A Mute Friendship

Evasion

Tegan sighed as he gathered up his books. He had gotten detention for not paying attention in class, and it had finally ended.

Standing, the boy slowly began to make his way from the history classroom, making his way, faster than usual, to his locker.

Tegan looked around. He felt like there were eggshells everywhere and he wasn't supposed to break any of them.

Ever since last night, when Soundwave had spoken to him, he had been on edge, dodging people in the halls and keeping an eye out for any vehicles that matched the strange robot's descriptions.

A hand on his shoulder caused Tegan to jump higher than he ever had before, scattering his books everywhere as he spun around, pressing his back to his locker.

Miko and Jack stood before him, only adding to his fear.

Tegan stared at them for several seconds as they looked back at him, and he slowly reached down, without taking his eyes off of them, and gathered up his books, dumping them into his locker before shutting it.

Staring at the two in front of him, who stared back with somewhat confused expressions, Tegan slowly began to move sideways before racing down the hall.

Looking back, Tegan could see the blurred forms of the other two teens stand still for a moment before they began to move after him. There was no way he was going to let them catch him!

Tegan raced from the school and glanced another look behind him, totally missing the car parked at the curb, crashing into it's side and bouncing off.

Tegan placed a hand to his head as he slowly looked up to find a large, green jeep sitting at the curb.

Scrabbling backwards, Tegan got to his feet and ran down the road. Oh no! Oh no! Oh no! The boy's mind raced with his fear-filled heart as he ran down the street, making a beeline in the general direction of his home.

Looking back, the boy saw the blurred form of a green jeep following slowly, the two teens still pursuing on foot.

Tegan turned a corner into an alley and looked around. It was a dead end.

Looking back in the direction he had come, Tegan knew that there was no way he was going to be able to get past them, so he looked around for somewhere to hide, eyes landing on a dumpster.

Tegan stared for a moment before shrugging. There wasn't much choice, and it wouldn't be entirely unpleasant... Vince had made him spend a lot of time in them before, so it wouldn't be that bad...

Tegan knew they were getting closer with every moment he contemplated what to do, and ran to the dumpster, climbing in and shutting the lid quietly.

Breathing laboured, Tegan placed a hand over his mouth as he listened, eyes wide with fear as he lay in the trash, the scent terrible, but not unbearable.

Listening in the darkness, Tegan waited. Because he couldn't hear what was going on, he wouldn't really know when it was safe to get out, so he would wait... wait longer than they would be able to, before leaving.

Any other time, the boy would've found the prospect of lying in the trash like a worthless, helpless creature hurtful and insulting, but at the moment, he welcomed it and waited silently.