Runaway(ON HOLD)

7

    A/N:  I'M SO SORRY FOR NOT UDATING I WAS ON VACATION BUT I LOVE YOU ALL AND I MIGHT BE ABLE TO UPDATE AGAIN TONIGHT I'LL SEE

Also let me know if you're liking the story in the comments please and thank you<3

     "Autumn!" I jerked awake, sitting up quickly. Dazed and disoriented, I looked around to see that I was outside, in the empty lot next to my house. The sun shone bright in my eyes, making me blink.

     "Autumn! What the hell?" Aunty shouted again, slowly making her way through the field. Rubbing my eyes, I realized I must've fallen asleep out here last night with--

     Harry. Where was Harry?!

     I looked around frantically, but the boy was nowhere to be seen. I let out a small sigh of relief. That would've been really really bad. I smiled fondly at the grass next to me, which was still flattened from when Harry was laying there.

     "Autumn, what the hell are you doing out here?!" Aunty screeched, finally able to reach me.

     I froze for a second. "Uh . . . I was . . . I don't know."

     "Bullshit you don't know! Now tell me the truth," she spat.

     I stood up slowly, brushing my hands on my jeans and giving myself a second to think. "I must've sleep walked out here," I blurted out.

     "Since when do you sleep walk?" Aunty accused.

     I shrugged. "I dunno."

     Aunty stared at me with a hard expression, making me shuffle uncomfortably. "Autumn, if you're lying to me, I'm gonna have to ground you for two weeks. You have one more chance . . ." she threatened.

     "I'm not lying," I protested stubbornly. Aunty just sighed.

     "Alright then. Don't do it again. Now, come inside and get ready. You're gonna miss the bus."

     I didnt miss the bus. But only because I didn't take a shower.

     So I showed up to school with twigs in my hair and dirt smeared across my face and stains all over my back from sleeping on the gross ground. And the people in my class did not let me forget it.

     "Eewwww Autumn! You're nastyyy," James Anderson sneered.

     "Am not!" I protested, trying to focus on the number line we were supposed to be filling in.

     "Yeah you are! You probably have cooties," he said, and a few others giggled.

     "Yeah, cooties! Stay away from Autumn, she has cooties!" Leah Pendleton chimed in.

     "I don't have cooties! I just slept outside last night, that's all," I tried explaining.

     "Eewwww you're like a dog!" Piper Landon said.

     "Nu uh!" I argued.

     "Uh huh!! You slept outside 'cause you're a smelly gross animal, that's why! A smelly gross animal with cooties!" James Anderson taunted again. He was the meanest out of them all.

     "Am not!" I tried again desperately, but they had stopped listening. I fought to hold back tears.

    "Autumn's an animal! Autumn's an animal!" Some of them started singing. At this point, almost half the class was paying attention to me instead of their number line.

     James Anderson looked at me triumphantly. "Maybe we should just call you Animal instead of Autumn!"

     "Children, use your inside voices please!" Ms. Evans said gently. James Anderson stuck his tongue out at me, and went back to focusing on his number line, along with the others who had been teasing. I bit my lip and did the same.

      "They were all being really mean and James Anderson kept calling me an animal and saying I had cooties and then at recess, James Anderson and Leah Pendleton threw rocks at me and then threw sticks in front of me and told me to play fetch," I vented to Harry, my face screwed up in a mixture of hurt, embarrasement, and anger.

     "Damn, kids are nasty these days," Harry replied quietly.

     I nodded even though I knew his gaze was directed towards the star-filled sky.  "I tried really hard to be a pizza that didn't care what they said, but it was hard.  It really was, Harry."

    "Need me to go knock some sense into some of them?  A few black eyes here, few bruises there, maybe even some broken bones thrown in . . ." I snapped my head to the side and stared at Harry, horrified.  He noticed my facial expression and added quickly, "Kidding! I'm just kidding."

     I sighed, and looked back up at the sky.  "I just don't get why I don't fit in.  I'm not that different."

     "I had the same problem, kid, don't worry.  Especially in high school, it got a lot worse.  Except the older kids have a much more . . . colorful vocabulary.  All your life, there's gonna be people who make fun of you.  You just kinda gotta ignore them and keep on going."

     "Is that what you did?"

    Harry chuckled humorlessly.  "Not really.  I just ran away from all my problems, which was really not the most effective way to solve them 'cause they just got exponentially worse."

     "You ran away because of bullies?" I asked eagerly, hoping to maybe get his story out of him.  I turned to look at him, but he just stared at the sky, hard. Defeated, I slowly looked back up at the sky.  "Sorry."

     "One day, kid.  One day, I'll tell you.  But not today."

      The night was cloudy, so we couldn't see very many stars, but that was okay.  After such a hard day and not a very good sleep last night, I enjoyed being in the company of someone who didn't think I was an animal or had cooties.

     After a few minutes of comfortable silence,  I whispered, "Harry?"  He didn't respond.  I looked to my right, and noticed that Harry's eyes were closed, his eyelashes casting a long shadow down his cheek.  From the sound of his even breathing, I realized he had fallen asleep.  "Psst, Harry."

     I poked him on the cheek, and his eyes fluttered open.  "Sorry, kid."

     "Long day?" I asked, giving him an overly sympathetic face.

    Harry grinned.  "The longest."

     "Me too.  Wanna play hide and seek?" I giggled.

     Harry grinned and hopped up, then checked the watch he always wore on his left wrist.  "Only for a bit, then you've got to go to bed.  You have school tomorrow."

     I groaned and stood up.  "I don't wanna gooooooo."

     "Too bad, kid.  You've gotta load that brain of yours full of information so you can grow up to be smart!" 

     "Are you smart?"

     "Of course.  Seven times three is twenty-one, and the square root of sixty-four is . . . ten."

    I nodded, impressed.  "Wow!"

     "Yup!  So, you've gotta go to school so that you can learn all that stuff," Harry smiled.

     "Okay, fine.  But first, hide and seek!"

    Harry hesitated for a moment, before extending out his pinky.  "You promise on the stars that you'll go to bed right after?"

     I stared at him, eyes wide.  Aunty's face and warning flashed through my mind.  I still didn't understand why she refused to let me say it, or why it bothered her so much. 

     But as long as I didn't say it around her, I should be okay.  I didn't see the harm, and if Harry said it, then it was okay for me to say it. 

     I locked  my pinky around his enormous one.  "I promise on the stars."