Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
13
kids in america – the muffs
"look boy, don't check your watch, not another glance. I'm not leaving now, honey not a chance"
"What are we going to do?" I was close to tears as I put the cooler back on the glass kitchen table. "He already knew our faces, now he knows our names. And the cops are after us!"
"I know, Charis." Nate sighed, pulling away from me, head in his hands as he cursed, kicking the wall and leaving a dent in the plaster.
I was thankful that the kitchen was empty, a country song made popular by fucking TikTok filtering in from the patio door. But I was being naïve. There were bound to be other people in the house. Other people who would recognize us both from the news report and have the cops here in minutes.
"Maybe we should turn ourselves in, Nate. The report said we're not considered suspects."
"Think about it, Forrester. Because clearly you haven't thought that through!" Nate shouted, showing me a side of him I always knew was there. A side of him I should have expected to get tonight, given the circumstances.
Nonetheless, I was disappointed. I thought I was seeing a Nate Macauley that nobody else knew. Turns out, he was just hiding that one underneath his nineties boy-band exterior.
"Don't shout at me!" I snapped. "You're not the only one with something at risk here. Rehab. That's what's waiting for me. But at least I'll still be alive. And maybe it will be a wake up call. It will show my parents that I'm not fucking okay and haven't been for a while."
Nate laughed, a terrible, terrible sound in this context. "And what then? I bet Lords has a contact there. And if not at rehab, than in the police and that is how he has managed to stay one step ahead." The words cut like a knife, digging into my heart and wrapping around it like barbed wire. "Don't you get it? Whatever way you cut it, life as you know it ends tonight. We're always going to be running, Charis."
"Fuck you, Nate." I spat. "I'd rather take my chances with the cops than spend another minute taking orders from you."
"I've kept us alive this far! We wouldn't be here without me!"
I shook my head, backing out of the kitchen, towards a doorframe that lead god knows where. I just knew that I couldn't stay in a room with Nathaniel Macauley any longer or I was going to blow my top.
And someone was going to get hurt.
"That's not good, Nate! It's not normal! No eighteen-year-old should know how to hide form drug dealers. This was a mistake. Getting involved with you was a mistake."
"Charis, wait!" There was remorse in his tone, but I was past the point of caring as I turned around and ran.
I didn't want to hear another word from Nate as I walked around, dodging bodies and solo cups and couples making out against walls in an attempt to find a quiet place. Somewhere to hide.
