Playing Criminal

22 - Life on the Wanted List

We finally came to rest in someone’s backyard, using our stolen bags of food as pillows during the night.

Not that it mattered much.

I would wake up with a pounding heart every so often, certain that the owners were going to discover us and call the cops.

And it seemed like every other time I woke up; I could see Jack sitting up straight gazing at the sky. Though I wanted too, I didn’t say a word to him, letting him have a moment of peace before morning came, and with it a whole new set of problems.

Who honestly knew whether or not we could trust Todd’s parents? No matter how much I wanted to believe Todd, I knew that his sense of reality was a bit warped. His parents could easily manipulate him in one way or another.

But what other choice did we have?

There were no other choices. And so we’d have to throw ourselves off the cliff, not knowing whether we’ll land on a nice, soft feather bed or in a pit filled with three foot long metal spikes.

Whether a gift or a curse, paying a phone call to Todd’s parents was the only course of action.

Still, it made eating that stolen food even harder than it had to be. My stomach was rollingin squeamish nervousness.

“This way,” Jack tugged on my hand as he led Todd and me down another alley.

“Where are we going again?” I frowned, “We’ve already passed about a gazillion payphones.”

I thought we were getting the phone call over with, but apparently not. Instead Jack had been trying to drag us around as quickly as possible without attracting undue attention to ourselves.

And it was really starting to get on my nerves.

“You’ll see,” He muttered as he dragged us into an increasingly shabby part of the small town.

“This is ridiculous,” I pouted.

“Hold on Princess, I’m just trying to help us out a bit in the long run. You said yesterday that we stuck out, and, well, I’m going to fix that.”

“Okay…”

I remained confused until some way, somehow, I found myself standing in front of a thrift store.

Oh. Clothes.

“You’re a genius,” I turned to Jack, grinning.

“Thank you, thank you very much,” He put on his best Elvis impression before giving a short bow and gesturing us towards the shop.

I entered the building and was hit by a musty wave of air.

My eyes gazed over the racks as I let my fingers trail across the used clothes.

Nondescript, nondescript, I thought.

“I thought you didn’t approve of stealing,” I jumped as Jack’s low voice sounded softly in my ear as his breath fanned out across my neck.

“I don’t,” Then my eyes widened a bit, “We don’t have money…right,” I sighed softly so that only Jack would be able to hear.

“Don’t worry about it princess- half of these things are things no one wants anymore –we’re not hurting anyone.” Jack pinched the side of my waist lightly.

“I guess…” I bit my lip as I turned around to face him. Looking down at his t-shirt up to his face, I saw that we really stood out.

“Hey,” I pursed my lips, “Does that mean that you’re going to take all your piercings out?”