Before I Ran || Perrentes

Chapter 4: Bodies and Best Friends

"Wakey-wakey, rise and shine! Let's get moving. Come on. Chop-chop. Toodlepip, old chums."

Tony opened bleary eyes as he heard Vic groaning. "Jaime, shut up."

"You never have been a morning person," Jaime laughed, shaking Vic's shoulder gently. Moaning softly, Tony sat up, tossing the bedsheets away from his torso, disorientated and confused as to his surroundings. It took him a few moments to remember they were in a motel, a few hours away from Klamath Falls, Oregon. Light poured in through the window, curtains pulled back, and it splattered across the old, rust coloured carpet of the hotel room.

"Ugh," Tony groaned, clearing his throat. "Everything hurts."

"That's a tired ache," Mike explained. "Your arm probably isn't helping. There are some leaves in that bag over there."

"What time is it?"

"Eight," Jaime said cheerily. "In the morning."

"Someone get me a coffee," Vic grumbled sleepily, pulling the covers back up over his head. Tony yawned, stretched and then swung his legs out of the bed, planting them firmly on the floor. As he shook his head clear of drowsiness, he caught a whiff of his clothes and wrinkled his nose - he needed a fresh top desperately.

Contrary to Vic, he didn't find the time of morning so terrible; he usually got up a little earlier even, to be at the coffee shop for nine. Thinking about it, he felt a pang - not for his old life, but for the normalcy of it. He wondered if his boss was worried that he hadn't turned up for work for a few days, if he'd called Tony's home. He wondered what his parents had told him if he had, if they'd said he was just sick, or if they'd told him Tony was dead.

"I'll get you a coffee if you want," Tony said, standing and running a hand through his hair. "Anyone else?"

"Hey, don't sweat it," Mike said reassuringly. "I'll do it. Just...give yourself a minute to wake up."

Mike flicked on the kettle, which was already filled with water, and it's light came on as it rumbled gently. "Wasn't it your job to make coffee?"

"Not always coffee," Tony shrugged, going to the supply bag and rifling through it for the plastic bag of birch leaves. "Sometimes tea. If I was really lucky I got to grill sandwiches for people and serve them cake."

"Sweet," Mike laughed. Tony nodded, nostalgic as he chewed on a leaf and went to sit down on the desk chair.

"It was alright. It was this cute little place not too far from my street...they were the only place that would take me with no qualifications."

The kettle finished boiling and Mike picked it up by the handle, pouring the water into a ready prepared cup of black coffee granules. He frowned. "Wait, no qualifications?"

"Yeah," Tony confirmed. Jaime took the cup from Mike and brought it over to Vic, who groaned again as he was shaken back to waking status. Reluctantly, he allowed Jaime to rip the bedsheets away from his shoulders and he sat up a little, rubbing his eyes.

"What do you mean no qualifications? No grades?" Mike continued, baffled.

"No grades."

"But you're smart. You can't have flunked your entire education, you must have had something."

"I didn't have an education," Tony said blankly, and Mike's eyebrows shot up and his mouth hung open.

"You didn't go to high school?"

"I didn't go to school. My parents pulled me after fourth grade."

"But it's the law to provide your kid with an education if you aren't in school. They should have home schooled you..."