even famous in general. I roll my eyes and slow down to walk next to him. While I was being left to starve, there was people out there who had everything. He looks like he's never had a meltdown in his life. The though just makes me want to get rid of him more.

"What's wrong? You've been staring at me for the last two minutes," He asks. "I can feel the hatred in my bones."

He fake shivers, and I have to push back a snarky comment. I walk ahead of him again. "Oh not this again," he groans.

I sigh. Today was going to be a long day.