On the Run

Chapter Four: Each Other's Team

        "I can't believe that worked," Ty said, skaing his head while chuckling.

        "Same," I said, grinning. Our plans were crazy, but somehow worked.

        "Now we just have to worry about the police finding us driving," Ty said, watching carefully out the window. I waved my hand and said, "Nah, don't worry about that. If we do get caught, we'll just run for an empty train cart or something." We laughed at my partially-serious, part-sarcastic answer. I didn't like worrying. I just wanted to live for what was happening at the moment. Be spontaneous. We were shapeshifters, after all. We could literally slip from the hands of the law by shifting into our animal counterparts.

        I turned up the old radio, which cracked a few times with static before breaking into song. "Team" by Lorde was playing.

        We live in cities you'll never see on screen. Not very pretty but we sure know how to run things. Livin' in ruins of a palace within my dreams. And you know, we're on each other's team.

        We jumped on the interstate and started for a 10 hour drive to SoCal.

        ***

        We didn't want to risk getting seen, so Ty shifted into a wolf and retrieved a few packages of food. We had stopped at an exit for dinner. My stomach was growling intensely as I bit into my peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I longed for a nice, heated meal as we sat in our pickup, inhaling cold dinner options. The sky already was a deep blue, even though it was only 6. The fall days were turning shorter. 

        "How long do you think Tess will let us stay?" I asked Ty. Tess was our aunt, who was only 29. She's 13 years younger than our mother.

        "I don't know," Ty said. It was pretty quiet in the car. We hadn't seen her in so long. Five years, to be exact. I didn't know if she would hate us for things that had happened, or take us in willingly.

        "What do we do if she doesn't let us stay?" I said. I didn't like the vunerability in my voice. It made me feel weak.

        "Don't worry, Rae. We'll be fine. We've been fine on our own this whole time. We'll figure something out," Ty said reassuringly. Ty could be really helpful to look up to sometimes. His words gave me some relief, but nothing could completely put my nerves at rest. Even though I didn't want to talk much more, I still said, "I don't know how you deal with all this. You seems so fine all the time, but you have no one guiding you." Even though Ty allowed me to do unruly things, he could still be serious and guiding when I needed it.

        "You know mom is watching over us," Ty said, quietly and sort of hesitantly; this was a touchy subject for the both of us.

        Something boils up inside of me and I can't help but blurt it out. "Mom would never let this happen..." I say with a hushed tone, almost in a whisper. A song playing lightly in the background was the only other sound. Ty had a sad look in his eyes. I hated the quietness. I hated the resentment filled in my voice. I hated the bitterness in the air. I shook my head and said, "Okay, I don't know why I said that. Sorry."

        Ty leaned over to give me a hug. "It's okay. I miss her too. We all do." I took a deep and nodded.

        "I'll drive." Ty switch seats with me and looked over to see if I was still okay. We continued down the seemingly never-ending road. I turned my head away from him as we passed by cars that soon turned into blurs of lights, clouded by tears that dripped down my cheeks.