DISGUYSED

Take a Walk

“I thought you said you weren’t telling anyone.” Paxton lamented in the car seat next to me, his eyes on the road and dull as the gray asphalt below us.

“I didn’t!” I complained, peeking back in the back seats to see a chattering Parker, Aaron, Drake and Alex. I grimaced at Alex, even though his back was faced towards me. I did this so I could get away from them all, especially him. And although my heart seemed to like the change of plans, I certainly did not.

“Then how did they know?” Paxton muttered, quickly glancing at me.

Parker must’ve overheard our conversation and turned his blonde head around, grinning bright like a thousand suns, “Guilty!” He cheered, as if he were proud of it.

Yet again, I assumed Parker used one of his mysterious and unquestioned tactics to obtain this information. I was afraid to ask, so I just sat there angrily.

“And what a good thing you did!” Aaron said, giving him a high five, “We would have left poor Paxton and Ron all alone!” He said, mock pouting.

Paxton muttered something inaudible under his breath before Alex said, “Can’t let that happen.” and then flashed me an all knowing smirk.

I scowled and whipped my head back around towards the road. It didn’t take long to notice that with his spare hand, Paxton was scribbling down something on one of the old receipts that laid there on the floor. When he had finished, he checked to see that the coast was clear in the rearview mirror before passing me the note. I grabbed the note eagerly and read the words over and over again:

At 7:45, we run.

That made me grin. I looked to the clock it was 7:38 and we were about two more minutes away from the theater. I wrote back in my illegible chicken-scratch writing and passed it over to Paxton:

Where do we go?

He quickly wrote down a response, as if he’d already planned days ago. In a second, he’d finished the note. He passed it discreetly again to me:

Anywhere.

I bit back a smile. I scrawled down immediately:

Count me in.

****

“What movie are we seeing?” Parker asked at precisely 7:42.

“Pfft.” Drake snorted, pushing himself to the front of the candy stand, “What does the movie matter? I want candy,” He said eagerly, handing the stunned cashier a 20 dollar bill and picking out several boxes of candy.

Parker ignored him, “So what movie?”

“That one with the guy.” Alex answered Parker, shoving his hands in his pockets.

“Oh, I heard that one was good.” Paxton said, rolling his eyes sarcastically.

Alex scoffed and turned back, “I’ll buy the tickets. Ron, you come with me.” He said bitterly, taking a sip of his coke.

My blood ran cold. I couldn’t leave now. I had to follow out with Paxton. “Why me?” I asked, knitting my brows into a grimace.

“You have the money. And since you and Adamson were coming without us, you get to pick the movie.” He said, grinning like I’d won a prize, “Hooray for you!”

“Well, you can pick it without me.” I said, “I uh—have to go. To the bathroom.” I said quickly, flashing Paxton a glance that said ‘Meet me outside when the movie starts.’

“We’ll just go see that one with the guy.” Paxton shrugged as I walked off, almost walking into the girl’s bathroom. I swerved and took in a deep breath. I’d never been in a boy’s bathroom before. Well, once, when I was in grade school and we were curious to see what it looked like. Sighing, I walked in. I let out a sigh of relief. Nobody was in there. With a deep breath, I mustered up the courage to enter one of the stalls and prepared to stay put for another few minutes.

_________________

Alex’s POV

“Well, you can pick it without me. I uh—have to go. To the bathroom.” Ron said, her face red. She quickly turned on her heel and stormed off towards the girl’s bathroom, but corrected herself halfway there.

“We’ll just go see that one with the guy.” Adamson suggested, shrugging it off.

I rolled my eyes. “Whatever,” I muttered, setting my coke down to purchase the tickets. I didn’t know what was up with Ron lately. Maybe it was her time of the month.

“Alright,” The woman said, grinning a pearly white smile, “Theater 6, down the hall and to your right.”

“Thanks.” I nodded, walking off and handing everyone their tickets. I handed one to Paxton, but he took it and stayed put. “What is it?” I asked, irritated. “The movie’s starting now.”

“I’m going to wait out here for Ron. We’ll meet up with you guys.” He said, trying his best to force a weary smile. I didn’t buy it for a second.

“Cool story, bro.” Parker said monotonously, snatching his ticket. “Alright, we’ll see you soon.”

I felt my fists clench. My stomach lurched. I contorted my face into a grimace and I wasn’t completely sure why. I mean, my hatred for Paxton today was at pretty normal level, so why did I seem so mad? It was like this every time he was with Ron. I felt a bitter feeling in my stomach. Maybe it wasn’t a coincidence…

As everyone began to walk down the corridor and turned the corner, I followed hesitantly.

What were Ron and Paxton being so sneaky for? Was there something going on between the two that I didn’t know?

I peeked over my shoulder as we turned out of sight. Ron peeked out of the bathroom and walked over to Paxton, bright eyed and with a huge grin. I narrowed my eyes in annoyance. They weren’t leaving to come follow us. In fact, they started to leave.

“Alex, c’mon, dude!” Drake called from over his shoulder, starting at me as I stayed put in the corner of the corridor.

I couldn’t leave with them. Using my natural, always right instincts, I took my coke, held it out in the open and quickly dropped it, a pool of soda gathering at my feet, some splattering onto my shirt.

“Dude!” Parker whined angrily, “What’d you do that for?”

I struggled for an explanation, “It…slipped.”

“I can see that.” Parker said, furrowing his brows.

“Y’know, I’ll go get some more!” I suggested brightly, already running up the corridor back into the lobby before they could protest.

Of course, I didn't get more.

I buttoned up my coat and exited the building, looking to my right and left but not seeing anyone. Luckily, a laugh emanated from over to my right; a laugh I knew that could only belong to Ron.

Slowly, I shuffled my feet quietly down to the right of the building where I saw two figures. One distinguishably taller then the other, who hovered at around 5 foot 7. They both had dark brown hair, but the tall one’s was more black then brown.

I smirked. It was them.

Once again, my James Bond senses had come in handy. I heard soft laughter and talking, but couldn’t make out any words as they walked along the pathway. I took the hood that hung off my overcoat and covered my head. If they turned around, at least they wouldn’t be able to tell that it was me right away.

I was thankful, yet unthankful that Chicago was such a populous area. I easily blended in with the crowd, but because of all the noise, I couldn’t hear a thing of what they were talking to each other about. I sighed and hung my head low, hoping an opportunity would present itself to hear what they were laughing and bantering on about.