Never Got Away

"That one" I said with a sly smile pointing to a cinnamon roll placed on display with a variety of other pastries. Shawn looked around nervously. "El there's a lot of people in here" he whispered to me. I rolled my eyes at him. He always had me do all the stealing. I glanced around the room quickly. He was right there was a lot of people here. I walked up to the delicious smelling display and pretended to be trying to figure out what I wanted.

"1, 2, 3". I grabbed and ran.

"Hey, hey come back here!" I looked back to see who the big booming voice belonged to. A tall, heavy bald guy, with a dark beard was starting to run after us. I laughed at the idea of him catching up with us.

I've been living like this my whole life. Taking and running. It's how I've kept myself alive. I met Shawn somewhere in New Jersey. I was 8 maybe 9. When you never get the chance to look at a clock time kinda becomes obsolete. He was running away from some foster home. He looked like he was nearly dead. His cheeks sunken in, and his skin clung to his bones. I showed him how to get food and would gave him most of mine, sense he was always too scared to steal. I guess things haven't changed that much sense then.

We ran around a corner and headed for an abandoned parking garage I spotted a few days ago. Without taking a second to catch my breath I bolted up 6 flights of stairs. I lost Shawn in my ascend. I placed my backpack with the goodies inside, on the ground and dropped.

I loved it. It was such an adrenaline rush. Shawn thought because we were both 16 now that we should get jobs and start making money. I told him that was a Stupid idea. This is the only life we know. And the only life we'll ever know.

I sprawled flat out on my back and closed my eyes. There where slow footsteps coming up the stairs. I opened my eyes to see Shawn looking over me with a pure look of exhaustion. He sat down on the concrete, unzipped my bag and looked inside it. "Your welcome", I said. He looked back at me with a big stupid smile. "You got me a blueberry muffin". "Can you hand me that I'm hungry" I responded, pointing to the cinnamon bun. "Thank you" he said. "Mhmm I mumbled with a big bite of it in my mouth.

We ate in silence both admiring the view of the city. The sun was starting to set over the horizon. Tall skyscrapers littering the ground below us, cars packed together traveling to unknown places. I broke the silence with a question. "Wanna do something fun tonight?" He gave me a look of concern, but I went on. "When we were walking this morning I heard this lady talking about some garden. I guess it was made around the early 1900s" "Okay" he said slowly waiting for more of an explanation. "There's this huge mansion that towers over it. And the guy was so rich he built these statue, memorial things just for his kids". Shawn thought bout what I said for a second then replied "so you wanna go see some pretty flowers? Ok I guessed it sounds cool" he said shrugging and taking the last bite of his muffin. I shook my head and looked to the side. "No, no it's not-, I- I don't wanna just go. I think it's stupid how he just used all that money jus to build some stupid statues" Shawn looked at me confused. "So what exactly do you wanna do?" I thought about how I should respond for a second. I knew he wasn't gonna like my response. I looked in his big blue eyes. "I wanna mess it up"
Shawn looked down at his feet and was shaking his head. "Your crazy El" he said. "Fine I'll go by myself", I said as I pulled 2 cans of spray paint out of my backpack. He looked at the cans in my hands, then up at me. "Were did you even get those? Stealing is one thing but- but vandalizing that's not like you".

I stood up and looked over the city. Things always look so different when your far above it. For a second the bustling city almost seems organized and calm.

The sun is almost completely behind the towering buildings now. I took a deep breath then kneeled down on the ground and shoved the spray cans in my bag. I threw it over my shoulder and started heading down the stairs.