☁️Little Charlie☁️

CH 21// Goodbye

"You're father will be going to trial next week". Mark said looking at Charlie through the rear mirror. Charlie stayed slumped in his seat, looking out the car window. He watched as they passed by houses and other people. "Theres a nice Lady who said she would be more than happy to take you in for now. Her name is Mia Harper". Charlie sighed through his nose and dug his hands into his hoodie pockets. "We can stop by your house real quick so you can pack whatever you need".

After a few minutes they arrive at the house. Mark waits in the car while Charlie goes inside for the last time.
As he walks into the house, he couldn't help but still have that same fear, as if David could suddenly appear from any corner. He goes to his room and grabs his bag from his closet. He shoves a few things of clothes in, a few T-shirts, sweatpants, socks, boxers, and an extra pair of sneakers. He then took his Teddy bear in hand, packed up his saved up money (108 dollars and 37 cents), and walked down to the kitchen. He rummaged through the fridge and cubbards until he had a few protein bars, bottled water, trail mix, chips, and he even made a few sandwiches. After he was all packed up, he peeked through the blinds of the livingroom window. Mark was still in the car looking down the street and tapping his hands on the steering wheel to a song in his head.

With a shaky hand, he closed the blinds back up and walked back to the kitchen, and out the back door. He ran across the backyard, and kept running as far away from the car as he could go. He stopped to catch his breath when he was a few blocks down but kept up the pace.

He didn't stop until he reached the bus stop about 3 miles away from his house. He looked behind him every so often as he waited for the bus, knowing that Mark would have called the police by now to look for him. His legs bounced as he waited for the bus. what was taking it so long?
Finally after 10 minutes, the city bus arrived. He quickly boarded, dropped the bus fee in the box, and had a seat in the far back. He put his hood up and held his bag close to his chest.

As the bus drived off, he sighed and turned his phone on. As soon as the lock screen popped up, he received all the missed messages from Alex.

'Charlie where are you buddy? I need to see you before you go' 7:32am

'Charlie?' 8:12am

'Dude the police are looking for you, where are you? are you okay?!' 12:56pm

Charlie sighed and sent a message back. 'I'm okay Alex. But I have to go. I can't stay here.'

Almost immidiatly his phone was spammed with more messages.
'Where are you?? Im really worried!'
'please come back!'

'I'm sorry Alex. Goodbye. Thank you for being my friend'.

After pressing send, Charlie opened up the window. He had to get rid of any temptation he could have later to tell Alex where he was. So as dumb as it may have been, he stuck his hand out, and dropped the phone out the moving bus.
He layed his head up against the glass and held onto his Teddy bear tightly. He let his tears roll down his cheecks as he whispered,
"Goodbye Alex"