RUNAWAYS | Koli

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(Oli's POV)

We explained the entire experience to him, and he started to laugh by the end of it. It was confusing at first, but we started to laugh, too. How ridiculous was it that they couldn't even catch up to a couple teenage boys.

"You told them you were a couple?" Jaime asked, still amused. I nodded.

"Shit, they're gonna start telling everyone about that now," he said. He's right, maybe we shouldn't have said anything about that.

"If our parents find out, it shouldn't even matter," I told him calmly. "They won't find us anyways."

"And if they aren't even accepting and never put in the effort to be, they never really loved you," Jaime claimed. "You choose your family. You two have already done that, some people spend years without one."

It was a really touching thing to say. Kellin and I took a moment to process it before Jaime's phone began to ring in his pocket. He gestured at us to stay quiet.

"Oh hey... yeah, they're right here," he handed the phone over to us and murmured quietly. "It's for you."

We put the phone close enough to our ears so we could both hear. "Hello?"

"Kellin? Oli?"

It was Vic.

"Vic, hi! I'm sorry we left out of nowhere, we were just going on a walk. We'll be back in a lit-"

"No! No, don't come back."

We were surprised at the response, I felt a bit of a pang in my chest from hearing it. Why wouldn't they want us back? Jaime knit his eyebrows, concerned as well.

"Do you not want us anymore?" Kellin murmured, he was already teary-eyed.

"No, that's not..." Vic sighed, preparing himself to say what's next.

"That's not what I meant. They're onto us. A couple cops showed up at our front door about an hour ago. They might have figured out we were housing you because I'm the one that signed you into school."

"Oh my god, really?" I gasped.

"Yes, really. It's good you left when you did, if you were still here they would've caught you."

My heart dropped to my stomach. It was official, we had put them in danger. "What are you gonna do?"

"I don't know, they just left. I don't think they could find enough evidence that you both were ever actually housed here, but they seemed pretty adamant about painting us as awful people anyway."

There were murmured conversation behind the phone before someone else began to talk. "Just stay with Jaime. We trust him," Alex advised.

"What? No we don't," Jack said in the background

"He's the safest person they can stay with right now, shut up," he told him. "Anyways, keep yourself far away from the apartment while we figure out the situation. Jaime will protect you, he's good at sneaking around. That's literally his entire job. Stay safe, guys. Get a haircut, maybe."

Alex hung up the phone before we could say goodbye to him. Kellin and I looked at each other, worried and stressed over everything that had happened. Everything that we had caused.

"We can't go back," I told Jaime. "They might know we were staying at their house."

"It's okay. I'll just keep you here, I'll try to lure the police away from Vic's household. It'll be difficult, but I can figure it out."

Kellin and I made eye contact for a split second, because we knew that Jaime won't have to do that. We already had a plan. They'll never look for us again. 

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Kellin and I were given the guest room to sleep in. We whispered to each other about what building we'd set on fire and how we'd exit it, but we came to the conclusion that we won't be able to figure it out unless we choose a specific building, so we'll just continue planning in the morning.

Clearly the bed we went to sleep in was expensive, because it was the most comfortable one I've ever touched. Jaime must be loaded, even though he was living in a regular suburban house.

We put our clothes from last night back on, while it was a bit gross, we didn't really have any other options. We were ready to hustle and get to plan over and done with, we didn't want those we cared about to spend too long under all this stress.

"Hey kiddos," Jaime said to us when he saw us walk downstairs. "You can just spend the day chilling at home, I have a lounge room in the basement."

"Actually, we kind of wanted to leave and go for a walk, maybe," I told Jaime.

"No," he said outright. "Knowing the guys back at your home, you probably haven't heard that before, but right now it's not a good idea to let you leave the house."

"W-why?" I murmured.

"Obvious reasons, Oli. You may have lost the cops, but they might have announced that you are in the area after finding you. People are going to be on the lookout. It's just not safe."

"...okay."

"Good. I'll have you sent to one of my co-worker's house by tomorrow, but right now I'll get you guys lunch and I'll be off to work. I'll be back by 1AM."

"AM? You're working that long and leaving this early in the morning?"

"Morning? It's 3PM. You went to sleep pretty late, silly."

Guess I forgot the concept of time. Kellin and I spent a while organizing the whole plan a little better, but that's all we can do. We had to leave the house to finish it. We had to, there weren't any other options. We shouldn't let others deal with our problems themselves.

Jaime wasn't going to stop us. We always find a way to free ourselves.

We let him buy us lunch and he left the house an hour later. I wasn't going to pretend he wasn't right, it was unsafe to leave the house. But it'll be just fine if we find a way to hide our faces.

Kellin and I didn't have to spend much time searching around the house for masks, because we found a few right on top of Jaime's drawer. We took two black hoodies from his wardrobe for further anonymity and snatched the box of matches on the coffee table.

We also found a large container of gasoline in the garage and filled up four water bottles with it. The hoodies we had taken were rather oversized on us, but it was alright. Much better, even. It hid our faces quite well, and we found a paper grocery store bag to place the water bottles in.

It wasn't until 9PM when we left, since it'd be even more risky to go travelling in broad daylight. I was filled with anticipation for our plan to come through, and I was more than excited to free Kellin and I from the constant stress of knowing that we were being searched.

It's a beautiful evening.