Tripping| Van McCann

1.The Thief

I wasn't suggesting that I was one of those bullied, but it's just that things always happened to be easier when there's no one else around me. So I'd prefer to do everything in the manner of solitude.

So you'd ask, "do ya have a friend or nah?" Clearly, the answer to the question is nah. I'd always been alone, and I'll always be alone. Don't even think about getting a boyfriend, which I am the last option on earth the boys should be seeking for. I wasn't from a privileged family, but rather a broken, corrupted, sickening one. And I look none of the same like those popular girls or nerdy ones who have pretty face and nice body shape. I am nobody. That's the fact that matters.

So my story sounded quite boring right? And yeah, if it was about me graduating from my secondary school and getting into uni. But as my plan of escaping from my own family.

- - -

The day I planned to get disappeared was the day right after my graduation. I made my mum believed that I was the normal kid who would've gone on a graduation trip with the best mates of one. I even paid someone for acting the script out. But things went a little unexpectedly the day before my plan started.

The guy who I'd recruited said he couldn't make it up the other day right before I was going to get away.

Anxiety aroused and I was very mad for sure. Not because there's a potential risk of not being able to get the plan go off well but because I couldn't find anyone else to do it for me. Just as I said I had no real friends.

I sat on my bed, scrolling through my contact list on the mobile. It's only a few of them. And most of those were the numbers of my mum, my mum's new boyfriend, my mum's ex, my mum's ex ex, my mum's ex ex ex, and finally to my real dad.

I hopelessly put the phone away. I laid down on the bed as I stared into the clock, it's 7:30pm. Dinner should be ready. I heard the rattling of bottles downstairs. It had to be my mum's current lover, who should be back from work now.

I walked downstairs idly. The kitchen light was off, which was a bit queer at the scene. There's no one in the living room. Was I hallucinating or was there a ghost making noises? I pushed the thought away and made my way nearer to the kitchen door. It's shut before I went back from school, but it's left ajar, which I could barely gather a vision within the crack. There's no light lit inside and the rattling continued, making an obfuscating noise.

I stepped closer towards the kitchen and peeked through the little space. There's a dark figure in the kitchen and he/she was trying to find something. So there's a thief trying to steal stuffs from my house. Quite interesting. Hmmm.

I stayed silent, trying to not let myself panic at the thought that the thief had a knife or so. And it was in the kitchen! Gosh! Couldn't you just shut up? You have to do something. Self-defence-ish. I swiftly grabbed the baseball bat that was fixated onto the wall in the living room, counted three seconds, kicked the door open, pointed the bat at the guy and shone my phone torch onto the person. Neat, fast and effective enough.

It was a boy, who's looked about the same age as me. He's tall and fit. I'd probably seen him somewhere before. His jaw dropped open as the bottle he grabbed slipped under his hand to his feet. "Ouch," he winced. I turned around to switch the lights on to have better captured what had happened around there. Oh, it's my neighbour's son. The McCann's.

"What are you doing in my kitchen?" I took a step closer, waving my bat at him. He bounced backwards a little,  an uneasy look appeared on his face.

"Erm...I..." he stuttered.

"What?" I glared at him, his facial expression became tenser.

He took a deep breath and spoke,"I live at the next door and my parents ran out of peppers for dinner tonight so they ask me to come and see if you have any and would like to share some of those with us." He finished off the phrases within seconds and it took me almost a minute to figure out what he had just said.

"I thought there's nobody here and I just came in through the window to see if there's any. But yeah, now I've found it. Thank you and perhaps sinnabit, lass." He waved at me and took the bottle away, heading back to the window and to his house.

"Wait," I shut the window in front of him. He turned back to look at me, "I'll go from the front door, innit?" He was ready to get pass me and head to the front door of mine. But I stopped him there with the bat pointing at his stomach. "No, you can't leave like this, lad. I can call the police because you just kind of broke into my house," I said in a matter-of-fact like tone.

"Okay, I mean I am terribly sorry for breaking into yours without notifying but I hardly see anyone here and I was eager to get these," he looked a bit astounded by me words but he tried and kept his tone calm, attempting to cover the anxiety with a smile.

Maybe I could use this as a chance to get rid of this place tomorrow since I really need someone to help me with it.

"Alright. I can let you go. But do you have a car?" I stared at him coolly.

"Yeah?" He frowned.

"Available tomorrow or not?"

"Got some free time off the week so yeah."

"Alright. I need some help. So can you pick me up here tomorrow at 9am? No worries, I'll pay you for the ride," I tried to act sincerely as I put the best effort in it.

"I think I can?" He frowned. "It's just weird that you look so serious because you want a ride." He laughed nervously, the dimples appeared on his face. "Never mind, I'll pick you up at 9 then."

"Thanks for that. You can leave at the front door," I pointed the way out to him.

"Ah, forget to mention, I'm Van by the way," he stopped in front of the door and offered his hand out for me to shake.

"Samantha, just Sammy anyway," I shook his hand.

"Sinnabit," he trailed off at the door.

My plan's going to work out.

*****
Author notes:
It's been long since I uploaded or started to write a full fanfic. Hope you guys like it and just let me know what's your opinion of the story by commenting down your thoughts! Cheers! x