The End Of The F***ing World (TEOTFW Novel Adaptation)

Episode Three.

When I woke up I felt warm arms around me. It made me think of times before that I've been so close to somebody. It made me think about my mum. It made me want to go and be on my own for a minute.

As I tried carefully to peel Alyssa off of me, she woke up.

I sighed. "Hey."

Sometimes James felt like a boy I could love. Like, really love. Then other times he felt like a total fucking stranger.

We had slept in, so we were late checking out of our room. As I slammed the money on the table the receptionist from the day before raised her eyebrows. "It's an extra thirty pounds for late checkout."

"Fine." I said, getting yet more money out and adding it to the pile.

"That's a lot of cash." said the receptionist.

"We robbed the bank." I said. "Keep the change."

We didn't really know where to go after that, and James wouldn't make a decision, so we ended up wandering around. There were more fields here than in our area, so we went exploring.

"We could get a train to your dad's." James said from behind me.

"Maybe." I said. What if he didn't want to see me?

"Well, shall we?" James suggested.

"What?" I frowned.

"Get a train... To your dad's." He said.

He probably wouldn't even recognise me.

"Are we still going there?" James asked.

"Yeah, obviously." I snapped. "We should lie low for a bit, wait a couple of days before we get any trains or anything."

"Why?" He asked.

"Because we robbed a guy, James." I walked ahead.

"He assaulted me." James said.

"Doesn't matter." I shrugged. "We should go off the grid for a bit."

"Isn't your dad's off-grid?" James asked.

"Why are you so obsessed with my dad?" I wrinkled my nose.

"What? I'm not." He held his arms behind his back.

"He's miles away. We need to find somewhere nearby. Somewhere nice. It'll be like a mini break." I suggested.

We walked towards the first group of houses we saw. They had swimming pools, nice cars and huge windows. One didn't have any sign of life, so we broke into the garden. It was amazing.

"Holy shit." I started looking through the windows.

"How do you know?" James asked.

"Know what?" I didn't stop what I was doing.

"That this one's safe?"

"No obvious burglar alarm. A load of dust so no cleaner to worry about. Post: at least a week's worth." I picked up a rock.

"Is breaking and entering the best way of lying low?" He asked.

I shrugged and threw the rock through the front window. After climbing in, with James following faithfully, I looked around the downstairs. Everything looked expensive. 

"Cool." I unzipped my jacket.

There were loads of books around. James picked one up from a shelf where they were all the same. All blue with a title of 'Existential Exit.'