THE RUNNING - juiceofthemoon 🌘

Chapter Four

   Preston grabbed my hand and dragged me up the rickety old staircase. I looked around noticing everyone grabbing their bags and shoving whatever they could inside them. As we walked past Cara's room I could hear her muttering so I peaked inside and saw her stuffing her bear in her backpack while muttering "Get in there Wiggles." Wiggles was the name of the bear, was what I was assuming.

   Preston continued to hold my hand as he pulled me down to what I assumed was his room. He handed me a pillowcase and asked me if I would hold it open for him while he put all his belongings inside. I watched as he stuffed in a few sweatshirts, t-shirts and sweatpants, along with a comb and a stuffed gnome.

    "I like the gnome." I said gesturing down to the bag.
    Preston looked down at the pillowcase and smiled. "Thank you." He said looking up at me. "His name is Gnomey." He said pronouncing it 'Guh-nome-ee'.
   "Where did you get it?" I asked feeling the gnomes ragged beard.

    Preston looked up, looking like he was trying to remember when he got it. "A good friend gave it to me." He said said, smiling at the memory. "They were a very good friend of mine. A sister kind of."
  "What happened to them?" I asked.

   Preston stopped and put his chin on his knee. "You don't need to tell me if you don't want to." I said placing a hand on his shoulder.
   "No it's ok." He sighed. "She was killed." He said softly. "For reasons I can't really say." He finished looking up at me with sad eyes.

   My breath was caught in my throat. Preston was only 17. It was so sad how someone so close to him was killed so early in his life. Not that anyone you know should ever be killed in your lifetime. "I was 15 when it happened." He spoke up. "I joined the runners a few months later." He shrugged.
    That made me shocked. He had been with no blood family for two years?? My mother wasn't even close to great, but at least she was blood family.

   "Don't matter though." Preston said smiling up at me like everything was ok again. "They're my family now." He said gesturing down the hall to the other rooms. "And now you're in the family too." He said, poking my nose. "You don't get a choice."

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   Me and Preston walked out the door into the bright sunlight, to see the others piling they're bags into a a scratched up minivan. The air felt somewhat crisp, and leaves were falling all over the minivan, which Aviv seemed to be very annoyed by, because whenever a leaf fell on the car her face would scrunch up and she would aggressively shove it onto the ground, and step on it. Grayson was sitting on the top strapping a large suitcase to roof, and Cameron was pumping air in the tires, while the girls were organizing the seats. Grayson smiled at me and hopped down. He nodded to Preston, and he gave me squeeze on the shoulder as he went to go help the others.

   "You're probably still wondering what's going on." Grayson laughed.
   "Uhm, maybe." I giggled, still obviously confused on where we were going and why.
   "I'll try to explain it to you the best I can." He said, jumping back up on to the roof of the car. He held out his hand for me to take, and yanked me up, which proceeded to me landing on the roof belly first, as he laughed. I then, sat down next to him and he looked at the house.

   "The runners," he started. "Is a group of outcasts. We've all been mistreated. We've all been let go by those we thought would always care for us. And all because of our talents. We've been seen as weird or irregular or not normal. You know." He shrugged.
   "That sounds exactly like my situation." I said rubbing my cheek.       "Exactly." Grayson smiled. "What happened to you anyway? I've been curious to know." He said propping his chin on his fist.

    I sighed and told him all about that night. About Lauren. About Drake. About Tom, and about my mom. He was a good listener, even though he did interrupt a few times to give input. When I finished he let out a long exhale. "That sucks. I can't say I haven't experienced what you have." He said.

   My eyebrows curled. "What do you mean??" I said to him, hoping he would tell me his story about how he ended up with the runners. "Welp..." He sighed. "I used to actually have a pretty stable job in a university. I was bound to be a professor there some day. I was told I could someday end up teaching aerodynamics to a huge group of people."

    "So you must be pretty smart then." I smiled at him."
   Grayson chuckled, pulling his hair off of his face. "No shit." He said smiling down at me. " Short story - my job was taken from me. Some smartass with daddy's money bought himself in. I was told I had no need anymore. When I went home and told the news to my dad I was kicked out."

   I was shocked. "Just like that???" I said dumbfounded.
   He nodded. "Just like that." He finished sighing. "But, I have a new family now. All of that happened when I was 16, and I've never wanted to go back ever since I found these crackheads." He said jokingly.

   We sat up there for awhile longer before Cara called us down into the minivan. The vehicle was a beige color, as well as the seats and there were three in the way back, two in the  middle, and the driver and passenger seat in the front.

   "Don't go on the left side." Cara giggled. "Cameron broke that door."
   "How do you break a car door??" I said shaking my head.
   "When we were driving one time he pulled it open while we were driving and then hung onto the window like he was flipping in the wind. This car is so old it literally couldn't handle it and busted." She said making an explosive motion with her hands. We both were laughing for awhile at that as we climbed in the van. Cameron proceeded to try and shush us both as we kept laughing.
  
   "Where are we going??" I asked frantically.
   Cameron turned around and smiled at me. "We're going to Los Angeles."
    "But why??" I asked even more frantic. I was still so confused to this whole new norm.

   All of the teenagers gave each other a look. "Because..." Preston started. "We love traveling. That's our way of living. We get bored if we stay in one place too long."
     They all smiled at me and turned their heads back to the front. Grayson started then started the engine. "Everyone got everything?" He yelled back. We all nodded, and he drove off.

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